Sealed deal

Thursday night meeting at Whakarongatai Marae. Thirty members of the newly-formed Ka¯ piti Whitebaiters Network are strategising on how to continue to drive their vehicles into the Waikanae Estuary Scientific Reserve to do their fishing.

A scientific reserve represents one of the highest conservation protection status. DOC, responsible for the Reserve bans vehicles. GWRC’s Natural Resources Plan and KCDC’s 2009 Beach Bylaw also ban vehicles on the beach areas outside the Reserve boundary.

The meeting starts with Ma¯ ori elder Don Te Maipi tutoring members on the Ma¯ ori eco-spiritual philosophy of environmental protection and conservation. Tango atu tango mai, meaning, when you take you must also give back.

That’s the reciprocity of responsibility between oneself and the environment expressed through a whakapapa of relationships. Interestingly, this is the very same world-view used by the iwi authority, Whakarongotai Charitable Trust, and its environmental arm Pou Takawenga Taioa, which had an input into GWRC’s Natural Resources Plan that delineated sections of our regional beaches sensitive to local iwi, or needing protection because wildlife habitat and archaeological sites. Vehicles were, therefore, banned.

Driving on our Ka¯ piti beaches has a historical tradition. But increased population and urbanisation over three decades has meant more people and cars on the beaches. KCDC imposed a car ban in 2009. However, Section 19 allows council to issue special permits for events.

Lack of monitoring and enforcement has seen continuing breaches. Whitebaiting season sees this spike. In 2012, council introduced a permit system during the season with conditions. Including one that said vehicles must stop at the Reserve boundary and whitebaiters must carry their fishing gear. Lack of monitoring and enforcement meant breaches continued. In 2014 DoC officers attempting to move vehicles out of the Reserve faced significant opposition, including from local Ma¯ ori.

Beach users, beach front residents and environmental groups have continued to pressure council and DoC to take action. In July, a front page Dompost story on the Natural Resources Plan banning cars increased public pressure on councils and agencies to take action.

The response has seen an unprecedented joint action by the two councils and DOC, with police support. The sharp end of an education campaign. Recidivists who continue to breach the ban will be infringed by the police. Former regional councillor and avid whitebaiter, Chris Turver, must be congratulated.

For the first time we have an organised group representing the interests of whitebaiters. Opening a much-needed opportunity to discuss the ecological values and the supporting lifestyle. Mr Turver is arguing for; the ‘customary’ right of whitebaiters who have fished for up to 40 years, the seniors who can’t carry their gear, the lack of scientific proof that vehicles damage shellfish beds, and the lack of enforcement to stop hoons. He has accused councils of allowing urban encroachment and development that has degraded the estuary. Using DOCs own research he has attacked DOC for hiding the degradation of a dying estuary and instead picking on the poor whitebaiters.

Serious challenges that need to be responded, but I have two challenges of my own.

Firstly a personal political responsibility. Mr Turver was regional councillor for nine years. He must take responsibility for the lack of regional council action for almost the decade he represented Ka¯ piti. Secondly, a challenge to frame their campaign within the Ma¯ ori view his campaign is using. Members of the Waikanae Estuary Care Group, founded in 2004, have sweated and toiled, sometimes in abysmal weather, and planted thousands of natives to restore the estuary ecology.

Apart from the joy of volunteer work, they have taken little or nothing but have given much. What have the whitebaiters, sitting in their comfortable vehicles and, for decades, harvesting a species that’s threatened given back to the spirit of the Waikanae Estuary?

What does tango atu tango mai really mean?

Roger Smith took this photograph of a seal while out for a walk at Te Horo Beach, just south of a stream mouth, on Tuesday last week.“We were looking for a leopard seal that was there the day before, but no luck with that one.”