Who watches the Watchman

Watchman Island, that tiny rock under the harbour bridge, is getting even tinier. But it has no clear owner. So, asks Hayley Hannan, can anything be done?
In the middle of Waitemata Harbour sits a small island - an islet, really - exposed to the wind and sea. It's no more than 10m wide or long, made up of rock and sediment and has some trees and sparse grass.
Few people have a clue how Watchman Island came by its name, or who owns it.
It lies alone and mostly unused, apart from an occasional visit by kayakers, dinghy sailors and a reporter and photographer from The Aucklander for last week's cover story on Hauraki Gulf islands.
Bruce Marler, who used to live in clear view of the isle, says it has shrunk rapidly over the past 20 years. When he was commodore of the Watchman Island Yacht Club, the club tried to look after and protect the island's flora.
In fact, the yacht club has suffered something of the same fate as the isle. The boaties used to race real yachts; now they have downsized to racing model boats off Westhaven.
"We dinghied out to the island to plant Poor Knights lilies and grasses. But the environment was too harsh and, somehow, snails got into the grass. Watering the plants was a problem as there's only so much fresh water you can carry up there."
The North Shore resident's photos, taken from 1996 to 1998, show a different isle - emerald grasses are lush and plentiful, pohutukawa line the banks.
Now, the island has been stripped to tattered grass and the last two trees barely cling to life after slipping down the rock face.
"The wind and erosion from the sea is doing all the hard work," he says.
"I think that there's not much that can be done to save it other than pouring concrete around the place, and I don't think that would be environmentally positive either."
So whose responsibility is the disappearing island? Waitemata and Gulf ward councillor Mike Lee, who chaired the old Auckland Regional Council, says it's "un-owned in a formal property title sense. It exists in a legal limbo as 'uninvestigated', which presupposes Maori customary land."
Mr Lee says the island is one of many crumbs left over from the mass 19th century carve-up into Crown Land, Maori Land and General Land.
As there is no formal owner, no one is lawfully accountable for the state of the island. The Department of Conservation confirms that "Watchman Island is not part of the DoC estate".
In other words, DoC is not formally required to carry out any efforts on the island.
Ewen Cameron, Auckland War Memorial Museum curator of botany, says Watchman Island is one of many "uninvestigated" islands in the Hauraki Gulf. A court case is the only way to decide whether the island falls under Crown or Maori ownership.
Dozens of isles smaller than 1ha have been left untouched for years, he says, and are often home to many animals and plants. "These islands have got a value much higher than their small areas."
Isolate antics
Despite having no clear owner, Watchman Island is zoned Open Space 2, an "open space for informal recreation''. Consent is needed before erecting any building or structure. The council's consents chief, Quentin Budd, says there are no records of anyone applying to build anything.
This hasn't stopped a few gags over the years. Bruce Marler recalls someone placing a Harcourts Real Estate "For sale'' sign on the island. Harcourts had no idea about the prank.
In 2005 adidas made headlines when it erected a metal crouching Haka Man statue. Some saw this as culturally insensitive and the statue was trashed.