Exploring ways to integrate our approach to marine and coastal systems.

Here in Opotiki most people have a pretty special relationship with the sea around us.  The rivers leading into the sea are used for white-baiting, trout fishing, kayaking, and swimming.  We collect pipi from the beaches, gather shells and firewood, make sandcastles and sculptures with the driftwood.  We surf, we swim, we feed chips to seagulls.

Opotiki lives by the beach and people use it for jogging, walking dogs, surf-casting or putting out a long-line.  Brave folk celebrate the middle of winter by taking an icy swim, while the rest of us wait until summer.

If we can navigate our boats through the harbour entrance - which seems to shift with the weather - then we can fish over the sea-bed enhancement units that the REAF teams put together and deploy – if you have the GPS co-ordinates to your own reef then you are guaranteed a good feed.

Local groups are involved in protecting the rare birds which nest on the beaches, planting the sand-dunes and protecting the rest of us from rips in the surf.  Seaweed gathered after a storm is great for the garden, and children create works of art with shells they bring home.

So it is no wonder that we love our beaches, the rivers and the sea that surrounds us. Different groups become polarised over their values of protection, ownership, preserving or exploiting the oceans resources.  The surprise is that there isn’t more known about our impact on the very ecosystems that are vital to the health and abundance of life in the sea.

For the past two years Dr Mike McGinnis has been Project Leader for a Victoria University study about New Zealand and our oceans.  The study is focusing on ways to integrate all of the values and demands we place on ocean ecosystems, including coastal and marine life.

Globally the demand for food, power and resources are increasing, and we are seeing the pressure of these demands resulting in aquaculture development and offshore exploration for oil. 

Dr McGinnis will discuss the current situation where our laws, regulations and policies are fractured.  He claims that “In order to enable community development while at the same time protecting marine and coastal ecosystems, we need a much more robust and integrated way of thinking and making decisions about marine systems.”

He has studied maritime communities, coastal watersheds and marine ecosystems across the world, including in his home town of Santa Barbara, California.

Dr McGinnis will be speaking at a public talk at Opotiki District Council on Tues 31st Aug from 5 – 7pm, along with a local kaumatua who will talk about Whakatohea’s
historical relationship with the sea.

Contact Traceyd@odc.govt.nz or call her on 07 315 3030 by midday Monday if you would like to attend.