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Revitalising the Gulf: Government action on the Sea Change Plan

Here is a summary of my read of the plan

Commercial bottom trawling and Danish seining. The Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari Marine Spatial Plan 2016 (Sea Change) recommend these fishing methods be removed from the Gulf, this is inline with the Hauraki Gulf Forums (The Forum) goals. It is disappointing to see the Government push any decision to another committee, however they have suggested ‘most’ trawling will stop which is hopeful. Currently both practices impact about 77% of the Gulf.

Commercial dredging. Sea Change and the Forum also recommend this destructive practice be removed from the Gulf. No changes here with huge heavy machines scraping ~37% of the seafloor. In 2016 current Minister of Oceans David Parker said “Fisheries New Zealand has been captured by industry” it seems that has not changed with Mr Parker now heading up the portfolio. I am hoping the areas are reduced in the Fisheries Management Plan as most of the effort (~300 tows PA) currently happens around the Mercury Island Group.

Recreational dredging. Stopping this is a huge win for the Gulf, it opens up the entire Inner Gulf for restoration and I think it should have been the headline. However I think its unlikely that recreational fishers will think this is fair given commercial dredges have much more impact on the seafloor. The Inner Gulf is much more degraded by bottom impact fishing than the Outer Gulf with over 122 years of scraping. It’s really exciting that from 2024 it can begin the long process of recovery.

Marine Protected Areas. No take marine reserves go from 0.33% to 0.575% of the Gulf. This is a significant increase, but a pathetic overall result. Experimental ‘High Protection Areas’ with customary take by permit will attempt to protect 6.2% of the Gulf. These areas will not come into effect until the end of 2024. I expect we will have to wait at least seven years before we know if they work.

Fisheries Management Plan. Also pushed to another committee. I am deeply concerned that the changes above will not arrest the decline of the Gulf especially with looming climate change impacts. The entire approach is relying heavily on the Fisheries Management Plan which they claim will be ecosystem based.

Here is some detail on the Marine Protection Areas

Existing ‘No Take’ Marine Protected Areas in the Gulf:

Cape Rodney-Okakari Point Marine Reserve5.6km2
Te Whanganui A Hei (Cathedral Cove) Marine Reserve8.8km2
Long Bay-Okura Marine Reserve9.6km2
Motu-Manawa-Pollen Island Marine Reserve5km2
Te Matuku Marine Reserve6.9km2
Tāwharanui Marine Reserve4km2
TOTAL39.9km22

Sea Change ‘No Take’ extensions

Whanganui-a-Hei (Cathedral Cove) Marine Reserve+15 km2
Cape Rodney-Okakari Point (Leigh) Marine Reserve+14 km2
TOTAL29km2

The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park is 12,000km2 or 14,000 km2 of ocean depending on what you read, I’m choosing the smaller number.

Sea Change brings ‘No Take’ Marine Protection in the Gulf from 40km2 to 69km2 or from 0.33% to 0.575%.

The other 11 proposed High Protection areas are experimental in that they allow customary take by permit. They could meet the protection level required to be designated as MPAs, depending on how mana whenua choose to undertake their customary practises. They are:

Te Hauturu-o-Toi/Little Barrier Island195.4km2
Slipper Island/Whakahau13.5km2
Motukawao Group29.1km2
Firth of Thames and Rotoroa Island12.4 km2
Rangitoto Island and Motutapu Island10.7km2
Cape Colville26.7 km2
Mokohinau Islands118.5km2
Aldermen Islands133.9 km2
Aldermen Islands South155.0 km2
Kawau Bay40.4 km2
Tiritiri Matangi Island9.5 km2
TOTAL745.1km2

Or 6.2% of the Gulf.

The technical analysis of the proposals has assumed that these areas will be ’No Take’ but Government has decided to use special legislation to progress the ‘High Protection Areas’ rather than the Marine Reserves Act, there is no indication as to why. The areas which will be enabled through new legislation which will not be passed until 2024, this means the process which started in 2013 when completed will have taken 11 years. As the areas include customary take by permit, they are experimental. I don’t know how long we will then have to wait until we know if the experiment works or not. I am deeply concerned it’s not even close to enough protection to restore functioning ecosystems in the Gulf. The existing reserves and extensions plus the High Protection Areas only add up to 6.775% of the Gulf (excluding any seafloor protection like cable zones). The Government is putting a lot of faith in a Fisheries Management Plan that does not yet exist.

Errors (as I find them):

Page 39. “Since then, large scallop and oyster beds have largely replaced mussel beds in areas of habitat degradation.” The areas are dominated by mud, invasive species are the dominant epifauna.

Page 39. “Significantly increasing the amount of freshwater” sentence is not finished or doesn’t make sense.

Page 107. Climate change resilience excluded from Draft Fisheries Management Plan. Incredible that in 2021 a Govt department can still make a plan that excludes known climate change impacts.

UPDATE 23 July: MAC report released

The Ministerial Advisory Committee was not impressed with the first draft of the action plan, and it looks like many changes were made. However it is hard to tell what was changed as (like the action plan itself) it is very short on detail. The biggest criticism seems to be on the timings which I really agree with, Govt is moving incredibly slowly given the urgency of the problem.

The other general criticism is around resourcing. This paragraph well articulates my frustration in reading the ‘active restoration’ section of the report.

“Our major concern with this part of the strategy is a complete lack of reference to funding sources for restoration. While identifying regulatory barriers is mentioned, there is no mention of funding barriers, which are arguably just as significant. Active restoration efforts will require resources to implement and sources of funding should be identified.”

I am very pleased to see that Govt listened to one member of the MAC that questioned blanket customary take in the MPAs. I hope many iwi will support no-take in HPAs because they will want them to have maximum mauri, and only no-take MPAs are known to work – anything else is an experiment.

A lot of the rest of the criticism is around governance. I am not interested in ownership of the Gulf or the power dynamics… just environmental outcomes.

UPDATE 30 July: OIA on dredging areas refused

OIA response here. I have emailed the officer to ask for the survey results and a follow up meeting.

UPDATE 6 August 2022:

I got no response, so sent in a new OIA request for the data and survey. I then got a phone call. They are 6-8 weeks away from publishing the NIWA HGMP scallop fishery survey results (so my request for those will be declined). Aggregated Electronic Catch and Position Reporting (ER/GPR) data would be available if I provided a specific time frame and area. The data could be provided visually E.g. a heat map. I have done this.

I was also informed that the conversation around management options for the scallop fisheries is internal, management options will not be made public but will be provided to the Minister in several months.

UPDATE 6 September 2022

I received a response to my OIA request (Heatmap A, Heatmap B). I have added the dredged areas together and removed the proposed HPA’s, SPA’s and CPZ’s to calculate the percent of the HGMP that will be ‘frozen’ under the Governments plan to ‘revitalise the Gulf‘. More than 20% of the Gulf will remain heavily impacted by commercial dredging with no public input into the decision.

Update 28 September 2022:

The cost to create $774.1km2 of Marine Protection Areas in the plan (assuming they are no-take) to 11 commercial fish species was calculated to be $3,436,014. If we crudely scale up the figure for the gains to snapper / tamure alone based on this paper we get $209,710,000. Or a net gain of more than 200 million dollars! This is an incredible number, MPAs would not be adding so much money to commercial fisheries if they did not manage fish levels at such incredibly low numbers. Clearly Fisheries New Zealand should be making MPAs (at speed) all around NZ.

Update 28 October 2022:

Our painfully detailed submission on the marine protection proposals.

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Wader population trends at Tahuna Torea

While researching my latest nature report to the Tahuna Torea Residents and Rangers I found some great bird counts in the reserve made in the 1980’s that had been entered on eBird. Unfortunately an oversight in the design of the website means you need to know a statistical programming language to extract population trend data for a location (however if you are able to stumble across an old checklist you can download the data). At the meeting Chris Barfoot supplied me with a brilliant 1993 report on the reserve which had a new set of data recorded by Micheal Taylor.

This new data adds valuable insight into the decline of waders in the Tamaki Estuary which the Tamaki Estuary Environmental Forum has recently published an article on. I have compiled the data and plotted it for key species below.

UPDATE 23 JUNE 2021. Here is an interesting snippet of history complied by the Howick & Pakuranga Times “Kuaka [bar tailed godwits] and red knots gather on the Cockle Bay estuary in thousands before flying to Korea and on to Alaska to breed each March, to return in September. In February-March they swoop over Point View ridges where farmers used shotguns before the birds were protected in 1941. They were plucked and preserved in their fat in ceramic jars.” Source: https://www.birdingnz.net/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=11024

UPDATE August 2021. More data found in old journals. Graphs updated and presented to the Ōrākei Local Board.

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Feeding our forests

I have begun doing some work with the Northern New Zealand Seabird Trust who invited me to come and help them with some field work on the Poor Knights Islands. My father had visited the Islands when he worked for DOC in the 1990’s, his stories about the reptile abundance really inspired me to do restoration work, and I jumped at the opportunity to go.

Landing on the Island is notoriously difficult and our first shot at it was delayed, we had to go back to Auckland to wait for better weather. The islands are surrounded by steep cliffs that made European habitation impractical, Māori left the area in the 1820’s. This means the island I visited has never had introduced mammals, not even kiore! I spent days cleaning my gear to get through the biosecurity requirements which are incredibly strict for good reason.

I have explored a few predator free islands including Hauturu / Little Barrier Island which has been described as New Zealand’s most intact ecosystem. However it was only cleared of rats in 2004. When I am photographing invertebrates at night in mainland sanctuaries or forests with predator control (like Tāwharanui Regional Park or parts of the Waitakere Ranges) I see one reptile every eight hours or so. On Hauturu / Little Barrier Island I see them every 20 minutes, but on the Poor Knights it was every two minutes! Bushbird numbers were lower than other islands, I expect this is because reptiles and birds compete over prey species. I wonder if reptile numbers on other islands might be slower to recover because they are preyed on by bushbirds. I reckon that the Poor Knights total reptile and bushbird biomass is much greater than the restored islands I have visited. One reason for this is that reptiles use less energy to hunt than bushbirds but the other reason might be because it has more seabirds.

While walking through the bush at night I would sometimes hear a crashing in the canopy followed by a soft thump on the ground. In an incredible navigational feat the seabirds somehow land only meters from their burrows. At night I heard Buller’s shearwater, grey-faced petrel, little penguins and diving petrel (fairy prion finish breeding in February). While monitoring birds at night I was showered with dirt by a Buller’s shearwater who was digging out a burrow. In my short time on the island I saw cave weta and three species of reptile using the burrows. Like a rock forest the burrows add another layer of habitat to the ecosystem. It was incredibly touching to see the care and compassion the researchers had for some of the chicks who were starving while waiting for their parents who often have to travel hundreds of kilometres to find enough food. The chicks who don’t make it die in their burrows and are eaten by many invertebrates, the invertebrates in turn become reptile or bushbird food. The soil on the island looked thick and rich, when it rains nutrients are bought down into the small but famous marine reserve which is teaming with life.

I was only on the island for three nights but I was very fortunate to experience a pristine ridge to reef ecosystem. Seabirds are incredible ecosystem engineers who were an integral part of New Zealand’s inland forests for millions of years. Communities are making small efforts to bring seabirds back to predator free island and mainland sites with no control over seabird food sources. If we really want intact ecosystems we will have to make sure our oceans have enough food for seabirds to feed our forests.

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Pakiri horse mussel beds

For the last eight years I have been working on restoring green-lipped mussel (perna canaliculus) beds in the Hauraki Gulf. The main reason we started with that species was that there is a commercial supply. However there is a bigger native mussel that has even more potential than green-lipped mussels, both as a habitat and water cleaner. 

Horse mussels / Hururoa (atrina zelandica) are huge pumps, they are more than twice as big as green-lipped mussels (up to 400 mm in length) but have fragile shells which are vulnerable to fishing gear. They also  don’t move (unliked green-lipped mussels) and are sensitive to changes in substrate.

Last century horse mussel beds were some of the best fishing spots in the Hauraki Gulf. I regularly ask divers about horse mussels; Where did you see them? How dense was the bed? etc. There are spots with horse mussel in the Gulf but I don’t know of any significant beds left, if you do, please let me know about them.

I was recently sent these images of a stunning horse mussel bed in Pakiri.  They are from a report titled “Mangawhai – Pakiri Sand Study, Module 2: Technical Report, Marine Sands” by NIWA 1996. They show a large and dense horse mussel bed that has since been destroyed by sand mining. The beds ran the whole length of the embayment in depths of 15 -20m. I am posting them here to show the kind of seafloor we could have, if we treated it better.

We don’t yet understand the horse mussel lifecycle or what species / substates might attract juveniles. It’s interesting to note: presence of finger sponge and branching red algae, the hard edge to the bed and the way some of the shells align.

Overseas there have been attempts at restoring similar species (photos below). Seachange called for the “Initiation of a horse mussel restoration programme, with an initial focus on the Mahurangi and Whangapoua harbours.” But we could look at restoring any of the sites with historic beds. Wouldn’t it be awesome if we stopped smashing the seafloor, and bought back these giant pumps to clean the water, and create homes for fish.

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Fairy tern models used as stand in parents

New Zealand Fairy Tern at Auckland Zoo

In December 2020 I jumped at the chance to help the Department of Conservation and Auckland Zoo with New Zealand’s most endangered bird. I provided 3D printed fairy tern models (that were designed for use as decoys) to Zoo staff who hand reared a chick through to fledging. A soft yellow tape was wrapped around the models beaks to make sure the valuable chick did not injure itself. The models stayed with the chick to its aviary bach until it learnt to fly and feed for itself.

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What’s at the bottom of Jones Bay Lagoon?

I have driven past Jones Bay Lagoon many times and always wondered what’s down there. It was dredged for shingle from about 1870-1950 and would have had a stony seafloor like Jones Bay. I had heard that the mining might have made the lagoon 20 meters deep. Altho I knew there was sediment around the edges I imagined it was quite stable as most of the receiving catchment has been reforested including the regions best example of a wetland (albeit a small one).

Areas explored in green

I made a few transects at high tide. There was no noticeable current and the visibility above 4m was about 3m. However nearing the 5m mark the visibility dropped to .2m and was not much fun. I was able to easily plunge my hand into the seafloor about 30cm deep before it got uncomfortably sticky and heavy, the mud was very dark grey. The deepest spot I found was 7.5m with most of the lagoon at 5m. The contour of the seafloor varied and did not make sense with the odd ridge appearing in unexpected places.

I saw several fish including, a school of spotty, many yellow-eyed mullet in the shallows, a few snapper, and what I think were estuarine triplefin.

No Fishing. Marine pests found in this lagoon.

The biggest surprise however was the no fishing signs erected by Auckland Council. I was pleased to see them as it has always felt wrong to allow killing of native species in the Regional Park, which is supposed to be a safe place for nature. It was also a surprise given my recent request for Council to start managing the effects of fishing. This sign however is only here to manage a marine pest called Eudistoma or the Australian droplet tunicate.

Eudistoma are the little white things, the stalks belong to Mediterranean fanworm.

I knew that Eudistoma had reached the park because I was alerted by a member of the public on the 4th of February. It was no surprise as they were spreading fast and I documented dense areas of them on the other side of Kawau Bay in February 2019. The lagoon also had large numbers of Mediterranean fanworm (another marine pest) which interestingly often hosted native pleated sea squirts which I have not noticed on fanworm elsewhere. Mediterranean fanworm and Eudistoma are both present in the ocean, meters from the mouth of the lagoon. There was one small cockle bed in a sandy area and several areas with pacific oysters in the shallows. I have asked Auckland Council to comment on the closure which happened in spring 2020.

The Coastal Marine Area boundary on Unitary Plan viewer

Response from Auckland Council below.

“The coastal marine boundary follows the South Coast/Jones Bay foreshore of Tāwharanui Regional Park, thus the lagoon is within the regional park, or at very least the land around it.

Fishing here is inconsistent with the general Regional Parks Management Plan to not take flora and fauna. The unwanted organism would be a threat to the Tāwharanui Marine Reserve. The regional parkland provides land based access to the periphery of the reserve and there is a real risk of transfer of organism in viable state on wet fishing gear between the two sites. The identification of the tunicate prompted a management response.“

A short photogrammetric transect (4-5m)
Another slightly longer one, the fanworm are not as clear as I had hoped, I need to get much better at over-laping the frames.

I am making sure to decontaminate my dive gear, and I do not recommend the area for diving, in fact I think it might be with looking at the sediment inputs and, if they are low, considering the site for mussel bed restoration.

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Birds of Auckland

Birds of Auckland

In 1980 the New Zealand Herald published a book called “Birds of Auckland” by Tim Lovegrove. It’s a great little book with great photos and detailed illustrations. I was only 5 years old in 1980 and lived in Whangārei so I found it interesting to read how these places have changed. However there are better datasets for a more robust analysis of population trends. I made some notes while I read it:

P7. “Tahuna Torea nature reserve at Glendowie is easily accessible from the city. Here many shorebirds gather to roost at high tide or feed on the nearby mud-flats at low water.” This site is also mentioned on page 57.

We know from other data that this roost has been compromised and species like godwit and knots no longer using the roost.

P15. “Giant petrels or nellies are common winter visitors to the Hauraki Gulf. These large, dark birds venture well into the Waitemata Harbour, often following ships. One can often see them from Tamaki Drive or Oarkie Wharf, if ships coming and going from the port are watched carefully with binoculars. Nellies follow in the wake of ships ready to scavenge upon any galley scraps tossed overboard.”

It’s good we no longer see giant petrel following ships, I expect this is because humans are now less likely to throw their waste overboard.

P33. [Pied shag] “Breeding colonies are located in the suburbs at the Panmure and Orakei Basins, and on the edges of Lake Pupuke.”

The colony at Panmure is probably 1/30th the size it was. I believe the Lake Pupuke colony has moved to the Chelsea Sugar factory but I am not sure.

P37. [Little shag] “There is a well-established colony in Hobson Bay where some 30 pairs of little shags breed.”

This colony is gone, tho I note a similar size colony has started at Point England in late 2019.

P39. “A number of spotted shags may be seen at high-tide roost on the rocks beside the Kawakawa Bay to Kailua road at Tarata Point. Another colony may be seen at Ihumoana Cliff at Bethells.”

We no longer see spotted shags at these locations or near the mainland.

P39. [White heron] “A regular visitor to the northern harbours of Manukau, Kaipara and Firth of Thames during winter.”

Observations of kotuku are now quite rare with less than 50 ever being recorded on eBird.org

P45. [Royal spoonbill] “… an occasional winter visitor to harbours and estuaries in the Auckland district”

Observations of Spoonbills are way up with more than 1,200 records on eBird.org

P45. [Canada goose] “… appears only as a straggler in the Auckland district.”

Observations of Canada geese are way up with more than 1,200 records on eBird.org

P52. [Weka] “… are also established around Middlemore Golf Course following a release of 18 birds at Kings College in 1971”

They didn’t survive but its interesting to hear about these early efforts.

P60. [Variable oystercatcher] “These days beach buggies pose the greatest threat to their breeding grounds. Only the odd variable is ever seen among the vast flocks of South Island pied oystercatchers in the Manukau, Kaipara and Firth of Thames.”

Beach buggies are no longer a significant threat. Observations of VOC are definitely up and the species is recovering.

P60. “Small flocks of up to 100 golden plover may occur in the South Manukau and Firth of Thames”.

Golden plover numbers have declined sharply.

P63. [Banded dotterel] Here over 100 birds are regularly found during the winter on the short cropped pasture of the freezing works holding paddocks on Hamlins Hill.

No waders are ever seen on Hamlin’s Hill anymore which has just been made a Regional Park.

P63. [New Zealand dotterel]. “It is a breeding bird near Auckland in the South Manukau and Firth of Thames.”

The strongest breeding grounds are now north east of Auckland from Shakespear Regional Park to Mangawhai.

P77. “Native pigeons still occur in reasonable numbers in the Waitakere and Hunua Ranges. Odd birds appear in the suburbs every year, especially in parks and gardens with fruiting trees”

This description sounds very sparse. They are rarely seen in eastern suburbs but are quite resident in many other suburbs. I’m sure Aucklands kereru numbers have risen strongly with predator control.

P78. [Kaka] “… are present in small numbers in the Waitakere and Hunua Ranges. These large parrots seem to be occasional winter visitors to suburban Auckland, as every year there are reports of birds from places like Cornwall Park and the Domain.”

It sounds like Kaka numbers have dropped in the Waitakere and Hunua Ranges and suburban Auckland, I would say that the Gulf Islands and Mainland Sanctuaries are now the best places to find Kaka.

From a handbook perspective, Aucklands avian populations have changed a lot with some significant improvements for many species which is impressive given Aucklands human population more than doubled in the last 41 years.