Iwi and residents across Whangaparāoa are calling for a two-year prohibition across its peninsula against the overharvesting of shellfish and intertidal species in their rock pools.
The application calls for a two-year prohibition that can be renewed, as well as some locals looking for a change in law and a clearer understanding of what people can take from the rock pools.
Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust Chair, Nicola Rata-MacDonald, says the pools are losing marine life at an alarming rate.
“You only need to look at the size of a little periwinkle and a rock crab, and when you can fill up a bucket, that is a lot that you’re taking.”
Government action
The government announced they are seeking urgent advice on how best to deal with unsustainable harvesting in the region earlier this week, following widespread outrage over an influx of foreign people overharvesting the pools.
Furthermore, Whangaparāoa residents gathered for a hikoi across Army Bay, against the overharvesting of intertidal species, last weekend.
Rata-MacDonald says Ngāti Manuhiri have filed a 186A application, which will grant a prohibition of taking over 30 intertidal species; furthermore, they want better public education around the taking of the marine life within the area.
“In my lifetime, I never expected to have to apply for a permit to protect the periwinkle, the sea anemone, the sea cucumber, because those are species, the rock crabs, that we wouldn’t normally eat.
“New communities, new people bring different beliefs that are not familiar to us here at home. That’s what we’ve got to do, we’ve got to look after all of these taonga.”
The Minister of Fisheries, Shane Jones, says enacting the law change and prohibition will not be exclusive to select people; however, everyone will be held to account.
“He mahi nui kia rāhuitia mārikatia tētahi takiwā takutai moana pērā rawa te nui kia kaua rawa atu ā wai rānei e tae ai ki reira. Ki te ūtaina tēnei rāhui ki runga i tēnei rohe, mō Ngāti Manuhiri hoki. E kore ahau e pai kia tukuna ko rātou anakenake, haere ki te kai, ki te tangotango i ngā mātaitai, pēnā e whakaturengia ana tētahi tauira, ka hereherea te katoa.”
Regulation or Tikanga
Questions of whether a tikanga Māori approach is more suited than the current regulations surrounding the collecting or harvesting of shellfish.
Current daily limits for a single person are 150 cockles, 150 pipi, 150 tuatua, 50 green-lipped mussels, 250 oysters (rock and pacific), 10 pāua, and in some areas up to 150 kina.
This is leaving many pools along the Whangaparāoa peninsula with little to no shellfish remaining.
Jones says he is supportive of the change of law and regulation, and in the coming weeks, the government will determine the peninsula’s fate.
“Mehemea e pai ana te hapori ki te awhi i te kaupapa o te rāhui tērā ngā huarahi i roto i te ture e taea ai e mātou te whakatakoto he rāhui, waiho mā te ture tēnā rāhui e tautoko.”
Furthermore, Rata-MacDonald says this is a chance for mana whenua to help restore these pools.
“Not only do we look at the way we protect, but we restore, we regenerate, that’s what we as Māori offer to our country.”
