March 2016 Click here to view online
Sea Change
March 2016 : We've made a great start!

In this issue:

  • SWG Chairman’s welcome and project update
  • Mana Whenua representatives keep pace with SWG
  • New faces join the team
  • Gulf News - new Hauraki Gulf poster series released; Hauraki Gulf forum launced new story telling platform for the Gulf; MAD Marine 2016

 
SWG Chairman's welcome and project update

Tēnā koutou

Welcome to the first newsletter for 2016. This is certainly going to be a busy year for everyone involved in Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari and I’m looking forward to keeping you in touch with progress.

As you know, the Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari Stakeholder Working Group (SWG) is made up a range of members, from mana whenua, community, environmental, commercial and recreational organisations. The SWG is working collaboratively to deliver a marine spatial plan for the Hauraki Gulf.

I would like to acknowledge the significant commitment of the SWG members and project team, as well as the organisations supporting the Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari process. I would also like to welcome our new SWG recreational fishing representative Scott Mcindoe who attended his first meeting in February, replacing Alan Proctor. Scott is being supported by Trish Rea.

The SWG meets monthly and is considering a range of topics, including, currently, water quality, aquaculture, biodiversity and fisheries. These are some of the important issues the SWG is investigating in depth with the aim of combining all findings and recommendations into the marine spatial plan.

At our February meeting, the SWG met with Conservation Minister Hon. Maggie Barry, along with officials from the Department of Conservation and the Ministry for the Environment, to discuss how Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari and the Government’s proposed Hauraki Gulf recreational fishing park are intended to interact. This is an important issue for the Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari project.

There have been a few comings and goings among the Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari project team. I’d like to farewell and thank Kyna Hart who has led our engagement, communications and media work for the past 18 months. Kyna’s creativity and dedication have driven much of the public face of Sea Change, including our website, community campaigns and research. I’d also like to introduce you to SWG coordinator Aoife Colgan and Linda Bercusson who is taking up the communications role. You can read more about Aoife and Linda further down the newsletter.

With the start of a new year, it’s timely to remind ourselves why the marine spatial plan matters to every person who works, plays or lives near or on the Gulf. Underlying all our work is the need to ensure this very special body of water remains vibrant with life and healthy mauri, is increasingly productive and supports prosperous communities.

 

Ngā mihi nui

Paul

Paul Beverley

Stakeholder Working Group Independent Chair
Mana whenua update

Mana whenua are key partners across the Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari project. In late 2013, 12 representatives were selected from across the Hauraki Gulf region to represent mana whenua interests. Eight mana whenua representatives are members of the co-governance Project Steering Group (PSG) and four representatives are members of the Stakeholder Working Group. 

The mana whenua representatives make up the Mātauranga Māori Representative Group (MMRG) to work with the SWG as the marine spatial plan is being drafted. MMRG’s goal is to provide the SWG with a mātauranga Māori context for each of the plan’s topics and ensure tikanga and mātauranga are incorporated alongside western practices and world views
New faces

Aoife Colgan – Stakeholder Working Group (SWG) coordinator

Aoife is an Irish lass on an overseas experience in New Zealand for a year. She studied law, qualifying as a solicitor in 2014, and has worked in legal firms in Ireland, China and Budapest. Her passion lies in non-profit charity work and she has spent the two previous summers helping to build houses in Ethiopia. New to the world of environmental issues, she is gaining an education alongside new friends among the SWG.

Linda Bercusson - engagement, communications and media lead

Linda was for many years on staff with the Department of Conservation, first as a journalist and later developing award-winning conservation engagement programmes for Auckland’s Chinese and Pacific communities. She has written several books, including a couple on the Hauraki Gulf. Freelancing for DOC, Big Ocean Network, Conservation International, among others, has allowed her to explore many parts of New Zealand and the Pacific and work on projects as diverse as supporting the drive for large-scale MPAs to editing reports on Samoa’s susceptibility to climate change.
Gulf News

A Journal of and for the Gulf

The Hauraki Gulf Forum has launched a new story telling platform for the Gulf. The Gulf Journal/Kōrero o te Moana adds profiles and features to the mix of news stories compiled for the Forum’s long running quarterly newsletter Weaving the Strands .

Issue one reveals New Zealand of the Year finalist Rob Fenwick’s vision for the Gulf, reflects on Bill Ballantine’s ‘cussed’ qualities, introduces Ngati Rehua – Ngatiwai ki Aotea and enables Jo Ritchie to explain her passion for the people and places of the Gulf and the new journal’s role in supporting them.

 

New Hauraki Gulf poster series 2016

The Herald and the Hauraki Gulf Forum published the sixth Icons of the Gulf poster series on February 22, 23 and 24. This year’s posters celebrate of our islands, whales and dolphins, and the alarming results of recent monitoring at the Goat Island Marine Reserve. After the dramatic recovery in crayfish and snapper numbers during its first two decades, intensified catches on the reserve’s edges and declines in the wider fishery have meant numbers have dropped below levels from the 1970s. Click here to read more and see the posters.
Make a Difference (MAD) Marine 2016

With a swap of a tee-shirt and great anticipation, 43 Auckland-based, secondary school students turned into Marine MADsters and set off on a four-day adventure that was to change their lives.

Each year, MAD (Make a Difference) Marine offers a four-day workshop for Auckland Secondary School students at Motutapu Education Camp, Motutapu Island in the Hauraki Gulf. And for the second year consecutively, Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari was invited along.

The MAD Marine programme, funded by Auckland Council, encourages young, environmentally-minded youth leaders to take action for the marine environment. It’s an experience jam packed with activities and enables students to better understand the connections between human activities, land management, fresh water and the sea. And it doesn’t end there! Students continue to receive mentoring and opportunities to build on their skills and networks to help them implement sustainable action plans in their schools and/or communities. 

The future of the Hauraki Gulf/Tikapa Moana looks to be in very safe hands if the calibre of these (and previous) MADsters is anything to go by. These young, passionate and very inspiring leaders are fully committed to ensuring they - and their schools - make a positive difference in their backyards to ensure the health and wellbeing of our marine environment.
About the project

Since late 2013, a partnership led by Mana Whenua and central and local government has been working on Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari, a marine spatial planning initiative designed to produce a Marine Spatial Plan that will secure a healthy, productive and sustainable future for the Hauraki Gulf/Tikapa Moana. The Sea Change – Tai Timu Tai Pari Hauraki Gulf/Tikapa Moana Marine Spatial Plan aims to: 

  • improve the understanding of the pressures on the Hauraki Gulf/Tikapa Moana
  • identify long-term solutions
  • provide increased certainty for the economic, cultural and social goals of our community
  • ensure the ecosystem functions that make those goals possible are sustained.

Early in the project, the Stakeholder Working Group tasked with developing the plan agreed on a vision for their work. The SWG aims to develop a Marine Spatial Plan that will achieve a Hauraki Gulf/Tikapa Moana that:

  • is vibrant with life and healthy mauri
  • is increasingly productive
  • supports healthy and prosperous communities.
Connect

Email us: contact@seachange.org.nz

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Visit our website: www.seachange.org.nz
Hauraki Gulf Marine Park
In partnership with mana whenua and the following agencies:
Hauraki Gulf Forum
Ministry for Primary Industries
Department of Conservation - Te Papa Atawhai
Waikato Regional Council
Auckland Council
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