This article was originally published in Mahurangi Matters, November 2025

New High Protection Areas enforcing tighter restrictions on where people can fish are now in force across the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park. Officials have created these HPAs in an attempt to address the ongoing depletion of our coastal fisheries. Nothing has been done to reduce total catches of fish. 

Decades of mismanagement and inaction from Fisheries NZ who have been more focused on protecting quota interests than restoring fish stocks, have forced communities and iwi to act in their absence, using the few tools available to them.

Recently, Ngāti Manuhiri proposed a two-year temporary closure prohibiting the harvest of cockles, pipis, seaweed and other sealife that inhabit the intertidal area along Auckland’s east coast. The proposed closure would extend from Mangawhai encompassing Mahurangi and Hauraki Gulf islands and ending at Auckland’s North Shore suburbs.

We commend Ngāti Manuhiri for taking action. However, it still doesn’t address the root causes as to why our coastal fisheries are so depleted. Closures are a symptom, not a solution to mismanagement.

Without Fisheries NZ implementing meaningful, long-term management measures we will keep facing band-aid solutions including more closures, meaning more restrictions on Kiwis seeking to fish and gather food close to home.

While closures may ease the pressure of fishing locally, this just shifts the effort as fishers move onto the next available area to catch their quota or bag limit. It doesn’t solve the problem, it just displaces it.

What the Gulf really needs is a reduction in the overall amount of fish coming out of the water, not just in the areas already depleted. It also needs fisheries officials to work with local councils to stop land run-off which is destroying the intertidal zone.

In terms of fisheries management, the problem lies in the way officials set catch limits over expansive areas, treating it as if the populations of fish are spread evenly. It doesn’t make sense that the same catch limits for red rock lobster applying to the Bay of Plenty also applies in the Hauraki Gulf, an area under significant pressure and experiencing significant decline.

The Hauraki Gulf requires more localised management if we wish to see more fish in the water and a healthier marine environment.

For decades, LegaSea and the New Zealand Sport Fishing Council have advocated for the Hauraki Gulf be made its very own Fisheries Management Area. This would allow for catch limits and management decisions to be tailored specifically for the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park, from Te Arai Point, to Waihi Beach.

Considering it’s New Zealand’s first and largest Marine Park, this doesn’t seem like much to ask. Especially if it’s a step towards restoring abundance and biodiversity.

Because if the Gulf was once again teeming with shellfish, fish and large marine mammals, we wouldn’t have to be facing such harsh restrictions on our ability to go fishing for food. We all want our future generations to experience the joys of fishing from the wharf or collecting shellfish from the local beach.

Until Fisheries NZ address over-fishing and implement localised catch limits to combat depletion, closures will remain a symptom of mismanagement not a solution.