Aotea shelters Tikapa Moana/Te Moana Nui o Toi, the Hauraki Gulf, from the worst of the Pacific weather and is surrounded by high quality marine environments, including Port Fitzroy and the north east coastline. Aotea’s estuaries are the most pristine in the Auckland region according to NIWA testing. The Aotea group has more than 300km of coastline and fifty islets and islands, including pest-free Rakitū, Motu Kaikoura, Motuhaku and the Grey Group, as well as the Broken Islands, Tohorā (Rabbit Island) and Nga Taratara o Toi (the Needles).
The group is home to resident dolphin populations and marine megafauna such as whales, orca, manta rays and seals are often seen. Aotea sits in the northern New Zealand “seabird highway” and dozens of species feed in its waters.
Yet these treasures have little protection.
Unfortunately the marine environment is increasingly being degraded by overfishing, sediment, marine dumping, plastic pollution, and noise. Several invasive marine pests have been detected in the island’s waters, and kina barrens have begun to appear where reefs once flourished.
As waters nearer the mainland become warmer, more degraded and depleted, the pressure on Aotea’s moana will build. Iwi and the community have been clearly expressing their desire for change for many years. (See David Spier’s summary of Marine Conservation on the Barrier in Environmental News 33, 2016)
Tai Timu Tai Pari, or Sea Change, which commenced in 2014, was the marine spatial plan for the Gulf, and supposed to provide the answers. The Implementation, relabelled Revitalising Our Gulf, is both late and inadequate, failing to meet targets set out by the government’s own process.
Read our submission to the implementation of Sea Change here, for a summary of the issues.
Aotea has been identified by DOC and MPI as an Ahu Moana pilot site – see page 79 of the full plan. This is positive and gives space for locally developed options. Unfortunately it appears to have come without any implementation support.
Recently, iwi around the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park have been taking action to protect their moana and taonga species within it. We support Ngāti Rehua Ngātiwai ki Aotea, the Local Board and community’s role in combatting the invasive caulerpa seaweed, and any future steps that can be made to protect and restore the island’s moana.
More resources
Barry Scott sums up the Caulerpa situation in Environmental News, Summer 2022
See our summary Marine Protection Update (Environmental News, Summer 2020)
Read about marine dumping here (Environmental News, Winter 2019) and our presentation to the Hauraki Gulf Forum here
Find out more about the Sea Change implementation, Revitalising Our Gulf, here.
The Hauraki Gulf Forum 20 Year State of Our Gulf report is here.
Auckland Council’s Marine fact sheet for Aotea can be found here.
