People plundering paua off Ahipara, in the Far North, has led to hapū considering a rahui.
People plundering paua off Ahipara, in the Far North, has led to hapū considering a rahui.
Eight Ahipara hapū concerned about dwindling pāua stocks have held a hui to look at a possible rāhui at the Far North beach.
Members of the hapu - Ngāti Moroki, Ngāti Waiora, Ngāti Pākahi, Ngāti Houpure, Te Patukirikiri, and Parewhero, Ngāti Moetonga and Te Rokekā - and thewider community were to meet at Korou Kore Marae last night.
The hui was called by Reuben Taipari after ongoing concern about the amount of pāua being taken from the area for hui across Te Tai Tokerau.
Taipari said there had been cases recently of customary permits being issued for up to 400 pāua, which was far too many from an area that only covers about three kilometres of coastline around Tauroa Point.
He said concerns had been ongoing for years, but it was now time for all parties “to get together to work on a solution”.
Concerns have been raised about the amount of pāua being taken from around Tauroa Pt, at Ahipara
“Ahipara is a very popular spot for pāua. There’s a lot of traffic (on the beach) particularly over summer with sometimes a thousand vehicles there at peak time.
“And they aren’t all there for the great surf or to watch the sunset,” Taipari said.
‘‘A lot (of criticism) says that it’s us locals that are the problem, but that’s not the case at all. We are kaitiaki (guardians) and are looking for solutions to help.
“People come here from all over Tai Tokerau to get pāua, with our pāua used at hui right across the country, but it’s not sustainable.”
He said one of the matters for discussion was the possibility of a rāhui on gathering pāua from the area.
‘‘A lot of people don’t understand what a rāhui is and think of it as putting on a padlock and a sign up stopping people from entering.
“But that’s not it at all. A rāhui is about protecting through wananga (education), observing the resource and working out what the situation is and how we can protect it.”
Taipari said the first step could be to accurately assess the state of the pāua stocks.
Overfishing is putting pressure on pāua stocks at Ahipara, in the Far North
“At the moment some people say there’s none there and they’ve all been stripped, but some locals in the know say there are plenty. It’s probably somewhere in between, but we need to find that out.”
■ Pāua is the Māori name given to four New Zealand species of large edible sea snails, marine gastropod molluscs which belong to the family Haliotidae. It is known in the United States and Australia as abalone.
Pāua are commonly found in shallow coastal waters along rocky shorelines in depths of 1 to 10 metres.
Catch limits for recreational fishers in this area are five pāua per person per day. The minimum legal size for caught pāua is 125mm.
In addition, no single person may have in their possession at any time (including on land) more than 20 pāua or more than 2.5kg of shucked (shelled) pāua in this area.
Pāua can only be caught by free diving; it is illegal to dive for pāua using scuba equipment. All pāua must remain un-shelled until they are on the land side of the high tide mark so Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) fishery officers can inspect them if required.
