Marine Reserve
Super-size Me!
In a marine reserve, fish grow big and big fish have more eggs than smaller fish. And that means, more fish in the sea. These days, we’re used to fishing up incy wincy fish – and we think this is normal. Marine reserves show us what these fish should really look like!
A marine reserve is like an underwater national park.
It’s a safe place for our sea-things to live and breed. This is important because we’ve become really, really good at fishing.
If we continue fishing with our long, long, long-lines and our big fishing nets, there maybe no more fish left in the sea!
Inside a marine reserve, people cannot take living things, or the things that make up our sea-creatures homes like rocks and coral. But people are welcome to play, swim, dive and boat in a marine reserve.
In New Zealand, we have around 33 marine reserves but they cover an itsy bitsy piece of the sea (0.3%) that surrounds our country.
Our oldest marine reserve is one hours drive North of Auckland, it is near a place called ‘goat island’. It was formed in 1977.
There are so many colourful fish in this marine reserve that it attracts over 350,000 snorkellers, divers, sightseers and marine scientists every year.
Because the fish have the chance to become BIG, fishers hang out on the edge of the marine reserve, or lay their crayfish-pots on its boundary, so they benefit too!
If you want more marine reserves, contact our fisheries minister and tell him how you want a fish-filled sea for the future – david.carter@ministers.govt.nz
