Wake up Auckland, Hauraki Gulf is a wasteland
Last Tuesday dawned with a report that a 48m commercial fishing boat was parked firmly on rocks adjacent to Motuhoropapa Island in The Noises group, an extraordinary feat given the two small islands it must have slipped between, unscathed, to arrive on that rock.
Our family have been the owners/ custodians of this group of islands in the Hauraki Gulf since 1933 and Tuesday’s news brought dread, thinking of the fuel on board, and imagining a massive oil spill from a punctured hull coating the foreshore and smothering all life.
It was an acute form of what our family frequently feel when we see the ongoing losses occurring in the marine environment around these precious islands.
The difference is this potential disaster has been averted. People responded rapidly, both emotionally and on the ground, to such an obvious threat. Once Maritime NZ has completed an investigation, we’ll learn more.
In contrast to last Tuesday’s outcomes, we’ve continued to watch ongoing devastation in the marine environment this past summer, it’s just much more insidious.
Three years of La Nina conditions with warmer ocean temperatures, on top of overfishing and increased sedimentation, rendered the waters around the islands a virtual desert. Seabird numbers are depleted and of the shags still present, many carried embedded hooks, testament that their fishing skills are being redirected towards thieving bait off hooks to survive. The gull chicks fledged weeks late and stayed on, begging for food, long past their normal independence date. Few kororā (blue penguins) could be heard, almost no bait fish, kahawai or kingfish seen.
The only numerous species were kina, parore and small snapper, but they weren’t really thriving. Hanging on is probably a better description — many snapper displayed prominent skulls and skinny bodies — not what snapper are supposed to look like.
Right now, the new Hauraki Gulf Marine Protection Bill is being considered by Parliament and the waters around The Noises are included as one of 12 new High Protection Areas. While this doesn’t protect against genuine errors or acts of outright stupidity, protecting these important habitats of high biodiversity will help them to regenerate and in turn this will regenerate larger areas than just those protected. Eliminating harvest pressure can help us understand more accurately to what extent other pressures like sedimentation and climate change are impacting our marine environment.
Regardless of whether we are avid fishers, conservationists, snorkellers, divers or in pursuit of enlightened selfinterest, we all want the same positive outcomes and maybe it’s only the way we get there that differs.
Just last Tuesday evening I had a conversation with a commercial fisher I know. Unsurprisingly, we had much more common ground than separate agendas. It reinforced the importance and benefits of working together. Understanding and respecting long-held iwi knowledge and observations from people who are on or under the water most days, as well as marine science knowledge from the Hauraki Gulf, is so important. Collectively we are building an accurate picture of the gulf and identifying the solutions to fix it.
Last week’s events gave me renewed hope for the future of such a special place as the Hauraki Gulf. I wasn’t prepared for such a massive outpouring of concern, and by mid-morning clearly there were so many of us holding our breaths waiting . . . hoping . . . for some good news. Individuals and agencies really cared deeply about what happened — or what might so easily have happened.
Business owners to fishers and friends were in touch. Cath Handley, chairwoman of the Waiheke Local Board, wrote: “We’re all galvanised by the potential horror of what may happen on the rocks at the precious Noises right now.
“We need those same people galvanised by the horrors that have unfolded beneath the surface.
“Then we might get the political leadership required to save our precious Hauraki Gulf.”