The Hauraki Gulf Marine Park was the first marine park established in New Zealand.
It reaches from Te Arai to Waihi in the North Island, an area of more than 1.2 million hectares which includes more than 50 islands. It is a unique, biodiverse and a much-loved body of water, but it is in a state of ecological collapse.
Seasick - Saving the Hauraki Gulf is a seven-part documentary series produced by Republic Films and first published on Stuff. It was initiated by the release of many bleak reports on the state of the gulf. The alarming decrease in crayfish, paua, scallops, fish stocks – most sealife.
How has it come to this? Who are the culprits and what can be done? Over 18 months more than 70 people were interviewed – all with strong, well-informed points of view.
The series investigates the history of fishing, commercial and recreational, fisheries management in general, the Quota Management System and marine reserves. Most agree with more marine protection but there is conflict over what that should look like.
Click on the link above to watch the series. Each episode is about 20 minutes and includes:
- The Hauraki Gulf is a treasure
- Commercial fishing
- Recreational fishing
- Pollution and solutions
- Mātauranga Māori and healing the Hauraki Gulf
- New ideas to build a clean blue reputation
- The future of the Hauraki Gulf
Get Involved and Take Action
After engaging with the documentary series, we recommended checking out the Hauraki Gulf Monitoring Project, a citizen science project for upper primary and secondary students, using the Marine Metre Squared tools and resources.
This documentary series was first published on Stuff as an interactive - link here.
It is made with funding from NZ on Air and GIFT Gulf Innovation Fund Together, a Foundation North Initiative.
