Media Release
8 March 2007

Volunteers Check Shellfish Health at Manukau Beaches

Schoolchildren and community volunteers will be checking how healthy the shellfish population is at Manukau’s eastern beaches next week.

The shellfish monitoring on 16 and 17 March will be part of a three yearly report on the state of shellfish populations in the Hauraki Gulf. The report highlights trends in environmental quality and reasons for any changes.

The events at Umupuia/Duders Beach and Kawakawa Bay involve 150 pupils from Maraetai Beach and Clevedon schools. Volunteers involved are from Weka Watch, Pohutukawa Coast Community Association, Te Puru Sea Scouts, Kawakawa Bay Youth Group, private individuals, and support from Umupuia Marae. The Department of Conservation and the Chinese Conservation Education Trust survey Cockle Bay in Howick.

People wanting to help should come to Umupuia/Duders Beach in Clevedon on Saturday 17 March at 10.30am (Rain day is Sunday 18th March 11.30am). Bring a windbreaker, hat, sunscreen, closed shoes or aquashoes that will get wet and a change of clothes. There will be a BBQ and refreshments at 12.30.

Manukau City Council Environmental Scientist James Corbett says the schools jumped at the chance to participate in a project that helped students learn about the coastal environment, guardianship of shellfish resources for the future and putting science theory into practice.

“The pupils have been very keen to see how their work in surveys may assist future decisions about shellfish management.

The surveys will, along with information from groups around the region, provide input into a three yearly report on the state of shellfish populations in the Hauraki Gulf, highlighting trends in environmental quality and reasons for these changes.

“Auckland’s large population with a taste for shellfish places huge demands on kaimoana (food of the sea) along Manukau’s coast. Anecdotal reports from locals say our shellfish beds are seriously depleted compared to one or two generations ago,” Mr Corbett says.

Scientific studies complement this information, providing a measure of changes over time and help pinpoint reasons for decline. Both sources of information will be useful for a Ministry of Fisheries review on shellfish management controls to be conducted this year.

Other significant pressures on shellfish beds include fine mud carried in stormwater run-off from coastal land smothering the shellfish, pollution, and damage by vehicles and other beach activities to upper beach areas and seagrass beds where shellfish tend to establish. Manukau City Council has already implemented controls to mitigate some of these effects.

Members of the community are welcome to join the monitoring programme. For more information contact Carol McKenzie-Rex on 262 5437 or 0272 299 791
Email: cmckenzi[at]manukau.govt.nz

ENDS

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