TE TAIAPURE O PORANGAHAU
In August 1992 the Government passed legislation to Ngati Kere hapu for Te Taiapure o Porangahau; under section 54 of the Fisheries Act 1983.
The boundaries are identified as: coastal and estuarine waters (including Porangahau and Waikaraka Rivers) within a straight line from Cape Turnagain (Poroporo) in the south, to Waikaraka creek, north of Blackhead (Parimahu) Point, to the mean high water mark .
A steering committee, Taiapure Management Committee (TMC), was set up in November 1990 and established the following principles as the criteria for the application to Government:
• To enhance the possibility that resources in the area should be maintained, if not
improved, for the good of all users.
• There is a gradual and serious depletion of resources occurring.
• The TMC’s attitude to amateur and commercial fishing inside the area should be: ‘All
existing fishing inside the Taiapure should continue to be acceptable, provided it does
not impinge on the main objective’.
• The TMC would have power to regulate fishing inside the Taiapure, subject to the
Minister’s approval.
• No exclusion of persons or fishing activity be made on the basis of race, colour, ethnic or
national origins.
• The TMC should be representative of the whole community.
From these principles, the following goals/objectives were formulated:
• The prime objective is to arrest the depletion of marine life in the proposed Taiapure
waters.
• To place the prime responsibility for management of local resources back into the hands
of the local community.
• To encourage sustainable use of those resources for the benefit of all New Zealanders.
Initiatives of Te Taiapure o Porangahau have included:
• Coastal Archive Project.
• A process to enforce a ‘Voluntary Net Ban’, initiated in November 2001 (draft request sent
to Mfish).
• February 2002 – distribution of Mfish recreational regulations pamphlets.
• November 2003 – re-initiated to pursue a ‘Net Ban’ with the Ministry of Fisheries under
section 186 A of the Fisheries Act.
• Streamside fencing to protect vegetation programme.
• Community survey, monitoring, recording catches – summer 2003/04