A change for a gain

We understand the feeling of loss associated with no longer being able to fish or gather shellfish from around The Noises. It has always been something we’ve treasured, during time spent on the islands. The act of catching or harvesting a meal and preparing it for the table has always brought great joy and brought us together as a family. It was a hard decision for our family to make, when 13 years ago we first had the chance to share our observations of change and support marine protection around The Noises.

Nevertheless, we’d been watching the declines in the marine environment over our lifetimes and understood that we had also contributed to that loss. Reluctantly, we agreed that we could either try to help stop this marine environment we loved from degrading further, or we could continue to fish, and be part of its ongoing degradation. Either way, the writing was on the wall and harvesting seafood from around The Noises was coming to an end.

What we regret about the establishment of a high protection area around the Noises is NOT that the HPA has taken away the possibility to harvest, it’s knowing that decades of over harvesting, has resulted in such widespread change and depletion that many species are now either threatened or have almost vanished. They are no longer there to be harvested. The pursuit of “our rights” to continually extract without thought or care for the damage being done is to blame. It feels like we’ve really failed when marine protection is a late but necessary response to such loss. Those who still blame the establishment of the HPA for removing their rights to fish, perhaps haven’t seen the insidious changes that we have seen occur over time.

The loss of the tipa/scallops, kūtai/mussels, mararī/butterfish, kōkiri/leatherjackets and wrasse come to mind and that’s to name a few. What of the forage/bait fish, the kingfish, kahawai, trevally, seabirds, and more? They rely on this functioning network of inter-species connections, to enable them all to thrive. Reef ledges full of koura/crayfish and pāua are now distant memories and never mind the barracouta, elephant fish and hapuku found in the middens on Ōtata. They’ve been gone for so long they don’t even come to mind when we think of loss.

Nor do we consider the role of the myriad marine creatures and seaweeds that we don’t eat. To think only of the species that we eat and to NOT consider the food and habitat needed to support them to thrive, is ignorant. In one way or another, everything is connected and even if we only have self- interest at heart, ignoring this, negatively impacts on the species we do value as food.

Tamure/snapper are now one of the few fish that are doing okay and we hope the HPA will help them thrive and their numbers also increase outside the HPA. We as family hope the HPA will help generate conditions needed for the bait fish so they can feed other schooling fish and help lift abundance over wider areas of the Gulf. We’d love to see reef ecosystems recover so their diverse life that can then benefit reefs further afield. Successful regeneration also means providing benefits to commercial long liners, recreational fishers, and may also provide opportunities for commercial gain yet undefined. It will mean our family is also able to eat the occasional fish from outside the HPA!

We hope to support Mana Whenua, DOC, and science, in their management of this taonga. We can do this by sharing our knowledge of The Noises marine environment and the drastic changes we’ve seen over the past 50 years. As a family, we’re confident that the changes we will see over the next 50 years will be gains, not losses.

We will also be sharing stories from The Noises that reflect the seasons on the whenua and in the moana via blogs and on social media. Understanding the rhythms of the seasons, connections between land and sea, and today’s environment at the beginning of this new era of hope, may help foster a better understanding of this intricate ecosystem and how best to care for it in the future.