Te Awaatu Channel (The Gut)

Monitoring of lobsters using diver transects was established in 1999 and re-measured in 2001 and 2003. There appeared little difference in lobster abundance inside and outside the marine reserve in 1999, but in 2001 and 2003 there was significantly more lobsters recorded inside the marine reserve than outside. In 2003, abundance within the reserve was approximately times greater than non-reserve areas (16.3 lobsters/ 250 m2 inside the marine reserve compared to 5.4 lobsters/ 250 m2 outside the marine reserve. Mean lobster size inside the reserve was significantly larger than outside the reserve.

Featherstar on Red coral

A five year study aimed at understanding damage to red coral caused by divers and population changes began in 1995. No major changes in the red coral population were detected.