The West Coast Blue Penguin Trust believes the Government has not gone far enough to protect marine eco-systems on the West Coast.
Earlier this month Conservation Minister Dr Nick Smith formally approved the new Kahurangi, Punakaiki, Okarito, Tauparikaka and Hautai marine reserves. The new reserves are the first reserves between Whanganui Inlet (Westhaven) and Fiordland and total 17,500 hectares.
West Coast Blue Penguin Trust chairwoman Kerry-Jayne Wilson says while the reserves are in good locations the majority are not large enough to effectively provide protection for most of the marine life found there.
“The Government has missed an important opportunity to protect and show case areas important to marine ecology at Punakaiki, Okario and Ship Creek. None of the West Coast marine reserves include deep water habitats and they are too small, only the Kahurangi Reserve is sufficiently large,” she says.
“The Ship Creek reserve is so small you have to wonder why they bothered. In my experience this is one of the best places on the West Coast for observing seabirds close inshore. The area between Knights Point and Abbey Rocks is important for the endangered Fiordland Crested Penguin, there is a large fur seal colony at Arnott Point and this is one of only two places in mainland New Zealand where elephant seals are regularly seen.”
Ms Wilson says the Punakaiki reserve stops at Perpendicular Point missing waters to the north important to the largest blue (spotted) shag colony in New Zealand. There are also good numbers of blue penguins between Perpendicular Point and Fox River so she believes the logical northern boundary would have been Fox River.
While she is pleased to see an Okarito Marine Reserve Ms Wilson believed the northern boundary should extend to the mouth of the Waitangiroto/Waitangitaona Rivers, allowing whitebaiting and other fishing in the lagoon with a no take area outside the lagoon.
“This would make Okarito one of New Zealand’s premier conservation areas with the white herons, Okarito Lagoon, Westland National Park and the Glaciers, extending the World Heritage Area from the highest mountains into the sea,” she says.
