Pollen Island Permanent protection sought

Forest and Bird, Volume 20, Issue 4, 1 November 1989, Page 16

Pollen Island Permanent protection sought

by

Mark Bellingham

S INCE THE END of the last glaciation about 10,000 years ago there has been a small shrubby shell bank island in the mudflats of the Waitemata Harbour. It has been eroded by storms, and then built up again, with the flax, rush and Olearia solandri communities re-establishing. The island has been a stable feature of the Waitemata landscape and has seen many changes: the periodic eruption of the Auckland volcanoes, the arrival of Polynesian settlers 1,000 years ago who named it Motu Manawa, and finally the arrival of European settlers 150 years ago. The latter cut a motorway through its sister island and earmarked Pollen Island for a container port. Waitemata Harbour has changed dramatically in the past millenia and Pollen Island is now one of few remaining natural coastal systems left in the harbour. It is flanked by salt marshes, mangroves and tidal flats — havens for wildlife. Fernbirds are found here within 7km of the heart of Auckland city. When the tides are out banded rail and wading birds come out of their island roosts and feed on the extensive mud and sand flats. At high tide flounder, snapper and mullet move into areas to feed and breed. The waters around the bay are an important nursery area for juvenile fish that later move out to form part of the important Hauraki Gulf fishery.

The mangroves, saltmarshes and coastal vista are important also for the thousands of Waitemata City residents who commute into Auckland, past Pollen Island. The golden hues of the rushes, greens of the mangroves,

the birds and the tidal flats provide a touch of sanity in their busy day. Pakeha colonisation has had a profound effect on Waitemata Harbour. Harbour Board politicians and officers in particular have de-

veloped the harbour with a missionary zeal. Even the Auckland public looked on in disbelief when the Harbour Board proposed a container port for Pollen Island. The port would need a large reclamation, a massive dredging scheme to turn mudflats into a shipping canal and factory relocation and further reclamations to get a railway linkage. The Harbour Board later persuaded the Auckland Regional Authority to incorporate the container port plan into the Auckland Regional Planning Scheme. From that point on the container port myth was perpetuated in other planning schemes and led to the Minister of Transport, Bill Jefferies, giving Pollen Island away to the new Auckland Port Company in October 1988. But in its wisdom the ARA also recognised the nationally-important biological and landscape values of Pollen Island and recommended that it be given permanent protection. Forest and Bird has now nominated the marine system around Pollen Island as a marine reserve. This would finally give permanent protection to this vestige of the Waitemata that has survived 10 millenia and deserves a chance to survive without further modification at least as long again. #&