Two-year rā hui for Waiheke Destination waters to protect kaimoana

Waiheke Island. Photo hcg diet plan 123RF

By Te Aorewa Rolleston to RNZ

Mana whenua over Waiheke island are placing a two-year rāhui on the island in a bid in order to avoid four species of kaimoana from collapsing.

The iwi, Ngāti Pāoa, has been worried for years just about declining inshore biodiversity on the Hauraki Gulf’s most populated island.

And with community support, a restriction is being imposed from this weekend.

Ngāti Pāoa kaumātua as tohunga were to lead a dawning ceremony on Sunday morning, to put a rāhui on the waters concerning the island.

It plagues a series of hui with the community and moreover mana whenua about the need to restoration declining numbers of scallops, mussels, crayfish and pāua.

Finally the rāhui will apply from the foreshore to 1 nautical mile out to coastal.

Ngāti Pāoa mouthpiece Herearoha Skipper said some of the particular can no longer be found around the island.

“There’s nothing to actually think about anymore, so that’s the real thought for our iwi. So it was a serious simple, easy decision to make, to really put on the table that we need to lay down a rāhui to restrict any individual from taking particularly species that happen now extinct, ” Skipper mentioned.

Kaumātua had been focused on the situation for years and now they wish urgent action.

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Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) national manager for fisheries concurrence Steve Ham said MPI got considering the iwi’s application for a useless closure and once it was granted proceeding enforce the restrictions.

“MPI will work with the local online communities and obviously through publications, through pamphlets, on our website, on the NZ The fishing industry app, to notify of involving temporary closure that goes into house and once that closure is set up then they can enforce the rules additionally areas to restrict” Ham explained.

Waiheke local board chairwoman Cath Handley (right) meets with then simply just Auckland Central MP Nikki Kaye. Photo / Dean Purcell

Waiheke subdivision board chairwoman Cath Handley described the iwi had shown fantastic leadership and the community supported you see, the proactive stance.

Often the Waiheke community would support a good solid rāhui that covered more types of fish, she said.

“The response was overwhelmingly positive, to their (Ngāti Pāoa) proposal, in fact the majority of people wanted it to go further then it does because it specifies four types of fish. There is a great deal of will on Waiheke for significant marine protections for those who are Hauraki Gulf, ” Handley reported.

The Government should have concentrated on the threat much earlier along with Ngāti Pāoa had sped up this process for protecting the Hauraki Gulf of mexico, she said.

“We need far more action and we want it at a national government level, with respect to protections for the Hauraki Gulf. So I think Ngāti Pāoa have actually been doing something that might have been dealt with in depth and far more extensively much earlier, however they have done something which I think is amazingly positive” said Handley.

Ngāti Pāoa said it would introduce a management plan including for sale signs, boundary markings and marine watching.

People who break each of our rāhui could be prosecuted under the Fisheries Act, Ngāti Pāoa said.