Coastline future at a crossroads

Coast residents are urged to have their say on the future of Auckland’s coastline as Fisheries New Zealand reviews tougher protections for the region’s intertidal zone, with growing fears coastal ecosystems may face long-term damage without stronger safeguards.

Fisheries NZ announced the review for the Auckland, Coromandel and Waiheke Island areas earlier this month following mounting pressure from local communities, iwi and Fisheries officers over the unsustainable harvesting of accessible reefs and rockpools.

The move comes in the wake of the temporary Section 186A closure and rahui introduced earlier this year across parts of the Hibiscus Coast, including the Whangaparāoa Peninsula, as well as Ōmaha Bay and Kawau Bay. Requested by Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust, the two-year closure prohibits the harvesting of most shellfish, marine invertebrates and seaweed from the shoreline to about 200m offshore.

Fisheries NZ says changing harvesting behaviour and Auckland’s growing population are placing increasing pressure on intertidal species that were not traditionally targeted in large numbers.

Advocacy group Protect Whangaparāoa Rockpools (PWR) is urging Coast residents to submit to the review to ensure protections for the Coast continue after the S186A ban expires.

PWR organiser Mark Lenton says the harsh reality is the problem is not going to go away, even with the current ban.

“The rockpools used to be abundant with life and could tolerate small-scale local and customary gathering, but they are now subjected to intense extraction,” Lenton says. “Apart from recreational gatherers, we have evidence of an established black market and people selling online, exploiting the coastline, legally and illegally. Fisheries don’t have the resources to police it all, and if we don’t do something soon, we may see ecosystems so damaged, they take decades to recover.”

If enough people make submissions to the review and support change, then it could secure long-term protection for the coastline, he says.

“The community has to get behind it for the change to happen, and push for Fisheries to get the resources they need. We can’t be passive, we have to be active stewards of our coastline.”

The review proposes four options and PWR is advocating for Option 3 as the one that offers the best long term-protection while still allowing limited gathering and customary rights.

Professor of Marine Science at the University of Auckland, Andrew Jeffs, is pleased that the government is taking the issue seriously and looking across a wider area.

“It gives us a chance to think about how we manage these fragile and vulnerable habitats. It’s a very narrow strip, about the width of two footpaths, and it’s easy to wipe out entire habitats over significant areas of coastline,” Jeff says. “We need to think about the long-term approach to managing these areas once they start recovering.”

Jeffs says a recent study their team undertook of people harvesting on an Auckland beach found more than 60 percent of the people intercepted were over the harvest limit, some excessively so. 

“On many shore areas, harvesting even 10 animals will eliminate some of those species. All you need is ten people and that’s 100 animals gone in one event. If you take limpets on a small reef area, 100 limpets can be the whole population. Arbitrary limits don’t make biological sense.

“In the short-term we need to recover those areas, but I don’t think allowing people to take 10 of everything is possible. We have to question whether we should be harvesting them at all. The animals that live there adapted to that narrow strip and they are being scraped off and we have lost them.”

Additionally, Jeffs says a downstream effect of the loss of intertidal species is that it also allows invasive species like the seaweed calupera to move in.

Public submissions on the review close on June 12. More information and submission details are available on the Fisheries NZ consultations webpage mpi.govt.nz

Information on the PWR submission can be found on it’s Facebook page, search Protect Whangaparāoa Rockpools.