Marine Reserves The New Zealand Experience Compiled by Bill
Ballantine Leigh Marine Laboratory, University of Auckland
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The world centred on NZ
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The South West Pacific
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The New Zealand Region
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Usual Map
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Land Habitats
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Marine Habitats !
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Little Barrier Island 1 st land reserve 1888 Leigh 1 st marine
reserve 1975
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The rules in Marine Reserve 1. No fishing - by big boats
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or little boats
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No fishing by anyone
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2. No constructions
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3. No dumping or filling
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4. No disturbances
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Marine reserves are pieces of the sea that are left undisturbed
so that - They continue in their natural state Or recover towards
the natural state
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The problem is we do not know much about life in the sea it is
out of sight
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Most countries try - 1. To protect the large special
things
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2. To sustain fisheries
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3. And some oddments
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But these things are only a tiny part of life in the sea
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Marine life is abundant, varied, complex and different from
life on land
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It is even difficult to tell the plants from the animals
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If we have places in the sea where there are no disturbances
would these marine reserves have any use?
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We could them to find out what is natural, and what we have
changed.
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Counting fish a place to start
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But even well-meant disturbances matter like people feeding
fish
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So in the reserve fish mob the divers while outside they
flee
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Do we believe the fish counts that show more fish in the
reserve than outside?
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Check by fishing ! (with barbless hooks)
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Results of 4 surveys for snapper Inside the reserve
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Outside reserve
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The tagging system inject coloured latex
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Into a fin ray this one yellow in a tail fin ray
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Third method of counting fish. Video camera over a bait
box
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No divers, no hooks, just sit in the boat and watch on
video
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Cheaper Easier No harm to fish So taken to many other places
including the Poor Knights Islands
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Some fishing at Poor Knights till November 1998
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No increase at places still fished
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Movement matters Fish can be tracked with acoustic tags
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And their position fixed with sound receivers
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One snappers range in a week
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With the first two marine reserves we learnt important new
things about snapper although snapper were the best studied
fish
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Also new things about rock lobster
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Complex movements
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New behaviour
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Changes with time
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Heavily fished species increase inside marine reserves but this
is only the start of the story -
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The big changes are to habitats
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In 1976 the commonest sub-tidal reef habitat was grazed by
sea-urchins
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But with protection predators not only become commoner, they
also grow larger
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Large lobsters can open large sea urchins
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Inside the reserve, 30% of tethered sea urchins are eaten
within 24 hours outside almost none.
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Urchin barrens like this in 1976
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Are now kelp forest
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Marine Reserves give everyone more opportunity to see and
appreciate the full range of marine life.
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In displays on land
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In visits to the shore
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Or directly in the sea
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Whole classes of children go snorkelling
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And can see bottom living fish such as skates
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Fish in the water column, such as sweep
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Fish in the kelp forest, such as snapper
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A natural abundance of fish
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A glass-bottomed boat will do
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Or just watch it on film
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Is this education, recreation or tourism?
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What is the target audience or market?
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Is it just people?
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Compressing a 30 year story into 30 minutes means a lot of
simplification. Most of the things that happened in the reserve
were complete surprises. We are still learning. Recently we learnt
more about fish feeding
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Many people, especially children enjoyed feeding the fish
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This produced feeding frenzies
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Angela Parsons, a young part-time ranger said this was wrong in
a marine reserve
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She wrote and put up this sign and the feeding stopped
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An illustration from a pamphlet about fish and other animals in
the reserve
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A female spotty, a small common labrid fish
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A male spotty All are female first, but change sex at 3
years
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The only stakeholders I recognize are our grandchildren the
rest of us are users.
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What are we going to leave them?
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End of Part 1 Thanks to all the research workers and
photographers who supplied material for this presentation
especially Kim WesterskovJohn Walsby Tony AylingGeoff Jones Roger
GraceHoward Choat Allie MacDiarmidChris Battershill Shane KellyMike
Kingsford Russ Babcock Trevor Willis Nick ShearsDarren Parsons Tim
HaggittTim Langlois
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Part 2 Principles for SYSTEMS of marine reserves Bill
Ballantine, Leigh Marine Laboratory New Zealand
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Written for a workshop at the UBC Fisheries Center, Vancouver
in 1997 I was specially invited, so I tried to upgrade:- (a) from
single reserves to systems (b) from particular aims to
principles
Need a real example to explain these principles North-east New
Zealand
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1. Representation All regions require marine reserves. In each
region, all major habitats must be represented in reserves. Test
with just 4 major habitats -
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Harbours and Estuaries sheltered shallow enclosed
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Sheltered waters less than 50 m not open to ocean storms and
swell
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Open coast and inner shelf
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Outer shelf and open sea
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Existing reserves represent all four major habitats
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2. Replication At least three separate (in space) examples of
each major habitat. Many reasons including: scientific,
conservation, and social
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Adding 8 more reserves would replicate each major habitat
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3. A Network Design A network spread over the region to
encourage connections by larval dispersal.
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A further 8 reserves would provide such a network
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Existing reserves provide few connections
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But 24 reserves provide many connections
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4. A Sustainable Amount The system must be large enough to
maintain itself. This amount is not known precisely. It is unlikely
to be less than 10% (or more than 50%). So establishing at least
10% immediately is a sensible programme.
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This is 10% of the whole region and 10% of each habitat
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That completes the scientific principles. But science only
indicates the constraints. Many possibilities exist within these
and which of these are chosen is subject to the full democratic
process.
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The blue squares show one of the alternatives.
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The example given was for 10% This would be the minimum for
science, education and recreation. At least 20% would be needed for
adequate conservation. At least 30% would be needed to maximise
benefits to fisheries
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There is much to be done, and time is not on our side.
