Ngāti Pāoa is backing calls for iwi- and hapū-led restoration of Tīkapa Moana, saying protecting the Gulf from further damage must be matched by actively restoring what has already been lost.
The Green Party has announced plans to protect 30% of the Hauraki Gulf by 2030, phase out bottom trawling and resource iwi and hapū to lead marine protection, while also drafting a Bill to remove an exemption allowing commercial ring-net fishing in some High Protection Areas.
Ngāti Pāoa Trust chair Herearoha Skipper said the announcement was timely as she attends the International Conference on Shellfish Restoration in Washington, where a strong message has been that protection and restoration need to go hand in hand.
“We have lost significant shellfish abundance and habitat, while pressures such as sedimentation, invasive species, fishing impacts and climate change continue,” she said.
“For Ngāti Pāoa that means investing in restoration of our kūtai, tuangi, pāua and the habitats that sustain them, alongside measures that prevent further degradation.”
Ngāti Pāoa welcomed stronger restrictions on activities damaging benthic habitats.
“It makes little sense to invest millions of dollars restoring shellfish beds and marine ecosystems if activities that damage those habitats are allowed to continue,” she added.
Forest & Bird Hauraki Gulf coordinator Bianca Ranson said the announcement was timely, coinciding with a “Future of Tīkapa Moana” political hui on Waiheke Island the same day.
She said Tīkapa Moana faced interconnected pressures, including bottom trawling and overfishing, land-based sedimentation and pollution, invasive caulerpa, avian influenza and a warming climate.
Still, ending bottom trawling remains a priority for Forest & Bird, with Ranson saying calls to end the practice stretch back more than a century.
This year’s State of our Gulf report found nearly 40% of the Gulf’s coastal reefs had become kina barrens, with overfishing reducing populations of natural kina predators such as tāmure and kōura.
“On land we have predator-free programmes where we’re working really hard to get rid of stoats and rats and other predators to allow for these amazing species to come back,” Ranson said.
“We need to take the same approach in the ocean.”
Fishing only part of the pressure
“We understand the ecosystem, meaning pressures facing the Gulf also come from the land around it, and in turn impact the seabirds and life that rely on it. That’s why we’ll sensibly regulate what can get in, protect what’s there, and resource revitalisation,” Swarbrick explained.
The plan also targets land-based pollution through stronger wastewater rules and a phase-out of synthetic nitrogen fertiliser.
“We know protection works. Goat Island has been a marine reserve since 1975, and the snapper and crayfish came back,” Green Party Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick said.
Swarbrick said the question was whether there was the “political will to take on commercial interests”.
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones pushed back, arguing commercial fishing was being singled out when significant pressures also came from land.
“In the matter of Tīkapa, the threats are well beyond fishing. Siltation, runoff from the land, and the same reality: it’s on the doorstep of a third of New Zealand’s population.”
“If you terminate commercial fishing, which is the agenda of the Green Party, you will not only increase the cost of food, you will also deny the various iwi around here of their 1992 full and final Treaty of Waitangi fishing rights.”
The Greens’ policy does not propose ending commercial fishing across the Gulf.
It also proposes strengthening wastewater discharge rules and phasing out synthetic nitrogen fertiliser to reduce pollution entering the Gulf.
Ranson agreed sedimentation was a major problem, pointing to both land-based activity and sediment plumes from bottom trawling.
Who holds authority over restoration?
The Greens have pledged to embed kaitiakitanga Māori in marine management and resource management, with iwi and hapū to lead protection.
“One of the strongest messages I am hearing internationally is the shift from simply consulting Indigenous peoples to Indigenous-led restoration,” Skipper said. “That is exactly what needs to happen in Tīkapa Moana.”
She said for Ngāti Pāoa that would include establishing and managing rāhui, rohe moana and mātaitai, leading restoration, monitoring kaimoana, setting research priorities and protecting mātauranga.
We already have iwi-led restoration occurring in Tīkapa Moana. What is needed now is for government policy, legislation and funding to recognise and scale that leadership.
— Herearoha Skipper, Ngāti Pāoa Trust Chair
Skipper said greater protection must also recognise customary rights and Treaty settlement interests.
“Mana whenua should not lose our rights in the name of conservation,” Skipper emphasised.
Jones, however, said iwi interests were already reflected through Treaty settlements and rejected hapū having what he described as a “veto right” over restoration initiatives.
“There’s no shortage of opportunity for the local hapū to engage in statutory processes,” he said.
“He iwi tahi tātou, we’re one people, we need to contribute and collaborate whenever we’re looking at a restoration project.”
For Skipper, the issue went beyond participation in existing processes.
“Protection should not just mean drawing lines on a map,” she said.
“It should mean restoring abundance, restoring mauri, and restoring mana whenua authority over our moana.”
