New Zealand Marine Reserves

What's a marine reserve?

A Marine Reserve is like a wet National Park!

A marine reserve is an area of the ocean and shore that is protected. All the living things within the marine reserve area are protected, including their homes in the rocks, sand and coral.

People are free to swim, snorkel, dive and boat within a marine reserve.

People are not allowed to disturb or take any living things from within a marine reserve, except for scientific purposes, which has to be approved.

Marine reserves are open to the public, which means that everyone can visit marine reserves and enjoy them!

What does the dictionary say?
Marine = found in or relating to the sea.
Reserve = to keep back or set aside, especially for the future. An area set apart for conservation.

So, marine reserves protect our watery sea environments and the animals living there. But why would they need protecting?

People use the ocean heaps and this use has increased....

The number of fishing boats has increased, with some of them using big nets, catching birds and dolphins, as well as too many fish.
Big and small factories and people everywhere, are dumping rubbish and pollutants into streams, which run into the ocean - over half the pollution in the ocean comes from the land.
Lots of people are building along the coastlines and changing coastal habitats - clearing land may cause erosion.
Many people own boats and yachts. A great way to enjoy the ocean but some people dump their rubbish overboard - that's not nice!
There are a lot more people fishing from boats and the beach, and collecting shellfish and crayfish wen they scuba dive and snorkel - some people take home more seafood than they are allowed.
People go to the beach to swim, boogie board and surf. Most care for the beach and ocean but some leave their picnic rubbish to blow into the ocean!

WOW! The coastlines and oceans really are busy - no wonder it's important to have marine reserves to protect marine life and the sea environment.

Marine Reserves.....are safe places for fish and other sea creatures to live and breed. This is very important because more and more people are catching fish and gathering shellfish. Fish such as snapper are becoming scarce. In a marine reserve fish can grow big - and big fish have more babies, which means there are more fish in the sea!

Marine Reserves.....show us undisturbed places, the way the sea used to be before people fished and gathered sea creatures. This helps scientists understand and compare what we are doing in the rest of the sea.

Marine Reserves.....show us beautiful, unspoiled places where people can enjoy looking at the wonderful variety of fish and crayfish, shellfish and sea weeds.

Marine Reserves.....are places where people can play and swim, dive or snorkel and look at all the sea life, but they are not allowed to kill or take any of the living things in the Marine Reserve.

Marine Reserves.....are places where the fish are not afraid of people!

Marine Reserves.....are places where the sea life dominates and where people do no harm. Even if the rest of the sea had well managed fisheries and good pollution control, marine reserves would still be needed to provide places where nature rules and where we can enjoy seas teeming with marine life the way it was meant to be.


New Zealand needs more Marine Reserves!	About 33% (one third) of New Zealand's land area has reserve or national park status - this means it is protected. Only about 4% of New Zealand's territorial sea is protected by marine reserves. The Kermadec Islands Marine Reserve makes up over three quarters of the 4% total. The Kermadec Islands are about 930 kilometres north-east of the Bay of Islands - that's 400 nautical miles, which is a long way. Can you find the Kermadec Islands on a map? Less than 1% of New Zealand's coastline is protected by Marine Reserves, if you don't count the Kermadec Islands.
Special note: The territorial sea is the area 12 nautical miles from the shore, around all of New Zealand's islands. New Zealand also has an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) that we are responsible for managing. It extends 200 nautical miles out from the shore of all of New Zealand's islands. Marine reserves protect less than 0.1% of our EEZ.

How is an area chosen to become a marine reserve? In 1971 the government passed the Marine Reserves Act 1971. The Act says that for an area of New Zealand's coastline and ocean to be considered for marine reserve status it must contain: "underwater scenery, natural features or marine life of such distinctive quality or so typical or beautiful or unique that their continued preservation is in the national interest." In a Marine Reserve it is....
Beautiful - educational - fun - interesting - unpolluted - full of marine life!

Remember to leave only footprints and sandcastles, and to take home happy memories.

Do not leave rubbish or remove anything from a Marine Reserve.

Diver by Callum Caldwell - KCC member

There are a lot of good reasons for having marine reserves....

Recreation: You can swim, snorkel and scuba dive in a marine reserve or you might like to sit on the beach, build sandcastles or look at the interesting shells.

Education: marine reserves are great places to go on class trips. Because marine reserves are protected areas people have not removed things so there is heaps to see and learn about. Check out the rock pools!

Research: A marine reserve is an undisturbed natural environment, which means that scientists are able to use marine reserves as living laboratories where they can learn very important stuff about marine life.

Conservation: That's right, marine reserves protect all the marine plants and animals, and the places where they live. Marine reserves conserve some of our wildlife and wild places!

Commercial: Lots of people visit marine reserves to enjoy the beautiful beaches and amazing marine life. This means that local business and tourist operators benefit from an increase in customers.

MARINE RESERVES ARE GREAT !

Are you going to a marine reserve? There are some important things you need to know when you are visiting a marine reserve....
Who's looking after the marine reserves? Under the Marine Reserves Act 1971, the Department of Conservation is responsible for caring for and managing marine reserves - this includes: marking marine reserve boundaries, law enforcement, issuing scientific permits and monitoring environmental changes.	Where are New Zealand's Marine Reserves? Check out the MAP
You can look after marine reserves too! When you are in a marine reserve remember to follow the Department of Conservation's care code. Be sure not to break any marine reserve laws. For example, do not feed the fish. If you see anyone harming marine life or destroying parts of a marine reserve - CALL DOC! Don't let nasty people destroy the beautiful things in the marine reserve. Have fun in marine reserves and tell other people why marine reserves are so important.

Below is a quote from Dr Bill Ballantine. He is one of New Zealand's leading marine biologists - he knows HEAPS about marine life and how important marine reserves are.

"Would your grandchildren really object if you made too many marine reserves?
I doubt it."

What a cool thing to say. It would be a good thing to ask politicians!

Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha.....

* I wonder how much deeper the ocean would be without sponges *
* Save the whales. Collect the whole set *
* What did one rock pool say to the other? Show us ya mussels! *
* Why did the whale cross the road? To get to the other tide *

The Marine Reserves information was updated in May 2003.