In February last year, more than 200 straw bales were installed to try and get whitebait, or inanga, to spawn in Christchurch rivers. It was a response, to help dwindling numbers of whitebait, after the 2011 Canterbury earthquake shifted river banks and disrupted habitats.
The egg count results from the 2016 season are now in. And the Whaka Inaka team says they're overwhelmingly positive.
The project was a collaboration between EOS Ecology, Ngai Tahu, the University of Canterbury and Conservation Volunteers of New Zealand.
Dr Mike Hickford is from the university's School of Biological Sciences and Shelley McMurtrie is the principal aquatic ecology scientist at EOS Ecology.
