Viewpoint – Cleaning up the Kaipara

It is only from the air that you truly get a sense of the size and the majesty of the Kaipara Harbour.  It is a huge body of water with rivers and streams flowing into it.  By area, the Kaipara Harbour is one of the largest harbours in the world.  It covers 947sq km at high tide with 409sq km exposed as mudflats and sandflats at low tide.  It is so big it is administered by two separate councils.  The northern part is looked after by Kaipara District Council and the southern part by Auckland Council. The harbour extends 60km from north to south. One of its large arms reaches almost to Maungaturoto, and just 10km from the East Coast.

The Kaipara Harbour is a dangerous place. Big waves from the Tasman Sea break over large sandbanks, just five metres below the surface. These sandbanks are known as the “graveyard” and are responsible for more shipwrecks than any other place in New Zealand. At least 43 vessels have been shipwrecked on the sandbanks and some say as many as 110.

The name Kaipara had its origins in the 15th century, when the Te Arawa chief Kahumatamomoe visited his nephew at Poutu.  He was so impressed with the cooked root of the para fern that he ate there that he gave the name Kai-para to the district.

The Kaipara Harbour is a very productive marine ecosystem with diverse habitats and ecosystems.  There are tidal reaches, intertidal mudflats and sandflats, freshwater swamps, maritime rushes, reed beds and coastal scrublands. If you catch a snapper on the west coast then chances are that the fish began its life in the Kaipara in what is considered an important snapper hatchery in New Zealand.

I love the Kaipara.  Its wildness.  And its gentleness. As I have mentioned before, my Albertland tupuna lived on the shores of this magnificent harbour, so my fondness for it stems from this connection.

Like a lot of our estuaries, the Kaipara is slowly getting sick. Nitrogen, sediment, E-coli and other nasties from our cities and farms are flowing from five rivers and more than a hundred streams into the Kaipara. Thankfully, local iwi, volunteers, schoolchildren and local bodies, who worry about the Kaipara Harbour, will be helped by the Government to clean it up.

Kaipara Harbour will be among the first estuaries to benefit from the budget allocation to clean up our waterways. $12 million has been set aside to support community efforts to unclog the sediment and control the mangroves. There will be plenty of riparian planting and wetland preservation and development.  Streams will be fenced to prevent pollution from cattle and sediment hotspots will be located and measured. We know we have a big job to do to clean up our estuaries, which are so important as a food source and a playground. I am glad the Kaipara marks the start.

Jenny Marcroft, Matakana-based MP
jennifer.marcroft@parliament.govt.nz