Decades of work before Auckland's Hauraki Gulf fully restored, iwi leader says

Wednesday, 23 June 2021

The Hauraki Gulf - which lies between Auckland, the Coromandel peninsula and Great Barrier Island - is threatened by overfishing, climate change and a population boom. (Video first published in March 2018)

A Government-led plan has been announced to revitalise Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf after it fell into environmental decline. The Government says it is committed to turning the tide on its declining health and action is needed now to revive the precious taonga. Danielle Clent reports.

One hundred years ago, people were able to catch bass off Auckland’s Takapuna Beach and crayfish would walk to the shore at low tide in Herne Bay.

Since land began to be developed, people have taken too much from the Hauraki Gulf and filled it with sediment, plastic and sewage, putting it further into environmental decline.

On Tuesday, Minister for Oceans and Fisheries David Parker and Acting Minister for Conservation Ayesha Verrall announced a new plan to restore and protect the gulf.

The Hauraki Gulf covers 1.2 million hectares of ocean from Auckland to Waihi.

* In dire straits: Experts call for 30 per cent of Hauraki Gulf to be protected

* Hauraki Gulf marine life has fallen by more than half since 1925, report finds

* Government and forum need to do more to save deteriorating Hauraki Gulf, Hauraki Gulf Forum says

Revitalising the Gulf – Government action on the Sea Change Plan would see trawl fishing heavily restricted and 18 new marine protection areas created.

The marine protection areas would be made up of 11 new high protection areas to protect and restore marine ecosystems, five seafloor protection areas and two areas of marine protection adjacent to existing marine reserves.

Proposed areas for this protection included Te Hauturu-o-Toi/Little Barrier Island, Rangitoto and Motutapu islands, Tiritiri Matangi and Matukawao Islands.

Much of the Hauraki Gulf’s sea floor is now covered in kina, which flourish in the absence of snapper and crayfish (file photo).

The Government plan said the goal for high protection areas was to “protect, enhance and restore the full range of marine communities and ecosystems”.

Further discussion with mana whenua would determine exactly what management of these sites would look like, it said.

The purpose of seafloor protection areas was to “maintain, restore and protect ecologically important habitats” from activities like bottom trawling, sand extraction and mining.

Tiritiri Matangi was a proposed location for a new marine protection area.

Changes to fishing practices and catch settings, including restricting trawl fishing to within carefully selected “corridors”, would also be put in place under the new strategy.

The announcement has been welcomed by many organisations with a vested interest in protecting the gulf and all it has to offer.

But some say it is just a start – and there is a long way to go to protect the precious taonga for future generations.

Pare Hauraki leader Paul Majurey said the plan to restore Tīkapa Moana was well overdue.

Fisheries chief scientist for NIWA Dr Richard O’Driscoll said there had been a number of impacts on the gulf, such as land use change, urbanisation, sedimentation, fishing, the agricultural industry and pollution.

“All of these things have contributed to the degradation of the environment in the Hauraki Gulf,” O’Driscoll said.

“This is about developing a strategy to improve the health of the Hauraki Gulf and also get buy-in from all the people who live, work and want to enjoy that area, about where we want to end up and how we work towards that.”

Extensive mussel beds like off Great Barrier Island were once common in the Hauraki Gulf.

O’Driscoll said it would take further discussion from the Hauraki Gulf Fisheries Plan advisory group to determine how long the regeneration would take and how long certain restrictions would need to be in place for.

Pare Hauraki – the collective of the 12 iwi of Hauraki – said Government-led reversal of the degradation of Tīkapa Moana (Hauraki Gulf) was well overdue – and it applauded the announcement.

Leader Paul Majurey, who co-chaired the Sea Change–Tai Timu Tai Pari Ministerial Advisory Committee said it was a “hugely significant step” in what would be a programme of restoration for generations to come.

“[Tuesday’s] measures will deliver improvements over the next 10 years but understand it will be some decades before Tīkapa Moana is fully restored.”

Majurey, of Ngāti Maru, said mana whenua would look closely to ensure new marine protected areas didn’t undermine any Treaty of Waitangi settlements or customary activities.

“It will take action with the array of measures announced – including improved fishing methods, new marine protected areas, restoring historic habitats for species which once thrived in these waters, and managing the sediment and nutrient flows into the Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana.”

Hauraki Gulf Forum executive officer Alex Rogers said the gulf got to its current state by people taking too much from it and using it as a “dumping ground”.

It has taken too long to realise the impact that dredging from the seafloor and filling it with sediment, plastic and sewerage has had.

“It was once and can be again one of the globe’s great ecosystems.

“Crayfish used to walk up onto the foreshore at Herne Bay at low tide. You used to be able to catch bass off Takapuna Beach. We used to have 1000 square-kilometres of shellfish beds. No more. But it’s not a lost cause.”

Rogers said impacts felt in the gulf were felt right around New Zealand’s coastline.

Wellington struggled with wastewater and sewerage while the top of the South Island was “heavily fished”.

But nowhere faced what the gulf did, he said.

“Two million residents live on its shores, hundreds of thousands more visit it every year.

“So the Hauraki Gulf was always going to be the place to buckle under that pressure first. This is why action to protect and restore it is so important.”

Rogers said his organisation commended the Government for its announcement, saying new marine protection areas and changes to trawl fishing would help “immensely” – if implemented.

But he said the strength of restoration needed to match the destruction done over the past century.

“Our view is that we need at least 30 per cent marine protection formed in partnership with mana whenua, we need to stop all bottom-impact fishing like dredging, and we need to make greater efforts to restore our lost shellfish-beds and ensure riparian planting of the whole catchment.”

Greenpeace Aotearoa ocean campaigner Jessica Desmond agreed that a big threat to the gulf was commercial fishing.

“An end to bottom contact fishing would have huge benefits for the gulf, and more protected areas would allow for recovery.”

Desmond said the “devil will be in the detail” in regard to the Government’s plan.

“Much of the plan is good, but we need to ensure that the areas protected from bottom trawling are the most vulnerable and biodiverse – not just what would suit the fishing industry.”