This article was first published on RNZ.
Local iwi Ngāti Manuhiri has welcomed the government’s two-year ban on harvesting rockpools in the north of Auckland.
The ban is for all of the Whangaparāoa Peninsula, and further north at Kawau Bay and Ōmaha Bay and will take affect from 12 March.
All seaweed, invertebrate and shellfish were covered as well as sponges, starfish, anemone and sea cucumbers.
Spiny rock lobster and scallops were already covered by existing closures, sea urchin (kina) were also excluded and can still be taken within current recreational fishing limits.
Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement trust chief executive Nicola Rata-MacDonald said the announcement couldn’t have come fast enough.
“Every year we see a lot of people enjoying our beaches, fantastic, but what we also see is unprecedented harvesting and foraging of really vulnerable ecosystems and we just can’t take it anymore.”
The trust applied for a two-year prohibition on harvesting all shellfish and seaweeds from rockpools across the eastern coastline of the Rodney Local Board and Hibiscus Local Board areas, made under section 186A of the Fisheries Act.
As part of its formal application the Trust will also place a rāhui over the same area and species.
Rata-MacDonald said two years will be a start for shellfish to recover and the iwi will be working with Fisheries New Zealand, DOC and community groups to monitor the rockpools.
Whether they ask to extend the ban after two years will depend on whether there is a recovery of shellfish populations, she said.
“But one thing we will know is that you can bet your bottom dollar we’ll be going out to those beaches and checking up on them.”
Rata-MacDonald said she has spoken with Fisheries Officials who were keen to look at ways the local community can get involved.
“Our oceans are under serious pressure. The long term focus is can we actually recover species that are on the brink of decline, we’ve seen that in the Hauraki Gulf with koura with crayfish with scallops so we need to really look at how do we ensure the intertidal species don’t disappear, they are the very engineers of the ocean and without them everything collapses.”
By RNZ Morning Reports.
