| Venue: Auckland Regional
Council chambers, Auckland City
Date: Wednesday 18th June 2003
Chair: Hugh Leersnyder, Auckland Regional Council
Duration: 2.5 hours
Attendance: 52 people
Forum Business
Item A.1 Minutes from previous meeting on 11th
December 2002 passed.
Item B.1 Presentation by Keir Volkerkig, Ngatiwai,
on tangata whenua rights and responsibilities in Tikapa Moana and
Te Moananui O Toi. Forum agreed to urge the crown representatives
to advise the government on the issue of nature and extent of treaty
rights to the marine environment.
Item C.1 Powerpoint presentation by John Duthie,
Auckland City Council Planning Manager regarding the Hauraki Gulf
Islands Strategic Plan. Forum received the report.
Note – No mention of recreational fishing or recognition of
the public fishing for food.
Item C.2 Marine Reserves – Rob McCallum,
Conservator, Department of Conservation (DoC) Auckland.
DoC has two roles
- Recognise marine reserve applications and process them
- Hand those applications onto the Minister of Conservation
- DoC can also promote their own proposals
Quotes by Rob McCallum
Great Barrier Island
- Current Great Barrier Island proposal is a large one
- Issue had received a lot of airtime in the media.
- There are undersea reefs out to the 10-mile limit within the
proposal boundaries.
- This had been a long process started in the early 1990’s;
it was shelved in 1993 due to no money.
- DoC had been consulting with Ngati Rehua for 6 months, both
formally and informally.
- Ngati Rehua have yet to respond formally
- DoC had been consulting with Ngatiwai since February 2003.
- 9000 brochures had been distributed, invitations had been sent
out to 140 groups offering to be briefed by DoC on the proposal.
- Submission return figures change daily but they had received
around 200 submissions and around 60% of returns are supportive
of a marine reserve on the northeast coast of the Barrier.
- Lots of those at meetings are saying, 'I will support a marine
reserve with the lines changed on the map.'
- DoC will look to review those lines
- This marine reserve will be put through under the current legislation,
the 1971 Act.
Tiritiri Matangi
- There are two other proposals currently; the NZUA proposal
at Tiritiri had received around 9000 submissions. The Tiri Action
Group were responsible for 6,600 of these. NZ Underwater are currently
analysing the submissions. They have now gone back to iwi to consult
on ‘where to from here?’
- He hadn’t heard about progress lately.
Tawharanui
- There was confusion in the public mind about what you can do,
what you can’t do in the marine park
- Auckland Regional Council are going to change the status to
clear up that confusion
- DoC are expecting an application (for a marine reserve) at
some time for this issue.
West Coast
- DoC are providing advice to Forest and Bird and separately to
the West Coast Working Group, for protection on the west coast.
Marine Environment
98.5% of the marine environment is not under any form of protection
in the Hauraki Gulf Forum area. The government is committed to see
10% of the marine environment protected; we think this is a good
place to start.
Councillor Brown -asked a question regarding the
200 submissions received
RM – we expect several thousand by the end
of next week, we haven’t analysed the submissions yet. Hadn’t
looked at where they were from, whether they were from residents,
visitors or someone from Invercargill. The important part was how
residents in the catchment area were affected; those people will
get largest say.
Councillor Cole – question about the new
legislation (Marine Reserves Bill), will there be a problem with
this proposal
RM – I’m not an expert on the new legislation,
but I wouldn’t want to change horses half way through the
race.
Councillor Storer – the vast majority of
marine reserves being proposed are in Auckland, what about the South
Island?
RM – there are several marine reserve proposals
in action. DoC’s main role is receiving applications; we don’t
know who is going to walk through the door with a proposal tomorrow,
although we do provide advice. The number of applications in process
at the moment are in the single digits. The Catlins and the west
coast of the South Island are ideas; no one is working on them.
Councillor Storer – the vast majority of
households don’t enjoy fish in their diets, what about the
little guy losing his right to (go) fishing, what about restrictions
on commercial fishing. DoC could work in tandem with the fishing
industry and the government.
RM - the Ministry of Fisheries manages fishing.
Marine Reserves are marine ecosystem management tools. They are
for protecting marine ecosystems. We have, and in the future, the
science to prove that marine ecosystems work. I can’t buy
into the argument that the little guy is being affected. Only 1.17%
of the area is in marine reserves. With the Great Barrier Island
proposal, the people who live on the island are the most affected
so have the biggest say. Iwi have been consulted about the shellfish
beds, but I don’t agree that the little guy is affected.
Councillor Smith – If DoC are the approver
of these reserves, how are these three proposals being resourced?
RM – Brochures have been paid for by DoC,
for the Barrier; For Tiritiri the NZUA made a contribution, they
have received financial support for their process from DoC.
Councillor Smith – Could it be said that
DoC is the funding party for marine reserve applications?
RM – Not exactly, I don’t know of any
apart from NZ Underwater, they got themselves in quite deep. Te
Makutu and Forest and Bird, thousands of hours had gone into this
process.
Councillor Smith – What is the difference
between a marine park and a marine reserve?
RM – the only thing you can’t do in
a marine reserve is take. Marine parks have different rules. At
Tawharanui, that’s a no take marine park, this is confusing
and we are wanting to tidy that up for fishermen.
Councillor Smith – who are you going to
talk to about the Barrier?
RM – we’re interested in talking to
people who make submissions, but not limited to them. This is definitely
an open process. The residents of the island have more say.
Councillor Burrill – We have Auckland, Whangarei
and Tauranga, has the Department made any effort to reach these
communities?
RM – letters have gone to 140 organisations
saying here’s the proposal, do you want to talk about it?
We have been as far south as Whitianga, far north as Leigh and as
far as Laingholm in the west.
Councillor Burrill – Laingholm is in the
Manukau, have you organised any meetings in the Hauraki Gulf area?
RM – if we have received and invitation to
go, we haven’t missed one yet.
Councillor Burrill – have you had a meeting
on the mainland, in the Auckland municipal area?
RM – I can’t say, if a group or fishing
club has asked we have gone.
Councillor Burrill – The brochures, when
were these sent out?
RM - the Great Barrier Island residents were sent
theirs months ago, at the beginning of the process. The wider community
a bit later, some went out in magazines two weeks ago. Some went
to clubs and trust boards.
Councillor Burrill – More than half of the
brochures only went out two weeks ago?
RM – we sent some to magazines, we don’t
know when they send them out.
Councillor Burrill – if people only got
their brochure two weeks ago, how can they respond?
RM – if people need more time, they can have
more time. The people of the island have said, let’s get this
reserve going.
The report from DoC was received by the Forum
Item C.3 Whale Ship Strikes in the Hauraki Gulf
Bill Trusewick (DoC) presented a report regarding whale strikes
by ships in the Gulf area.
Item C.4 Intertidal Shellfish Depletion Project Report
ARC representative gave a progress report on this project. Report
was received.
Item C.5 Constituent Party Report
Discussion from various representatives regarding reports filed.
Reports were received.
Item D. Open Forum Session
Jane West - Ngati Whatua, addressed Forum members regards the current
discussions occurring at national level. Oceans policy, Marine Reserve
Bill, other issues affecting tangata whenua. Spoke about her concerns
surrounding the Tiritiri Matangi marine reserve proposal and the
lack of a coordinated effort to resolve marine protection issues.
Scott Macindoe – option4, addressed Forum
members about tangata whenua, alternatives to marine reserves, specifically
Maori management tools.
Consultation was lacking in all of the marine reserve proposals
we had been involved with. The people of the Barrier had demonstrated
at four public meetings that only 16 of 318 attendees supported
the DoC proposal, yet DoC are claiming ‘strong support’
on the island.
The questionnaire distributed by DoC had leading questions, question
four was so vague, ‘ Do you support the principle of a marine
reserve somewhere on the northeast coast of Great Barrier Island?
“How can the public sort fact from fallacy?”
Scott also referred to Rob McCallum’s figure of 98.5% of
the Gulf area being unprotected when in fact if you take into consideration
the shipping lanes, cable zones and other no take areas there is
a considerable amount of the marine environment that are no fishing
zones.
Kathy Walsh – Kaiaua residents and ratepayers
representative, discussed the impact of mussel farming in the Firth
of Thames area on the local people.
Meeting closed 3.35pm
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