Monitoring

An annual monitoring programme of reef fish species using Underwater Visual Census has been undertaken since 1993 in conjunction with the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic’s Marine Studies Department.

View of Tuhua (Mayor Island) from a
helicopter

A program studying predatory reef fish using Bait Underwater Video was began in autumn 2004.

Both monitoring programs indicate that Tuhua Marine Reserve has had limited consequences for the recovery of targeted reef fish species to date. A possible explanation is that the reserve covers only part of the reef system. Because reef fish use the whole reef they are caught outside the reserve, which then reduces the population inside the reserve. Another contributing factor may be illegal fishing which has been observed taking place inside the marine reserve.