Plan of inaction

As we pored over the depressing findings of the State of Environment  Report on the Hauraki Gulf, quips and wise-cracks were off the cards until someone yelled over the crowd.

The Hauraki Gulf's resident whale; the Bryde's whale. It is thought there are 46 of these whales living in the gulf.

“I didn’t fight my way to the top of the food chain to become a vegetarian.”

Six hours into discussion over this official unveiling and the tension was palpable. A group hug was unlikely.  Jokes were fair game.

The remark quickly moved the mood from despair into the realms of the absurd amongst the scientists, boaties, recreational fishers, conservationists, scientists, iwi and sea-food industry representatives.

Who’s given access to this blue pantry was a key topic of discussion. Trouble is, it’s only talk.

Despite ambitions to give Auckland & Coromandel residents a marine park (see map) of ‘national park status’, each three-yearly State of Environment report has been met with embarrassment, head-shaking and a round of shoulder-shrugging.

It’s been a 13 year talk-fest – albeit a well-meaning, feel-good & consultative one. But it makes you wonder – when is the Hauraki Gulf Forum going to grow some teeth? Just how bad does it have to get?

In Auckland Councillor Mike Lee’s words  – the forum is merely an advisory body which is up against councils and agencies mandated to remove any obstacles to fishing, dairying and aquaculture industries.

There’s no doubt about it –   the gulf is a biodiversity hot-spot and for the past millions of years, the fishy and feathery population has thrived.

Now however these creatures are sharing the gulf with 1.4 million people, fishers, boaties and perhaps – in the near future – marine farms.

Each day, fleets of trawlers and long-liners are dispatched onto this gulf; oil and heavy metals from vehicles are washed into the sea and hundreds of recreational fishers dip their lines into its waters.

And that’s not to mention the cows. The surrounding land is home to 410,000 dairy cows – and much of the nutrient from fertilisers and effluent from these farms ends up in the sea. That’s like having an additional human population of 6 million people in the catchment!*

At the conference, two experts spoke about the importance of the gulf as a mecca for both whales and seabirds.

If you worm-holed 800 years back in time you would find a land so riddled with sea bird burrows it would have been hard to walk for fear of falling into a seabird’s home

Eighty types of sea-birds live and fish in these waters and there are 16 species of whales that visit the Hauraki Gulf in any given year.

The gulf is unique in that it is home to 46 resident whales – the Bryde’s whale – a ‘nationally threatened’ species that can reach 13 metres in length.

Described affectionately by expert Dr Rochelle Constantine to be as ‘dim as a cow’ the Bryde’s whale can easily fall prey to net entanglement.

And although entanglements are of concern for these whales, boat strike is a bigger killer (13 have been killed since 1989), so researchers have been doing some incredible work tagging & tracking the whales’ movements.

Once this is completed later this year, Rochelle is confident that boat speeds will be taken down to 10 knots to prevent boat-strike.

Positive news like this is hard to find in the report. And although there are encouraging signs that Cook’s petrels and snapper populations are rebounding, the report is distinctly negative.

Below are some of the findings –

• 14 of the 52 beaches in the Auckland region have been classed as unsafe for swimming (2006- 2009) due to large amounts of faecal matter ( E Coli).
• Kina barrens have replaced large forests of kelp which were home to all number of marine invertebrates such as crayfish.
• Commercial fishing – trawling in the outlying areas and long-lining throughout most of the gulf continues to keep fish stock levels (such as tarakihi and trevally ) in decline.
• Important mussel beds in the Firth of Thames have been annihilated . These beds once filtered the whole Firth of Thames in one day, now this takes two years. Fish cover over these beds is typically 10 times that seen over the normal sea-floor.
• Around a 1000 black petrels and 1300 flesh-footed shearwaters fall prey to fishing by-catch each year.
• Only 0.3% (3,758ha) of the gulf is covered in marine reserves.
• Just under half of our shorebirds are in decline and several of our sea-birds are threatened.
• Cow populations have been rising in the Waikato, but are now relatively stable in Matamata and Hauraki. They are falling in Rodney, Manukau, Franklin.
• Fertiliser application continues to rise and nitrogen levels in the Gulf are increasing by 1% a year due to fertiliser run-off. The Waihou and Piako rivers dominate nutrient loads to the Gulf with 70 percent originating from agricultural sources. Nutrient loads are rising in the Waikato and decreasing in Auckland.
• Over the past 50 years mangrove cover has increased significantly, in part due to sedimentation (mangroves thrive in soft, muddy, waterlogged conditions). In some parts, mangrove cover is one kilometre wide.

In short, the signs are not looking rosy.

This  prompted marine biologist Dr Roger Grace to call for 10% of the gulf to be covered in marine reserves – something openly opposed by all fishers largely on the grounds that ‘no take’ was not a ‘sophisticated management tool’.

Councillor and Hauraki Gulf forum member, Mike Lee summed up the disbelief of many conservationists.

“If we had the same attitude to terrestrial conservation it would be in a shocking state. 0.3% protection would be an embarrassing failure. We need to factor marine reserves into the regime”.

Currently the catch allowance in the gulf allows the fish stock to replace itself but prevents these fish from fulfilling their ecological niche (like trimming back kina barrens).

This is something that Dr Grace described as ‘sheer greed’ given that fisheries will still get 80% of their maximum yield if fish are maintained at around 40 to 50% of their original biomass.

His words were met with many nodding heads – but no action points. In terms of expectations management the meeting was an all-round success.

Despite Deputy Chair Christine Fletcher openly admitting they ‘weren’t in denial’, the public were expected to adopt a ‘it won’t happen overnight, but it will happen’ attitude.

So the 250 or so participants shuffled out, heavy with thought, ate sausage rolls, sipped cups of tea and concluded another year’s meeting.

Has this 13 year, 3 million dollar rate-payer funded talk-shop has been fruitful in terms of public awareness?

Yes somewhat, especially given the article in the front page article in this week’s Herald, and other media interviews

Has it borne fruit in terms of policy & environmental gains? No.

The science behind the report is commendable though. So it’s up to us to use this damning report to demand a swimmable, fish-filled Hauraki gulf– either through informing submissions or through face-to-face meetings with politicians.

If you wish to obtain a copy of the report go here – http://www.arc.govt.nz/albany/index.cfm?FD4FFAE9-14C2-3D2D-B936-BE0F209BFF76

The South Waikato District Plan is now going through major changes and a proposed plan will be unveiled in October when a formal submission process will take place. Those people who are interested in having their say over the water quality of the Waihou river, or any aspect of the plan should contact their local councillors before the plan is rolled out. For more information contact our field officer Al Fleming – a.fleming@forestandbird.org.nz

For more information about the threats to the Firth of Thames, see our most recent magazine article

• This is based on waste estimates.

Blogger: Forest & Bird’s Web Manager, Mandy Herrick