The applications, lodged under the Fisheries (Kaimoana Customary Fishing) Regulations 1998, come from the Patuharakeke Rohe Moana Committee and Te Rerenga Parāoa Rohe Moana Committee, the latter acting on behalf of Ngāti Tū, Te Parawhau and Ngāti Kahu o Torongare.
The two proposals
The larger of the two, the Patuharakeke Mahinga Mātaitai Reserve, covers around 115 square kilometres. The boundary runs from the intersection of State Highway 1 and Springfield Road near Oakleigh, south along the harbour and down through Bream Bay to Andersons Cove at Bream Tail.
The second application, for the Poupouwhenua Mahinga Mātaitai Reserve, covers a much smaller area of about one square kilometre immediately east of Marsden Point. It sits alongside the Patuharakeke proposal and takes in the shellfish bank known as Poupouwhenua, an area boaties will know as Mair Bank and Marsden Bank.
Patuharakeke’s application describes the two areas as part of a single shellfish ecosystem, with pipi and kōkota beds, larval recruitment and habitat processes running across the wider area regardless of where a management boundary sits on a chart.
Why the applications have been lodged
Both applications point to long term declines in pipi, kōkota and kūtai populations across the harbour and Bream Bay. Patuharakeke’s Te Pou Taiao resource management unit has run shellfish monitoring, including annual pipi surveys, for more than a decade, alongside repeated section 186A temporary closures over the Poupouwhenua beds.
The applications state the mātaitai mechanism is being sought so a more adaptive, tikanga-based management approach, including bylaws, can replace the cycle of two-year rāhui the committee says has so far been the default tool.
Tāngata tiaki nominated to manage the reserves are Dave Milner, Reece Newton and Riki Solomon for Patuharakeke, and Riki Solomon, Opania George, Hoori Kingi and Reece Newton for Te Rerenga Parāoa.
What it means for the boating community
A mātaitai reserve applies only to fisheries waters. It creates no change to land titles, private land access or resource consents for activities such as water takes or sand and gravel extraction.
Recreational fishing rules stay the same when a mātaitai reserve is first declared. Once in place though, the tāngata tiaki can propose bylaws affecting recreational take, which would go through a separate public consultation process and need sign off from the Minister for Oceans and Fisheries. Whitebait and trout fishing are unaffected either way.
Commercial fishing is banned inside a mātaitai reserve once it is gazetted.
Have your say
This is the first of two rounds of consultation. The current round is open to people who own land near the proposed reserves, or who have lived nearby for at least three months a year over the three years to June 2025. Written submissions can go to FMSubmissions@mpi.govt.nz, with the round closing 21 August 2026.
A public meeting has been set for those wanting to raise questions directly with the applicant committees and Fisheries New Zealand:
- Marsden Yacht and Boat Club, One Tree Point Boat Ramp, One Tree Point Road, Ruakaka
- 6pm, Thursday 30 July 2026
A second consultation, open to anyone with a fishing interest in the affected stocks, follows once the first round closes, advertised through the same channels.
Submissions are public information and may be published or released under the Official Information Act, so anyone wanting particular details withheld needs to say so clearly in their submission.
