This power point presentation has been put together to support and - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

• This power point presentation has been put together to support and provide

explanation to the submission made by:-

• The Wellington Recreational Marine Fishers Association
• To the Wellington Regional Council Proposed Natural Resources Plan
• Presentation has been researched by myself Jim Mikoz President WRMFA
• Honorary Vice President New Zealand Angling and Casting Association
• Introduction to myself.
• My expertise is under standing the marine environment and value of the inter tidal

zone to marine specie. Marine scientists at DOC, NIWA and WRC admit they have no knowledge of this environment and inform the public they can not use my marine knowledge as I am not a scientist. You will not find the information I am presenting in a book so I will stop and explain some of the photos as it would be impossible for you to have acquired the marine knowledge I have been given.

• We are submitter number S32
• Hearing day 6. Wellington Hearing Day 7.6.2018 at 9.30am at Westpac Stadium
• As at 9.04pm 4.6.2018

Slide 2 INTRODUCTION TO SUBMISSION We have identified issues and omissions in the Draft Natural Resources Plan relating to 5.7.2 “Coastal management general conditions”. It is totally unacceptable for the Wellington Regional Council (WRC) to not know marine species travel into streams and rivers to feed and spawn throughout our region. We have a huge wetland system that is unique to the region yet the council continues to misrepresent its value. These wetlands can be found below the 39th parallel which is in a line from Ohiwa on the east coast to Kawhia on the west coast. Wellington lies in the 40 to 41st parallel yet not one marine specie has been named in the inter tidal zone. The Regional Council has produced a Draft Natural Resources Plan that fails to describe the function of our native inter tidal plants or how marine specie use these plants. The Plan will be totally inadequate if this information is not described in the final version. The Council has failed to protect the food source for our native Hector Dolphins who come into Wellington Harbour every year looking for yellow eyed mullet which is their major food source. Yet the birds that eat them have been named. The Plan has failed to name the 56 different marine species over 500 grams found in Wellington Harbour or inform through the Plan this is the most specie found in any harbour in New Zealand. The Regional Council by not describing the inter tidal zone has failed to comply with the 2010 New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement (NZCPS) Objective 1. Which states:- “To safeguard the integrity, form, functioning and resilience of the coastal environment and sustain its ecosystems, including marine and intertidal areas, estuaries, dunes and land, by: maintaining or enhancing natural biological and physical processes in the coastal environment and recognising their dynamic, complex and interdependent nature;” Further Objective I of the NZCPS requires councils to be “protecting representative or significant natural ecosystems and sites of biological importance and maintaining the diversity of New Zealand’s indigenous coastal flora and fauna” The Plan as written has failed to provide any information that describes the council has recognised the “dynamic, complex and interdependent nature” of “the coastal environment” in our region. The Plan must comply with the NZCPS.

Slide 3 There are other issues and omissions in the Draft Natural Resources Plan relating to 5.7.2 “Coastal management general conditions”. The Plan fails to describe the life in the inter tidal zone after dark. A recently hatched school of two centimetre yellow eyed mullet were found in a puddle of the Korokoro Stream after it was diverted by the WRC, the fish were identified at Te Papa. I have watched yellow eyed mullet spawning and when asked to prove they spawn in the inter tidal zone it only took two weeks to capture one of them with ripe running roe. This was the first time anyone had captured one. The Council must find a way to accept informal marine knowledge as NIWA in a number of publications state they know nothing about the inter tidal zone. There has been no scientific study of the inter tidal zone as a marine scientist study stops at the river mouth and a fresh water scientist study stops at the extent of the salt water wedge. I have described the inter tidal zone through a power point to six Natural Resources Hearings and in a number of stories published in the magazine NZ Fishing Coast to Coast. At the 2009 Wellington City Council waste water resource consent hearing the WRC scientist instructed the resource consent commissioners to dismiss the information I and the DOC scientist were bringing describing the inter tidal zone as she and the regional council has no knowledge of its value or function. The Commissioners hearing submissions to this Natural Resources Plan must require the WRC to obtain the information to describe the value of the inter tidal zone in the final version of the Plan.

Slide 4 Further issues and omissions in the Draft Natural Resources Plan relating to 5.7.2 “Coastal management general conditions”. When the WRC blocked off access to the Pencarrow and Fitzroy Lakes for marine and fresh water species including eels all would die unable to return to the lakes. For five years yellow eyed mullet would gather along the lake outlets wanting to return to their traditional spawning grounds but water from the lakes never flowed to sea. In 2015 WRC produced a Parangarahu Lakes Area Co-Management Plan for the lakes but those involved lacked any marine and inter tidal knowledge as they failed to ensure access to the lakes for any fish or eel specie. The Plan fails to acknowledge yellow eyed mullet had been using theses lakes since before man arrived. WRC staff visited the fish ladders built into the South Island Wainono Lagoon in 1910 as part of the Waihao River catchment but then failed to build ladders for the Pencarrow or Fitzroy

• Lakes. The Lakes co-Management Plan fails to acknowledge our native mysid shrimps which would be in the lakes in the millions which

confirms the Plan lacks input from those with inter tidal knowledge. The dolphins are feeding off Owhiro Bay with scouts guiding the pod until reaching the Moa Point waste water slick visible in the fourth photo and they turned the pod out to sea. You will never see this activity in Wellington Harbour as there are very few bait fish schools left. The remaining bait schools were soon sucked into the Fast Ferries that were allowed to travel over the Falcon Shoals by the WRC.

Slide 5 Point 566 5.7.2 Coastal Management General Conditions The quoted spawning times for the regions native fresh water fish is incorrect. Water temperature determines when fish spawn. Some seasons are warmer than others which changes when spawning will occur. Making a hard and fast rule on a calendar seriously questions the research. We captured this inanga spawning in the inter tidal zone of the Makara Stream on 16.1.02, where we have seen them spawning before. A display board has just appeared at the Queen Elizabeth Park Paekakariki where the WRC and DOC inform the public that “Adult galaxiids lay their eggs on grasses hanging in the water at high tide”. Obviously no one in the WRC or DOC have ever observed fish spawning as they do not sit on grass to lay their eggs nor do they have the ability to place the eggs on grass hanging in the water. There will be no science paper that supports this inter tidal misinformation and the board should be removed. Science describes the inter tidal zone is 20 times more productive than the sea and 4 times more productive than the land yet it has not been described in the WRC Draft Natural Resources Plan. This is a major omission and must be corrected by the Commissioners by describing its value in the final version of the Natural Resources Plan. This will require a new section as the WRC must acquire the knowledge to describe the regions native plant function to the many marine and fresh water fish species that live, feed and travel into the inter tidal zone. The WRC will have to upskill to acquire inter tidal knowledge as producing a display board describing fish sit on grass to lay eggs is a joke. But it is describing the Wellington Regional Council has a serious lack of marine and inter tidal knowledge.

Slide 6 Point 566 5.7.2 Coastal Management General Conditions Commissioners it must be obvious to you we have been working off and commenting on a Draft Natural Resources Plan that makes no mention of the regions inter tidal zone. We the WRMFA have presented quite a bit of material at every hearing describing this zone. The WRC lack of inter tidal knowledge is displayed in Note 5.7.2(h). It must be acknowledged that Point 566 5.7.2 Coastal Management General Conditions is inadequate and lacks any information to describe the value of the inter tidal zone to both marine and freshwater species. We request the Commissioners produce a separate stand alone new Policy that sets out Schedules, Rules and Maps to cover all of our regions inter tidal wetlands and names the marine species that spend most of their time at night feeding on our native mysid shrimps. We request the new Policy name all of the regions native inter tidal plants and describe their function as the WRC plant data base lacks this

• information. At a public meeting in Tawa the WRC presented their book on stream management. The meeting immediately saw major errors

in the book as it showed plants on top of stream banks with the stream running under the plants and the bank. We request the new Policy acknowledges that fresh water is lighter than sea water. At a HCC and WCC waste water community group meeting it was discovered that since 1999 the WRC had been directing those taking waste water samples to take them half a meter below the sea surface and then remove the top two centimetres. This has exposed a seriously flawed history of waste water samples in our region as all of the samples have been seawater. When I questioned the WRC I found they had been using waste water guidelines not recommended by MofE since 1999. The Plan must support using the MofE NZ Municipal Wastewater Monitoring Guidelines which describes taking waste water samples from the immediate sea surface. We request that within the new Policy there be a description of the distance the salt water wedge travels up all of the rivers and streams in the region. We request the new Policy establishes the height the fresh water rises and lowers on every tide in all rivers and streams to prevent another environmental disaster such as at Moera. It is our view the Natural Resources Plan must include the inter tidal zone. The Plan will be seen as a failure by future generations if they discover the Plan has done nothing to protect and reinstate major fish spawning areas that in turn provide an essential food source for our native dolphins.

Slide 7 Point 566 5.7.2 Coastal Management General Conditions The previous slide described what should be included into a new Policy to recognise the value of the inter tidal zone. However obtaining this information from science will be next to impossible unless a new way of obtaining information describing the inter tidal zone is established. I contacted Dr Erik Horstman from Waikato University who had described the value of mangroves in a Dominion Post article 7.5.2018. I asked if there had been any study of our cold water wetlands and his reply was there had been no research. This confirmed the information I already knew as NIWA had identified in a 2008 paper titled “A review of land based effects on coastal fisheries and supporting biodiversity in New Zealand” by Morrison, Lowe, Parsons, Usmar and McLeod which had described: “that little is known scientifically about our inter-tidal zone or the impacts of our actions upon it”. NIWA in “The Living World” 2009 stated “not a lot was known about the importance of estuarine habitats to fish in New Zealand.” NIWA in 2008 had already described “knowing little about the intertidal zone” and changed the wording in 2009 to not knowing a lot which means the same thing.

Slide 8 Point 566 5.7.2 Coastal management general conditions. The WRC installed a sign on the Raumati to Paekakariki beach which perfectly describes the WRC lack of coastal management. The WRC sign describes they poisoned the plants that had been holding back coastal erosion for years. The Natural Resources Plan must make it clear that that this is not good coastal management but destructive management. The current practice of the WRC of poisoning plants and walking away and not providing any cover to our sand hills is resulting in walking tracks and huge sections of our coast line washing away. The Natural Resources Plan must not allow the WRC to be so out of touch with logical coastal management. If the wider public who have walked the beach for years can see what the WRC was doing is wrong why is the WRC walking away from their poisoning and not protecting the west coast as promised on the sign.

Slide 9 566 Point 5.7.2 Coastal Management general conditions The lack of inter tidal and marine knowledge within the WRC is serious and has cost the region already millions of dollars. The WRC failed to research what the water level would be in the Hutt River at low tide and as a result they placed an inlet pipe for the Moera Estuary above low tide which prevented water flowing into the estuary at low tide. They failed to observe the water flow in the Hutt River and placed the inlet pipe in a position that received massive quantities

• f mud and river debris.

About to be seriously threatened is the Wellington Regions water supply if a proposal by the Hutt City Council to install a 1.2 meter waste water pipe in the Hutt River is accepted by the WRC. All due to a lack of marine and inter tidal knowledge and a failure to research the history of the Hutt River by the WRC and HCC.

Slide 10 566 Point 5.7.2 Coastal Management general conditions The WRC have put their lack of inter tidal knowledge on display at Moera. Mud and logs now enter the Moera Estuary. A misguided planting programme saw the banks falling in.

Slide 11 Point 566 5.7.2 Coastal management general conditions. The native wetland plants that had grown in the Waiwhetu Stream for years were poisoned by the WRC. The banks then began falling in and blocked the stream which then over flowed the banks in the next rain and flooded a number of houses. The WRC then began planting their chosen plants surrounded by little round cloth caps and they fell into the stream.

Slide 12 Point 611 & 717 Rule R193 River and stream mouth cutting – permitted activity. Amend Schedule U Trigger levels for mouth cutting. Amend Rule 193 to include The management of the massive quantity of shingle that has been moving around our coast since the 1967 earth quake that saw a section of Mt Mathews split and fall into the Orongorongo River. The shingle travelled through the Cook Strait filling in the gaps between the reefs off Houghton Bay and Oteranga Bay and moved into Eastbourne extending the coast line out 200 metres and is filling in the Harbour entrance. A number of Cook Strait power cables were laid on the shingle but storms removed the shingle and the cables were then unsupported and became damaged and had to be replaced. The current WRC practice written into Rule R193 of breaching the Makara Stream mouth with machinery and dumping the shingle in the path of this shingle coming around the coast results in the stream mouth becoming blocked again days later. The WRC current method of clearing the stream mouth using Rule 193 is not working, lacks history of where and when the shingle is coming from and lacks any follow up to ensure the work was done correctly. The WRC lack of knowledge of the source of the shingle has resulted in a massive build up shingle to the point where the boat ramp is

• unusable. In my experience we are entering a period where we will see very big swells.

Slide 13 Point 611 & 717 Schedule U The art of breaching the Makara Stream mouth using one shovel and common sense.

Slide 14 Further to Point 611 & 717 Rule R193 River and stream mouth cutting – permitted activity. Amend Schedule U Trigger levels for mouth cutting to also include: The management and removal of the large logs that are now arriving on

• ur beaches.

I became involved in warning the Porirua City Council (PCC) and Councillors of the WRC of the massive erosion of the shore line at Pukerua

• Bay. Work had just been completed when large logs washed into the bay and began battering the repaired coast line. When I asked why had

the logs not been removed the reply was the WRC would not allow their removal. Yet logs are removed off the secluded beach at Tarakena Bay. Amend Rule R193 Further: To allow councils to remove the logs that have arrived before they damage our coast line and our natural resources.

Slide 15 Further to Point 611 & 717 Rule R193 River and stream mouth cutting – permitted activity. Amend Schedule U Trigger levels for mouth cutting to also include the removal of the large logs that are now arriving on our beaches. At Makara two houses were destroyed and at Titahi Bay a number of boat sheds were hit by large logs. The logs at Pukerua Bay move from one end of the beach to the other smashing the material placed to protect the waste water pipe. At Paekakariki Queen Elizabeth Park large logs arrived and became jammed under the bridge. Contractors removed the logs and placed them on the seaward side of the bridge but the WRC would not allow their removal. Large logs often move back out to sea on a spring tide storm but these logs may also come under the bridge

• again. Amend Rule R193 to also include The removal of the large logs off our beaches and not creating an unsecured log dump site on the
• foreshore. This WRC log dump site presents a health and safety risk to the public.

Slide 16 618 Rule 200: Dredging for flood protection purposes or erosion mitigation- controlled activity. Rule 200 fails to include a management plan for dredge waste. In 1999 WRC granted a resource consent to dispose of 200,000 tonnes of shingle dredge waste over 20 years into two major submarine fresh water springs in Wellington Harbour. They then described to the public through the Hutt News they were filling in natural holes and depressions in the harbour. The mud waste generated from the sand extraction process is dumped over the Hutt River mouth reclamation, there it remains until a big southerly storm washes it along Petone Beach. The mud spreads around Wellington Harbour smothering sea weed which is the major food sources for many marine species. The mud kills many millions of shell fish along the Petone Beach. Our natural resources must not be subjected to dredge waste dumping.

Slide 17 618 Rule 200 Dredging for flood protection purposes. Rule 200 fails to include dredge and mining waste management. Rule 200 must include the management of dredge and mining waste. Industry requires huge quantities of sand and produces massive quantities of shingle. The Plan must include a management plan for dredge

• waste. The material at Pencarrow and Fitzroy Lake outlets was removed down to the sea by the application CP 200405 F32HQ but the WRC

breached the “Unanimous Decision” of the Commissioners by granting the consent CP 930201 that allowed the contractors to excavate down into the coastal marine area. The Lake outlets then became a dredge waste dump site. If the WRC had any knowledge of the inter tidal zone they would not have destroyed the traditional spawning grounds for yellow eyed mullet and be a major cause for the decline of Hector Dolphins. After the lake outlets were destroyed it only took five years around 1960 before the millions of mullet in Wellington Harbour to all die. The WRC destroyed the common and Hector dolphin food source by failing to build easily made fish ladders to restore this dolphin food source when requested to by WRMFA.

Slide 18 618 Rule 200 Dredging for flood protection purposes. At Hearing 1 You were shown water from the south coast lakes not flowing to the sea in 2004. In 2002 a DOC survey of the lakes identified the issue and described that in 1941 water flowed to the sea. The first lake is Pencarrow the second is Fitzroy Lake. Since then in 2015 a WRC Parangarahu Lakes Area Co-Management Plan has been published. The photos I took on the 30.5.2018 are below the 2004 photos showing how the WRC co-management group had done nothing to ensure the lakes water reaches the sea. Rule 200 must include a dredge waste management plan as the WRC is failing to manage the error they made by allowing the lake outlets to be mined and turned into soak holes.

Slide 19 641 Method M4 Sea level rise. The Plan has failed to explain or predict why sea levels can at times be two metres above or below predictions. Lower than normal sea levels allow rocks to be almost below the surface or as with Ash Rock above the surface. The Plan must make a warning directed at all shipping that low sea levels will cause a number of rocks in the Cook Strait described as being at chart datum to be two metres higher in the water. Unfortunately due to uncorrected errors in all types of marine charts these near surface rocks are all 150 metres from LINZ and all electronic chart given position in the Cook Strait. The Plan must describe to the WRC how a storm surge can be predicted twenty four hours in advance. The Plan must make it clear a storm surge will not come with every high tide. The Plan must stop the Metrological Service, WRC and Police warning of another storm surge on the next high tide as tides do not cause storm surges but contribute to them along with two other conditions. A Natural Resources Plan must explain that there are many other factors causing coastal damage and climate change is just one of them. The Plan must require the WRC to obtain the knowledge to enable them to put in place a warning system to the public at least twenty four hours in advance of a storm surge. The WRC already has access to the information.

Slide 20 692.1 Schedule E1 and Map 8 Historic heritage structures. Include in Schedule E1 and Map 8 Historic heritage structures the concrete lookout post and barracks over looking Moa Point

Slide 21 Point 692.1 Schedule E1 Historic heritage Include the Wrights Hill Fortress in Schedule E1 and Map 8

Slide 22 692.1 Schedule E1 Historic heritage structure. Include Fort Opau situated above the hills south of Makara in Schedule E1 Map 8. When compared to the Machine Gun Post at Pukerua Bay the Ohau Fort above Makara would have cost a lot more and could accommodate 117 personal. The guns at Makara were radar guided and could put a shell across the Cook Strait.

Slide 23 692.1 Schedule E1 Historic structures. Correct Schedule E1, Map 8 and Schedule E2 to include Fort Balance. Built during the Russian scare it was the first building in New Zealand built with concrete. The Plan mentions the Ward Island to Eastbourne Wharf and the anti submarine net to Pt Gordon but fails to mention Fort Balance or the massive gun pits or where the troops were garrisoned. While the grounds have been allowed to be over grown with weeds and there is some very clever drawings on the wall it will remain the building called Fort Balance. Over looking the Wellington Harbour and entrance it is an impressive site with tunnels and buildings.

Slide 24 692.1 Schedule E1 Historic heritage structures. Correct Schedule E1 Map 8 and Schedule E2. Above Massey Memorial at Point Halswell is the concrete gun sites of four large guns and around the hill are a number of machine gun posts, garrison buildings and ammunition sheds. From the gun sites is a large parade ground used by Peter Jackson to make his movies. The Plan lists only some machine gun posts but none around this hill and not one of the three large gun battery sites built to protect

• Wellington. All of the large gun sites must qualify as “significant historic heritage sites”.

Slide 25 692.1 Schedule E1 and Map 8 Historic heritage structure. This section should include the large concrete bases both sides of the Seton Nossiter Park. Reason: The concrete bases once supported the bridge for the main North Island railway which went through Johnsonville before the Tawa rail tunnel was built.

Slide 26 692.3 Schedule E2 Historic heritage wharves and boat sheds. Include in Schedule E2 “Historic heritage wharves and boat shed” the wharves at Oteranga Bay. The old wharf was used to unload wool bales but broke up in large swells. The wharf on the right was built by Meridian to unload the parts for the West Wind wind farm. I was the marine and intertidal expert witness for the Makara Guardians and wrote a story in the NZ Fishing Coast to Coast magazine objecting to their proposal to build break water walls and causeways in an area closed to all fishing. Meridian senior management invited me to discuss my concerns. I asked that a wharf be built and suggested the location and it be removed when there was no use for it. Today the wharf has been removed and the road is no longer there. All turbine parts were unloaded safely.

Slide 27 Schedule E2 Historic heritage wharves and boat sheds. Include Burnham Wharf in Schedule E2. Burnham Wharf on the left was built at the time a tunnel was built into Miramar to drain the lake called Lake Burnham which is now

• Miramar. The tunnel still exists and has been blocked off. The wharf is used to unload Jet A1 fuel which is stored in large tanks in Miramar.

Slide 28 692.3 Schedule E3 Historic heritage navigation aids. Include in Schedule E3 and Map 10 Historical navigation aids the upper light House at Pencarrow. While not used as it stands above the sea fog common at the harbour entrance, it was built as the harbour light house. It stands as reminder as to what happens when authorities do not consult with those with marine knowledge.

Slide 29 Schedule E3 and Map 10 Historic heritage navigation aids. Correct Schedule E3 and Map 10 to add the light house at Ohau Point. The light is under the arrow.