Source: Radio New Zealand
People gathering sea life at Army Bay. Protect Whangaparoa Rockpools
Mark Lenton, who grew up in the Auckland coastal community of Whangaparāoa, fondly remembers spending hours looking at the species in rock pools as a child.
But he said the number of sea life gatherers had increased in recent years, and beaches along the Whangaparāoa Peninsula were being stripped bare.
“We have now got a surge in demand for our sea life. We not only see mum and dads, we also see busloads arriving at the beach, with buckets and tools, not only to take the more commonly consumed shellfish like oysters and mussels, but any marine plant or animal life that lives in the pools, hermit crabs, limpets, chiton, sea anemone, sea cucumber, anything that lives, no matter the size, goes in the bucket.”
He said this summer, he had seen several hundred people beach-combing at Army Bay, and that there were groups there almost every day.
“If you have a group of ten, for example, which is what we often see, between them, they can take 500 starfish off one beach in a day. On a busy day at Army Bay, we may get anything between 100 and 200 gatherers. That’s 5000 starfish in one day. That’s happening at Army Bay, all along the Whangaparāoa Peninsula, all down the eastern and western coastlines of Auckland, and it’s happening all over New Zealand.”
Omaha local Mary Coupe said they were seeing fewer people beach-combing there, but that was because there was nothing left to take.
”It’s all gone. All our rock pools are already stripped out. They used to be full of shrimp, starfish, even anemones were scooped out with a screwdriver out of the little rock pools where they were hiding. We don’t have the same traffic down here that we used to.”
University of Auckland marine biologist, Andrew Jeffs, said this is an issue he had witnessed first-hand.
“I’ve been at the beach and observed groups harvesting the organisms out of rock pools and taking them away by the bucket load.
“I’ve had conversations with people where I’ve questioned what they are doing on the beach, and they said, well, they’re only little animals, and it doesn’t matter. But it does matter because those animals often only live in a few small places in relatively small areas. Once you remove them, it’s very difficult for them to actually come back and re-establish.”
He said that as the country had become more ethnically diverse, it had put pressure on species that were not always harvested here.
“People have different tastes in what they like to eat and enjoy, and harvesting from the shore of fresh seafood material is something that they enjoy.
“It’s about managing that activity so it doesn’t damage the environment, and whoever, whether it’s the community or government, needs to work with those people to make it possible for them to have some of that enjoyment, but without damaging the environment.
“Even the traditional species, things like cockles and pipis that are in intertidal areas, they’re being harvested harder than ever in a number of areas. And also climate change, some of those populations are getting increasingly stressed by hot summer weather, for example.”
He said there needed to be increased education and enforcement, better rules, and more support for communities that were taking action to try to stop the overharvesting of shore life.
Last year, local iwi, the Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust, applied for a two-year legal ban on harvesting all shellfish and seaweed from rock pools along Auckland’s eastern coastline, from the Rodney local board area through to the Hibiscus and Bays local board area, under section 186A of the Fisheries Act.
The iwi’s chief executive, Nicola MacDonald, said that while harvesting shellfish had long been a common practice, as the area’s population had grown, the amount of harvesting being done had become unsustainable.
“There are incidents not only isolated to Whangaparāoa, but dotted right across that coastline. It’s important to make use of the laws we have and to seek Fisheries’ relief. We’re concerned, and I’m pretty sure that once people realise we’re at the state of deprivation, they’ll understand that New Zealand beaches and sealife cannot take this level of take.
“We need to give the coastlines a break from harvesting, and for people know about it, so we can work towards restoration.
“I’ve seen 186As work successfully when iwi and community are working together, supporting one another to educate all people. I’ve seen it with Waiheke Island and Ngāti Pāoa and the communities there when they put an application in around their scallops and crayfish. Not that long ago, there was only one living crayfish on Waiheke. Now they can see many more. That’s fantastic, that’s what we want to see for our coastline.”
She said there needed to be more education about the harm that harvesting species to depletion was having on the ecosystem.
“Those species are the engineers of the marine environment. We need them to build strong structures for other species. If there’s nothing left, all of that marine environment collapses.”
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones said he was aware of issues with rock pool harvesting, specifically on Auckland’s east coast.
He confirmed he would make a decision about the Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust’s request next month.
“I appreciate there’s a sense of urgency around the Hibiscus Coast. But we need to ensure every time we bring a new regulation in, that preferably we take a regulation away, but bringing in a regulation to impose a rahui around that part of Auckland needs to be embraced and understood by the broader community that this is a necessary step to secure better outcomes for the rock pools’ sea life.”
Fisheries North Regional Compliance Manager, Andre Espinoza, said the agency was aware of people gathering seafood in the Whangaparāoa area, but that most were harvesting legally within the current recreational daily limits.
He said Fishery officers had observed private tour groups visiting Whangaparāoa beaches and that people often used public buses to visit beaches.
“It’s important to note that it’s not illegal for large groups to collect seafood in any area that is open, but they must follow the rules, and only people actively gathering seafood can take their applicable daily bag limit.”
Mark Lenton said that his group, Protect Whangaparāoa Rockpools, would be protesting peacefully at Army Bay on Saturday.
The group is calling for better protection of rock pools and intertidal zones, and more education around marine conservation.
Fisheries said suspected illegal activity could be reported through the 0800 4 POACHER number (0800 476 224).
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– Published by EveningReport.nz and AsiaPacificReport.nz, see: MIL OSI in partnership with Radio New Zealand
