“I consider myself the eternal optimist and can find good in most people and most situations,” he said.
“I can't remember the last time I cried so much.”
Mr Atkins said the creatures had likely suffocated in the sea, which was still a milky chocolate brown, laden with silt and sediment washed down from the river nearby with plumes stretching kilometres out to sea.
They could smell the “stench” of dead sealife before they could see it. He estimated in a small patch of the beach — covered in layer upon layer of silt and slash from upstream as far as the eye could see — there were thousands of dead crayfish and pāua.
“I hate to think how much is across this whole beach, across the Coast.”
In among the debris — much of it pine alongside some plantings from farms and native forest — and silt and sediment were truckloads of rubbish, including everything from nappies to microwaves.
Mr Atkins said it was not only recently dumped but potentially came from old makeshift landfills with the river torrent tearing further inland with each storm.
One of the worst things about the environmental destruction occurring before his eyes was that it was now becoming commonplace and much of it had been predicted.
Climate change has long been tipped to bring more intense storms to the region, and the erosion, slash and run-off were other issues he has been involved in trying to address for years.
Mr Atkins said there needed to be a “maunga to moana” focus with environmental damage in the Raukumara Conservation Park inland leading to increased landslips and sediment washing into the waterways and moana.
Mr Atkins instigated and is running the Raukūmara Pae Maunga Restoration Project there to restore the forest.
He also said there needed to be a “serious community discussion” about various land uses such as forestry, although he was reluctant to point fingers.
Forestry, in particular, has come under fire in recent years, with storm damage in Tolaga Bay in 2018 from slash or leftover forestry debris following harvests leading to five companies being prosecuted and fined hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Gisborne District Council has vowed to step up its monitoring of forestry companies to improve their practices, but the impacts of this storm — particularly around Tolaga Bay again — and other storms in recent years indicate more work needs to be done.
The Environmental Defence Society has called the recent damage a “disaster” and called for a Comission of Inquiry into forestry practices.
The Waiapu catchment is home to some of the largest areas of forestry in the region. It is also the country's catchment most prone to erosion.
The eroding land chokes the iwi's sacred Waiapu River with 35 million tonnes of sediment each year -—17 percent of the entire country from 0.6 percent of the land.
All of it eventually flows into the sea and smothers reefs that have provided kaimoana for generations.
“At this rate of loss and damage there will be no future in the Waiapu Valley and the wider East Coast for our tamariki and mokopuna,” Mr Atkins said.
“Never has our whenua, denuded of vegetation, been so exposed and vulnerable to these heavy rain events.
“There are many recent scars across our pastoral and commercial forest landscapes that bear this out.
“Our awa are now just open drains devoid of freshwater life moving vast amounts of silt and sediment to the moana.
“The damage done to our moana, inshore reefs and inter-tidal platforms by this suffocating blanket of mud silt and sediment is no less dramatic than the damage occurring on the whenua.
“Future generations will not have the luxury of having the abundance of kaimoana that previous generations had.”
Mr Atkins said with each storm the riverbed rose further, meaning with the next storm the river flooded more easily.
Many whānau, including his own, needed to have “heartbreaking” discussions about the future of living in the area.
“All of what has been predicted with climate change is happening before our eyes, and I cannot see it getting any better,” Atkins said.
The Government yesterday announced an initial contribution of $150,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Tairāwhiti following Cyclone Hale.
Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty said Tairāwhiti had suffered the most severe damage and the funding would assist impacted communities as they began their clean-up.
He said it was too early to know the full cost of the damage but the initial contribution was for the community to get immediate support to those who need it.
“My thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted by Cyclone Hale over recent days.
“Tairāwhiti communities have already been through a number of severe weather events over the last year and the Government is committed to supporting the recovery effort.”
The funding is on top of $100,000 the Ministry for Primary Industries made available to farmers and growers in the region and support from the Ministry of Social Development for displaced residents.
