Hauraki Gulf / Tīkapa Moana / Te Moananui-ā-Toi. State of the environment report 2023

From the Executive summary:

The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park is special. It enriches people’s lives. We play, swim, fish, and compete in its waters. We are invigorated by its vistas and constantly changing nature. By its dolphins, whales, sharks, rays and other fish life. By the kōura and octopus pulled from its waters. By seabirds, shorebirds and endangered forest birds brought back from the brink. We happily work together to restore island and marine biodiversity. And we are mutually saddened when its special values are degraded or lost. 

Its shores contain Aotearoa’s largest metropolitan area and extensive tracts of productive farmland. Its coastal waters are of great importance to commerce in this country, containing the Port of Auckland, and many smaller ports and marinas. It is lived in and worked in and supports commercial enterprises and transport.

The Marine Park, its islands and catchments have complex inter-relationships that need to be understood and managed, to ensure that their values are maintained, protected or enhanced in perpetuity. The Marine Park crosses territorial and departmental jurisdictions, land and water boundaries, and cultures. It is therefore essential that the objectives and approaches of management organisations are integrated.

This is the seventh State of Our Gulf report. It follows a succession of previous reports expressing concerns about environmental loss, degradation and inadequate responses to many of the issues impacting the Gulf. 

While pressure on the Gulf remains high, this report suggests we may be close to starting a new chapter in the story of the Tīkapa Moana / Te Moananui-ā-Toi / Hauraki Gulf. We appear to be on the cusp of delivering important changes to improve biodiversity and environmental outcomes. In 2021, Central Government released “Revitalising the Hauraki Gulf: Government action on the Sea Change Plan”, and since then, has been inching towards the development of a management plan that is tailored to the Gulf’s fisheries, and implementing a proposal to significantly grow the coverage of Marine Protected Areas in the Gulf.

This comes after more than a decade’s effort by the Forum, iwi and numerous community organisations and individuals. And it is now six years since the release of Tai Timu Tai Pari – Sea Change Hauraki Gulf Marine Spatial Plan, which provided an ambitious roadmap for increasing protection and reducing fishing effects in the Gulf. Yet, outcomes are still far from certain. And they won’t be until the proposed MPAs are gazetted, and a fisheries plan that protects and enhances the Gulf ecosystem is adopted and implemented. 

Other notable changes with the potential to improve outcomes in the Gulf have been driven through direct action by:

Mana whenua and local communities — the restoration of mussel beds, an application for the Hākaimangō-Matiatia (Northwest Waiheke) Marine Reserve, rāhui, and the long list of achievements on the islands of the Gulf are great examples of where direct actions by mana whenua and communities are producing change.

The judicial system — multiple court appeals have identified fundamental flaws in the application of resource and fisheries regulation. Recent court decisions have eliminated key barriers to the management of the broader environmental effects of fishing, ruled on the matters related to the adequacy of information being used in fisheries decisions, and provided clarity about mandatory and irrelevant considerations in fisheries decision making. 

Independent hearing panels — major resource consent hearings have had consequential outcomes. For example, commissioners declined two of three Pakiri sand extraction consent applications, and gave the other limited approval. These decisions have since been appealed so the final decision will not be known for some time.

Major infrastructure projects — Watercare Services is well into its construction of its Central Interceptor, which is expected to reduce average annual overflow volumes in the central interceptor catchment by 80%, help cater for Auckland’s ongoing population growth, and provide resilience to at-risk sections of the sewer system.

However, recent events have underscored the precarious nature of the situation and the ecological tipping points we seem intent on testing. These include the recent emergency closure of the tipa (scallop) fishery, growing evidence about reduced food availability for top predators, the arrival of exotic Caulerpa, another serious marine pest, and adverse effects of nitrogen on the Firth of Thames.These negative developments underscore that change cannot come soon enough. 

There is also the realisation that climate change isn’t some abstract future problem. It is real. It has arrived. Its impacts are highly consequential — and they are just getting started.

Climate change is a global issue with catastrophic, local consequences. Events since the beginning of 2023 demonstrate that resilient solutions are going to require a huge investment in cash, resources, labour, and political leadership. The risks of inaction are now too great to delay our response. 

Unfortunately, the Gulf cannot be shielded from the effects of a warming, more energetic planet. The waters of the Gulf are expected to get warmer, more turbid, more acidic, and more contaminated. We can expect lethal heatwaves, stronger storms, land inundation, and increased coastal erosion. We can also expect an insurgence of new subtropical species, including pests and diseases, and the southward shift in some native species.

We can increase the resilience of the Gulf to the coming storm, by improving the health of the Gulf ecosystem. But we must act quickly and at scale. Central Government proposals for changing how fishing is managed in the Gulf, and to create new Marine Protected Areas are an important part of the solution and will cost comparatively little. The big question is whether politics will get in the way of their implementation. 

Dealing with land-based contaminants is arguably much harder, particularly for the sediment generated during extreme weather events. As the storms of early 2023 demonstrated, ground that was weakened and saturated by water simply collapsed. Homes were devoured, roads ripped apart, and a river of mud was carried into the sea. Wastewater networks were quickly overwhelmed and all manner of other contaminants were washed into the sea.

It is against that background, that this report relooks at key environmental indicators and examines changes over the past three years. ...

Previous years' reports

Hauraki Gulf Forum

August 2023