A place to look but not take

DIVING IN: Kaingaroa School pupils about to enjoy a close encounter with their marine environment.

Have you ever gone fishing and come back empty-handed? Have you ever been snorkelling and there's not much to see? There used to be seven times as many sea creatures in New Zealand oceans than there are today. Just think, how many years is it going to take until there are no more sea creatures left?

Why don't we make a change? Why don't we create a marine reserve in the Far North?

A marine reserve is a place where you can look, but not take. It is a place where the marine creatures are safe in a natural, undisturbed area of the ocean. It is a place where our marine creatures can breed and repopulate the area.

Here are the main reasons why we should have a marine reserve in the Far North.

The first is because it would help the seaweed, yep that's right, the seaweed. The food chain goes something like this: humans eat fish, fish eat kina and kina eat seaweed.

If we take too many fish then we end up with too many kina. Places where there are huge quantities of kina are called kina barrens. This is when there are not enough fish in the area to keep the kina under control.

Now you may be thinking, yay, more kina. But what happens when the kina get so out of control that the seaweed disappears altogether? We can't let this happen. Seaweed is a sanctuary for a huge range of sea life. So if seaweed becomes extinct it's only a matter of time until lots of other marine creatures do too.

This is where a marine reserve would make a big difference. In a marine reserve humans can't take the fish, the fish population builds up so they can eat the kina and the seaweed population re-establishes. Seaweed is a huge part of the marine ecosystem, and without it the ecosystem would fall apart.

The second reason is because there is a fluctuation of people up here in the Far North, and there are definitely more people at our beaches. This means more people are taking seafood from the ocean. There used to be lots of shellfish in New Zealand, for example toheroa. Not many people have seen or tasted these shellfish because it is now illegal to take them.

This is because so many people took them and they breed slowly, so there are not many left. If we had a marine reserve we could protect shellfish like that, and their numbers would grow.

The third reason why we should have a marine reserve is because it would be a great place to swim. It is amazing to swim in a marine reserve because of huge quantities of fish and other marine creatures.

Our class (room 6 at Kaingaroa School) recently went on a trip to the Goat Island marine reserve. It was an amazing experience.

If we had a marine reserve up here we wouldn't have to go all the way down to Goat Island to look at the variety of different marine species.

So are you just an ordinary fisher not wanting your favourite fishing spot to become a marine reserve? Or are you part of a commercial company that is taking tonnes of fish and wanting every fishing spot possible? Are you still not convinced? Think about it long-term.

If we had a marine reserve then the number of fish would escalate. Not just in the reserve, but around it as well. You can fish around the outside of the marine reserve. So you will end up with more fish than to begin with, so everyone would benefit from a marine reserve.

So please consider a marine reserve in the Far North.

Think about all the benefits for us, not to mention all the sea creatures.