Silverlining squandered as Astrolabe reef decimated again after Rena

Monday, 19 September 2016

Fish life around the Rena recovered during salvage operations when fishing was banned.

The regeneration of the Astrolabe Reef was the one silverlining of the Rena disaster that saw the container ship and cargo vessel stuck fast on the reef in October 2011 while it took a shortcut to get to the Port of Tauranga.

With an exclusion zone placed around the ship so salvaging could take place, the reef effectively became a marine reserve and sea life could thrive with out the usual pressures of fishing.

There was an explosion of fish life around the wreck while the exclusion zone remained in place.

But that protection stopped in April 2016 when access to the reef was restored for vessels under 500 tonnes, in spite of an urgent request by the Motiti Rohe Moana Trust, on behalf of Nga Hapu o te Moutere o Motiti for a two year temporary closure of the reef to all fishing.

The proposed temporary closure includes the fisheries waters within 3 nautical miles of a point on Astrolabe Reef and covers an area of about 97 square kilometres.

Rena remains on the Astrlab reef in July 2016.

But the reef has already been decimated since re-opening, Motiti Rohe Moana Trust spokesman TA Sayers said.

There was little left to protect now, he said.

Fish have reduced markedly around the Rena wreck since restrictions were lifted.

In the first two months up to 15 boats could be seen on the reef at a time and 40 crayfish pots were put down by commercial fishers.

'The reef acted like a magnet,' he said. 'When a marine consent monitoring team went out to do their survey they couldn't find a single crayfish to complete their survey,'

More than 40 cray pots went into the area once the restriction was lifted.

The Ministry of Primary Industries has still to make a decision on the temporary closure though submissions on it closed in March.

There wasn't a lot to see at the Astrolabe reef off Tauranga when he dived there in the mid 1990's so underwater photographer Darryl Torckler never went back - until he was contracted to photograph the removal of the wrecked Rena off the reef.

Motiti Rohe Moana Trust spokesman TA Sayers wants answers from MPI.

Over the next three years Torckler was one of just a few people who were able to see the regeneration of the reef in the exclusion zone as he used GPS to get images of the wreckage and debris field for the ship owners' insurers to present to the Environment Court.

Even so there were few images of the regenerating wild life in his stash of images.

Twelve nautical miles from Tauranga Harbour the reef is really exposed to the elements he said. When the wind got above 15 knots work stopped on the salvage. It could be four to six week waits before he got the calm weather and clear water he needed to get in the water and photograph.

But the big increase in sea life was very obvious he said.

'I saw the largest schools of kahawai I've ever seen,' he said.

The wildlife was incidental not the focus of his job at the reef. Even so, his photos show a staggering amount of fish life building on the reef.

Owner/operator of Tauranga Dive Jared Ross also dived on the reef while the restrictions were in place and since they've been lifted.

'It was like the Poor Knights with fish everywhere. Numbers have dropped dramatically and now it looks like the rest of the coast around here,' he said.

The whole process has been extremely frustrating marine biologist and marine reserve expert Dr Roger Grace said.