Te Tai Tokerau examples

Glenn Edney and Hamish Clueard (Ti Āki tai, Ngāti Toki, Te Waiariki and Ngāti Takapari) have established a kelp nursery at Tutukākā.

In 2017 Te Whānau Moana/Te Rorohuri laid a rāhui over the area to stop all fishing and taking of seafood in order to allow the area to recover.

2. Slowing down and stopping pollutants from entering waterways

Notice that pesticide use continues to grow, almost doubling in the last 30 years. This Guardian article states that pesticides exceed safe levels in 13,000 kilometres of rivers. A lot of fertiliser, especially nitrogen and phosphorus ends up in waterways.

Regenerative agricultural practices has huge potential to reduce the flow of nutrients, pesticides, and antibiotics into the environment. Farmers using these practices are learning ways to dramatically decrease the use of these pollutants. Farmers and growers adhering to organic standards mostly avoid using these pollutants completely. The mass adoption of regenerative and organic practices will dramatically reduce the flow of pollutants into the ocean.

We will also need to get a lot better at treating sewage. This video shows the potential of algae for treating sewage.

3. Revegetating the ocean

Plankton can remove excessive nutrients, so a potential remedy for reducing nutrients and increasing vegetation is spreading iron into the sea to promote photosynthesis. This very informative video outlines the possibility. It concludes that from the perspective of sequestration the concept may not be viable. But it would also help to increase the food supply for the rest of the food chain and increase the abundance of marine life.

The third video in the Turning the Tide series explores marine restoration including kinanomics.

Ocean regeneration

So far, some of what you have seen in earlier sections is depressing. There is a lot of work to do to begin to support the regeneration of the ocean.

There is talk about sustainability and conservation, but these two ways of working just hold the line from further degradation. Nature has an incredible ability to regenerate. Our job is not to get in the way and support where we can start by:

Removing pollutants.
Slowing down and stopping pollutants entering waterways and the ocean.
Revegetating the ocean.
Supporting ecosystems.

Kaipara Moana Remediation

This map shows the extent of the Kaipara Harbour catchment extending to the Russell Forest in the north to the Waitakere Ranges in the south. (Kaipara Harbour Catchment Image credit Northland Regional Council and Arc GIS).

The Kaipara Harbour Sediment Mitigation Study – Summary Report (2018) identified the "current annual-average sediment load to the harbour is estimated to be approximately 700,000 tonnes per year" (page 16).

Mountains to sea

Mountains to Sea has its origins in Te Tai Tokerau when the trust was established in 2002. Founding trustees were the late Dr Roger Grace, Stefan Seitzer, Vince Kerr and Samara Nicholas. Related organisations are Experiencing Marine Reserves and Whitebait Connection. Embedded in the name is the concept of the connectedness of ecosystems.

The Trust's vision statement acknowledges the Treaty of Waitangi.

The biodiversity of our ocean, coastal areas, streams, rivers, lakes and wetlands is respected as taonga and viewed as a whole system without boundaries. We will strive to honour the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi, and work in ways that build community involvement, foster equity and work towards a shared vision of ecological sustainability as the basis of all community.

Moana

Ki uta ki tai

The causes of the massive sargassum seaweed patches in the Carribean, Florida and other places in the region has been attributed to nutrients coming off the land from the Amazon River.

Perhaps the explosion of sargassum growth is nature's way of dealing with the excess nutrients humans pour into the sea? One of the most potent ways we have of regenerating the ocean is to stop pouring poison on Papatūānuku? Algal blooms are increasing in Aotearoa too. This video shows the sites where these blooms have been increasing.

Here is Willie Wright MNZM, a long time advocate for cleaning up the Kaipara talking about the need to step up to make necessary changes.

1. Removing pollutants

In June 1940 the SS Niagara struck a Geman mine and sunk 30 km offshore, 40 km south of Whangārei in 120 metres deep. The Niagara was a passenger ship heading for Vancouver, so was carrying a full load of fuel. When the fuel tanks eventually corrode away, a huge quantity of fuel will leak into the sea endangering, among other places, the Poor Knights and the Goat Island Marine Reserve. Despite appeals, no government has shown any enthusiasm for a salvage operation.

Oil-based fuels are just one pollutant. Earlier we covered plastic pollution. Here is what The Ocean Cleanup is doing about it.

4. Supporting ecosystems

Any work that can slow down water defore it enters the sea, and encourage free passage for marine life between the sea and wetlands will help to regenerate coastal ecosystems. Here is what Hamish Clueard is doing on whanau land at Tutukaka.

Old oil rigs can become new ocean ecosystems. This video discusses how these rigs can be re-purposed.