A group of Auckland residents who are dedicated to protecting sea life species at a popular Auckland foreshore are planning a peaceful protest to raise awareness that their peninsula being stripped bare by visitors.
By Torika Tokalau of Local Democracy Reporting
The Whangaparāoa coastline’s beaches, in the north of Auckland, have long been popular for beachgoers, but also gatherers who harvest shellfish.
Mark Lenton from the Protect Whangaparāoa Rockpools group (PWR) said Whangaparāoa’s intertidal zone and rock pools from Orewa Beach to Matakatia Bay have been cleaned out over the years.
"Two to 300 people a day, with chisels and hammers and piano wire, removing all plant and animal life from the rock pools – big and small," Lenton said.
"What was once a thriving ecosystem only two years ago, are now empty rock pools. The only thing there now is seawater."
Army Bay resident Mark Lenton is concerned that not enough is being done to protect marine life in the bay.
Residents and supporters will gather at the Army Bay boat ramp at 10am on Saturday to send a message to government and gatherers that they have had enough.
"Firstly the gatherers: Please stop doing this, respect our land, respect our sea," he said.
"Secondly, we're sending a message to government: We need law changes, we need it now. We need an update in rules, we need strong enforcement and we want a commitment government that they will invest time and effort in to education through social media, schools, discussions with migrant leaders influencers.
"The only way we can change this longer term is to try and influence attitude change."
The protest is part of a push to ban harvesting of all shellfish and seaweed from rock pools along Auckland's eastern coastline.
Local iwi, Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust, have applied for a two-year legal ban, under section 186A of the Fisheries Act.
The proposed closure area spans the east coast of Auckland, including the Hauraki Gulf islands, within the Rodney and Hibiscus Bays Local Board boundaries.
'An ethnic vacuum cleaner'
Oceans and Fisheries Minister Shane Jones said a decision about the Ngāti Manuhiri Settlement Trust's request would be made next month.
"Sadly an ethnic vacuum cleaner has been at work," Jones said.
He said far too many groups were taking excessive amounts of shellfish and as immigration grows, and the ethnic make up of Auckland changes, education and regulation of utilising seafood resources was important.
"This is a difficult and sensitive area because obviously these starfish plucking expeditions are being co-ordinated by social media. I'm told that most of the information as to where to go and how to behave during the starfish, barnacles plucking is freely available on the Asian social media so we need to approach these things sensitively.
"But nothing must trump sustainability – we need to ensure all our communities accept that the NZ way is to ensure that future generations are not deprived of what current generations have the ability to enjoy."
Hibiscus and Bays Local Board chairperson Alexis Poppelbaum said the intertidal and rock-shore ecosystems of Whangaparāoa are under increasing and inappropriate pressure from the heavy harvesting of kaimoana and associated sea life.
"In particular, the rock pools at Army Bay have been observed in the past two years to have suffered severe depletion.
"Local residents report groups arriving, sometimes in minibuses, equipped with tools (such as tongs, chisels and buckets) to strip rock pools of limpets, cushion stars, sea anemones, crabs, and other species."
'Taking everything that lives'
Lenton said something needed to be done, and soon.
"We have a large migrant community who have an insatiable demand for all types and sizes of seafood and whilst gathering is legal, the problem is the sheer numbers and frequency of gatherings," he said.
"What used to be families going down to the beach and getting a hand full of cockles or mussels, we now getting hundreds of people on our beaches everyday – day and night – and it's not just taking the commonly consumed shellfish, it's taking everything that lives."
He said Army Bay has been targeted in the last two years.
"The people vary – you've got mum, dad and kids coming for a day at the beach, you get organised bus tours. People are paying to go on seafood gathering tours, and they arrive with gumboots, buckets and chisels.
"And then at night, you have your larger commercial operators, these are really serious gatherers, wearing full-body waterproof gears. They're not just carrying buckets, they're carrying commercial-sized fishing bins and they're filling that as much as possible."
Albany Ward councillor Victoria Short said she supported the community and Ngati Manuhiri's efforts to protect the Whangaparāoa rockpools and wider coastline.
"The rapid depletion we're seeing is deeply concerning, and I back the call for urgent measures including the temporary ban application to allow the ecosystem time to recover."
– Local Democracy Reporting is local-body journalism co-funded by RNZ and NZ On Air.
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