Planning a 'Wet Library'

Forest and Bird, Issue 291, 1 February 1999, Page 30

Planning a 'Wet Library'

High School Students Bid for Marine Reserves in Whangarei Harbour

or the past 10 years, students at Kamo High School have been designing marine reserves in Whangarei Harbour. Now their case for three reserves is about to be advertised for public submissions, according to their geography teacher, underwater-photographer Warren Farrelly. The Kamo initiative has been the work of successive generations of seventh-form-ers, cohorts of whom have studied the harbour and its people. Not only have they found and defined boundaries to the best marine areas: they have also advocated their proposals with local communities, including Maori, and believe they now have sufficient support to succeed with their applications. These include protecting an area of mangrove forest, extensive inter-tidal mudflats, and an island in the tideway near Whangarei Heads where reef and ocean fish abound. The case for the marine reserves is contained in an ever-expanding document prepared by more than 300 students over the years. It follows the legal processes for marine reserve applications and has been back and forth extensively through public meetings and hui organized by the seventh formers. While officially part of the geography curriculum at Kamo, the marine reserves have served as a focus for work in other disciplines, particularly science but also in mathematical analysis of populations and public responses. By-products include surveys, feature articles, advocacy material, and even the artwork for a children’s picture book. ‘The idea is to preserve an ecological sequence of harbour life, reports Samara Sutherland, head prefect of Kamo High School in 1998. ‘At school, libraries and playing fields are seen as essential amenities — likewise, every New Zealander should have access to a marine reserve. She enthuses over Motukaroro (Aubrey or Passage Island) at the harbour entrance where classes go to study the rocky shore. ‘Every high school in New Zealand should have access to a "wet library" like this, she says. ‘Even just standing waist deep in the water looking about with a mask on is an experience for some.’ Motukaroro is the centre of the rocky shore reserve proposed by the students. Its extraordinary values are explored on our previous pages by veteran diver and author Wade Doak, and teacher Warren Farrelly who photographed the marine life. The mudflat sequence of the Whangarei Harbour is represented in a proposed marine reserve surrounding Motumatakohe or Limestone Island, well up harbour. These mudflats, adjacent to mangroves, offer a rich brew to birds such as white-faced heron and

oystercatchers. It needs protection, too, as the breeding ground of uncommon birds such as Caspian tern, variable oystercatcher, and New Zealand dotterel. Near the Whangarei suburb of Onerahi, a mangrove area known as Waikaraka should protect some of that much-diminished for-est-type once extensive in the north. These ‘trees which grow in the tide’ help stabilise stream banks while providing habitat for birds and fish, some species of which come in from deeper water expressly to breed here. The students’ learning curve on marine reserves has included extensive public consultation, all recorded as part of the applications. The list of those consulted includes local residents of Onerahi and Reotahi, and the Ngatiwai Trust Board; also a list of Government departments, local authorities, special interest groups and businesses using the harbour. Forest and Bird is among them. ‘Many students have worked to raise funds for the project; says Samara Sutherland. Over the years, the port and oil refinery have given financial assistance, along with the A.C.I. Glass Environmental Fund, to pay for the public consultation costs, including the printing of brochures. ‘Kamo High School’s seventh-form geography students are very serious about this project, and hope to push it to completion this year, she says. Present plans are to advertise the application, calling for public submissions over a three-month period in 1999, according to the teacher in charge, Warren Farrelly.