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Kaipara Harbour is a large enclosed harbour estuary complex on the north western side of the North Island of New Zealand. The northern part of the harbour is administered by the Kaipara District and the southern part is administered by the Auckland Council. The local Māori Iwi is Ngāti Whātua.
By area, the Kaipara Harbour is one of the largest harbours in the world. It covers at high tide, with exposed as and sandflats at low tide.Heath, RA (1975) Stability of some New Zealand coastal inlets. New Zealand Journal of Marine and Freshwater Research, 9 (4):449-57.Fahy, F; Irving, P and John, S (1990) Coastal Resource Inventory First Order Survey. Department of Conservation.Robertson, B; Gillespie, P; Asher, R; Frisk, S; Keeley, N; Hopkins, G; Thompson, S and Tuckey, B (2002) Estuarine Environmental Assessment and Monitoring: A National Protocol. Prepared for Supporting Councils and The Ministry for the Environmental Sustainable Management Fund. Contract No. 5096.
According to Māori tradition, the name Kaipara had its origins back in the 15th century when the Te Arawa chief, Kahumatamomoe, travelled to the Kaipara to visit his nephew at Pouto Peninsula. At a feast, he was so impressed with the cooked root of the Ptisana salicina, that he gave the name Kai-para to the district. Kaipara comes from the Māori kai meaning "food", and para meaning "king fern".
The Kaipara Harbour is broad and mostly shallow, as it is formed from a system of drowned river valleys.Hume, T. M. & Herdendorf, CE (1988) A geomorphic classification of estuaries and its application to coastal resource management - a New Zealand example. Ocean and Shoreline Management, 11 :249-274. The harbour shoreline is convoluted by the entry of many rivers and streams, and is about long, being the drainage catchment for about 640,000 ha of land.
The harbour entrance is a channel to the Tasman Sea. It narrows to a width of ,Haggit T, Mead S, and Bellingham M (2008) Kaipara Harbour Environmental Information Review ARC Technical Publication TP 354. and is over deep in parts. On average, Kaipara tides rise and fall . Spring tidal flows reach 9 km/h (5 knots) in the entrance channel and move 1,990 million cubic metres per tidal movement or 7,960 million cubic metres daily.Bellve, AR; Austin, G and Woods, B (2007) Pathway to energy generation from marine tidal currents in New Zealand's Kaipara Harbour University of Auckland.
The harbour head is a hostile place. Big waves from the Tasman Sea break over large Shoal about five metres below the surface, two to five kilometres from the shore. The sand in these sandbanks comes mainly from the Waikato River. Sand discharged from this river is transported northward by the prevailing coastal currents. Some of this sand is carried into the Kaipara harbour entrance, but mostly cycles out again and then continues moving northwards along the west coast. The southern sandbanks at the entrance are constantly accumulating and releasing this sand.
These treacherous sandbanks shift and change position, and are known locally as the graveyard. The graveyard is responsible for more shipwrecks than any other place in New Zealand, and has claimed at least 43 vessels—some say as many as 110.Gerard Hutching. Shipwrecks: Graveyard harbours Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 31 March 2008.King, Amanda (16 October 2008). " Would you call this a school of fish?." Howick and Pakuranga Times. Retrieved on 7 November 2008. For this reason, a lighthouse was built in 1884 on the northern arm of the entrance (Pouto Peninsula).Ryburn, Wayne (1999). Tall spars, steamers & gum : a history of the Kaipara from early European settlement, 1854–1947, pages 140-144. . It was automated in 1947 and closed in the mid-1950s. The structure still exists and was renovated in 1982–84. History of the Kauri Coast Kauri Coast information. Retrieved 5 September 2017.
In Māori mythology, the ocean-going canoe Māhuhu voyaged from Hawaiki to New Zealand and overturned on the northern side of the entrance. It was commanded by the chief Rongomai, who drowned. His body was eaten by White trevally (white trevally), and his descendants to this day will not eat that type of fish. The first European shipwreck was the Aurora, a 550-ton barque, in 1840,Brett, Henry (1928), White Wings (volume II) The Aurora The Brett Printing Company and the most recent was the yacht Aosky in 1994. Today, the remains of wrecks still become visible under certain tidal and sand conditions. The Kaipara is rarely used today for shipping, and no large settlements lie close to its shores, although many small communities lie along its coastline.
The Kaipara is a migratory bird habitat of international significance. Forty–two coastal species are known, and up to 50,000 birds are common. Rare species use the harbour for feeding during summer before returning to the Northern Hemisphere to breed, such as the bar-tailed godwit, lesser red knot, and turnstone. Threatened or endangered native species, such as the North Island fernbird, fairy tern, Porzana, Australasian bittern, banded Rallidae, grey‑faced petrels, banded and NZ , South Island pied oystercatcher, pied stilt, and wrybill are also present. Significant local populations of Cygnus atratus, pūkeko, and grey duck also breed in the area.
Land habitats adjacent to the harbour support some rare botanical species, including native orchids, the Ptisana salicina, and the endangered kaka beak.
In particular, Papakanui Spit on the south head of the harbour entrance, a mobile sandspit, is important as a breeding and roosting area for the New Zealand dotterel and the fairy tern. It also has areas of pingao. The spit was an important habitat for the Caspian tern. The birds have moved to other parts of Kaipara Harbour, possibly due to human disturbance. An air weapons range used by the New Zealand Defence Force is a short distance south of the spit. Appendix B: Significant Natural Heritage Areas and Values Regional Policy Statement,
Auckland Regional Council.
Today most marae are associated with the Ngāti Whātua sub-tribes, Te Taoū and Te Uri-o-Hau. These sub-tribes both descend from the chief Haumoewhārangi who settled on the north end of the Kaipara entrance at Pouto Peninsula. He was killed in an argument about kūmara (sweet potatoes). His widow Waihekeao developed a partnership with a Tainui warrior chief, Kāwharu. Kāwharu led several destructive campaigns around Kaipara. Eventually the descendants of Waihekeao and Haumoewhārangi came to control the Kaipara Harbour. Te Uri-o-Hau was founded by Hakiputatōmuri, and controlled the northern part of Kaipara Harbour. Te Taoū was founded by Mawake, and controlled the south.Rāwiri Taonui. Ngāti Whātua: The tribes of Ngāti Whātua Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 28-Oct-2008.
In 1839, Pakeha settlers began arriving in the Kaipara to fell and mill kauri trees and build boats for local requirements. Despite the perilous bar at the harbour entrance, the Kaipara became a busy timber port from the 1860s, shipping thousands of tonnes of kauri and kauri gum. The first sailing ship wrecked at the entrance to the harbour was the Aurora in April 1840.The Amelia Thompson, White Wings Vol II. Founding of the Provinces And Old-Time Shipping. Passenger Ships From 1840 To 1885, Henry Brett, The Brett Printing Company, 1928, Auckland, pages 51-52 The brigantine Sophia Pate was wrecked at South Head in August 1841 with the loss of all 21 on board.Ryburn, Wayne (1999). Tall Spars, Steamers & Gum. Auckland, N.Z.: Kaipara Publications. p. 230.
The Wairoa is the main river feeding the Kaipara from the north. Thirty kilometres upstream, the town of Dargaville was established. The stretch of water to Dargaville is broad and straight and provides an easy to navigate route into what were then kauri forests in the interior. Dargaville flourished and immigrants from Britain and Croatia were attracted to the area. Ships up to 3,000 tons carried timber and logs out along the Wairoa to defy the bar at the harbour entrance before continuing on, usually to another New Zealand port or across the Tasman Sea to Australia.Claudia Orange. Northland places: Dargaville and the Northern Wairoa Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 8-May-2008
The Kaipara River is the principal river feeding Kaipara Harbour from the south. From 1863 Helensville established itself as a timber port on this river, and provided shipping services about the Kaipara. When the timber ran out, Helensville developed sheep and dairy farms, and more recently nut plantations, vineyards and deer farms.
Further south, Riverhead was an important trading link with the Kaipara and Helensville, and a centre for gum digging. Also set by a river, it milled timber and flour, and made paper. Later it turned to tobacco. From 1929 to 1933, the Riverhead State Forest was developed from 5,000 ha of exhausted gum land.
As the kauri ran out, the Kaipara became a backwater. After 1920 the gum and timber industries dwindled, and farming, mainly dairying, took over. In particular, there is dairying on the rich Ruawai. These flats are below sea level, and are protected by a stopbank and a drainage system. Coastal sawmill settlements at Tinopai, Arapaoa, Batley, Matakohe, Oneriri, Ōruawharo, Pahi, Paparoa, Tanoa and Whakapirau have become quiet backwaters. Pahi has become a launch point for and fishing. Matakohe has a museum which commemorates the kauri industry and the early Pākehā settlers.
Today, Dargaville is the principal centre in the Kaipara area. Its population levelled in the 1960s. It is the country's main kūmara (sweet potato) producer.
The marine and estuarine areas in the Kaipara Harbour breed snapper, Mugil cephalus, Rhombosolea, sole, Arripis trutta, white trevally, gurnard, yellow‑eyed mullet and skates, Batoidea and .Department of Conservation (1990) Coastal resource inventory: First order survey - Northland conservancy. Department of Conservation, Wellington. The Kaipara is the largest estuarine harbour on the west coast of New Zealand and provides significant areas of suitable breeding grounds and for juvenile fish. It has fewer problems with water quality than the Manukau Harbour, and is the single most significant wetland for west coast fisheries.
In 2009, NIWA scientists discovered that 98 percent of snapper on the west coast of the North Island were originally juveniles from nurseries in the Kaipara. Snapper is New Zealand's largest recreational fishery, and is also a commercial fishery with an annual export value of $32 million. The findings show how fragile some Fish stocks can be, and highlights the importance of protecting natural habitats, like the Kaipara.
Native rock oysters are plentiful on the rocky shores, and the introduced Pacific oysters flourish lower in the intertidal zone. There are cockles and tuatua on the lower tidal flats, mussels from low tide on the rocks to subtidal beds closer to the mouth of the harbour, and in the tidal channels.
The scallop population has periodic incidences of high mortality, the causes of which have not been identified. Concerns in recent years about the size and availability of have resulted in temporary closures of the scallop fisheries. Kaipara Harbour scallop fishery needs more time to build
Early versions of oyster farming occurred between the early 1900s and 1950s. Thousands of tons of rocks were placed along the shorelines to act as an additional substrate on which the natural rock oyster could grow. Variety In Brief: Praise for New Zealand The New Zealand Railways Magazine, 1938, 13(9) In 2002, the Crown settled the historical claims of Te Uri o Hau, a hapū of the northern Kaipara Harbour. As part of the settlement, access to and the rights of the hapū to gather oysters within the existing "Maori Oyster Areas" were recognised. Management of Oyster Reserves in the Kaipara Harbour In 2008, resource consent was given to Biomarine to establish New Zealand's largest oyster farm in the Kaipara. The farm is projected to produce about NZ$30 million in annual exports and 100 new jobs. Oyster Farm for Kaipara
In recent years, there has been a perception amongst locals that commercial fishers have damaged fisheries in the Kaipara. Locals have been frustrated in their attempts to gain government support. The veteran filmmaker Barry Barclay has examined this in his 2005 documentary, The Kaipara affair.Claudia Orange. Northland places:Upper Kaipara Harbour Te Ara: The Encyclopedia of New Zealand, updated 8-May-2008 The Kaipara affair NZ International Film Festival. The Kaipara Affair The Film Archives.
Crest planned to place the turbines at least 30 metres deep along a ten kilometre stretch of the main channel. Historical charts show this stretch of the channel has changed little over 150 years. The output of the turbines will cycle twice daily with the predictable rise and fall of the tide. Each turbine will have a maximum output of 1.2 MW, and is expected to generate 0.75 MW averaged over time. FAQ Crest Energy
The peak level of generation for the combined turbines is about 200 MW. This exceeds the projected peak electricity needs of Northland Region. It would have environmental benefits in offsetting annual carbon emissions from a thermal-based, gas turbine generator of 575,000 tonnes of carbon. The project was costed at about $600 million and to be economic would have to be scaled up rapidly to near full capacity.
However, while the Department of Conservation had approved the project, and had made substantial environmental monitoring conditions part of the consent, the project also had objectors on the grounds of claimed influences on the local and charter fishing (see the section above on fisheries). Appeals before the Environment Court are still likely. Harnessing tidal power not all smooth sailing - The Business Herald (insert of The New Zealand Herald), Friday 29 August 2008, page 22. The project was put on hold by Crest Energy in late 2013; its director Anthony cited several issues that prevented the project from proceeding. He also sold the majority of his shareholdings to Todd Energy Ltd the same year.
The Ministry of Fishing allocates quota for the north west region of New Zealand as a whole, but does not tailor quota specifically for the Kaipara. Local iwi feel they are not sufficiently involved in management issues, and to further compound matters, the local iwi is split between Te Uri-o-Hau in the northern part and Te Taoū in the southern part.
As part of the worldwide trend, there is a decline in biodiversity within the Kaipara. Management issues. Integrated Kaipara Harbour Management Group. The timber industry removed most of the native forest. Much of the kauri and kahikatea forest, and scrub and riparian vegetation, has been replaced with farm and urban areas. Mangrove forests and wetlands have been "reclaimed". Soil erosion has increased on the land and sedimentation in the harbour. Shellfish abundance has declined, especially toheroa, scallops, tuatua, cockles and pipi. Finfish like mullet, snapper, kanae and school shark have diminished.
Habitat fragmentation has also occurred. Natural vegetation in the Kaipara catchments have been reduced to islands of wetlands and forest in human-made landscapes—separated by urban areas, roads, exotic forests and pastures. More information is needed on biodiversity in the Kaipara Harbour and habitats in associated coastal areas. A recent pilot survey found that habitats in the estuaries are still extensive, but ninety percent of land cover is no longer indigenous wetland or vegetation. Even if the key existing areas were to be protected, further Buffer strip and Habitat corridor that give better connection between the natural areas would be needed to encourage the recovery of biodiversity.
Geology
The Kaipara Harbour is a drowned river valley system, which first formed 2-3 million years ago as an open bay, becoming a sheltered harbour as elongated sand dune barriers formed at the harbour's mouth. (2026). 9781869790080, Random House. ISBN 9781869790080 Over the last two million years, the harbour has cycled between periods of being a forested river valley and a flooded harbour, depending on changes in the global sea level. The present harbour formed approximately 8,000 years ago, after the Last Glacial Maximum.
Ecology
The Kaipara Harbour is a productive marine ecosystem, with diverse and . There are tidal reaches, intertidal and sandflats, freshwater swamps, Juncaceae, and coastal . The area includes 125 square kilometres of Mangrove. Kaukapakapa River Estuary Environment end Effects of Discharge Chp 6, Page 1. 2007. Rodney Power Station with subtidal fringes of seagrass.
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Human use
Māori history
Māori settlements and marae have been scattered around the harbour margins for hundreds of years. The waterways of the Kaipara provided, and still provide, Māori with resources and a ready means of moving between marae.
European history
In 1770, on his first voyage, James Cook sighted and recorded the harbour. He named it False Bay, noting in his journal that it had "the appearance of a Bay or inlet, but I believe it is only low land".
Fisheries
Much of the coastal fishing industry in New Zealand depends on . About 80% of fish caught commercially are linked to dependent on the mangroves, and at least 30 species of fish use mangrove wetlands at some stage of their life cycle.
Sand mining
Currently (2007) about 219,000 cubic metres of sand Sand mining each year from the entrance and River delta of the Kaipara. This sand contributes over half the sand requirements for Auckland. The sand is used in the production of concrete and asphalt, and also in drainage systems and beach nourishment. A suction pump is usually used to extract the sand from the seabed. It is pumped into a barge as a sand and water slurry. As the barge loads, shells and other objects are screened out and the sea water drained back to the sea. The availability of sea sand within the Auckland region means the road costs of transporting sand from further parts of the country are avoided. Sand mining on the East Coast and in the Kaipara Harbour Auckland Regional Council Concerns about possible negative consequences of this sand mining have also been raised. Mining the sea sand
Tidal power
In 2008, Crest Energy, a power company, received resource consent to install about 200 underwater tidal turbines in the Kaipara Harbour, which would use the substantial tides moving in and out every day near the harbour mouth to produce electricity for approximately 250,000 homes. Crest Energy
Management issues
Management of the Kaipara Harbour does not have a central administration. Management is distributed among the Kaipara District Council, Auckland Council, Northland Regional Council, the Department of Conservation's Northland and Auckland section, and the Ministry of Fisheries.
Environmental issues
As of 2011, the environmental state of the harbour has been called as "nearing crisis" and "in significant decline", with shrinking fish and shellfish stocks, more sedimentation, declining water quality and competition for resource use and development being noted as the main issues, with "ninety-nine per cent of the rivers in the catchment are polluted".
Timeline
See also
Further reading
External links
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