Proportion of marine ecosystems protected
This measure relates to indicator 1.6.1 – Ecosystem representation and protection status.
Background
DOC manages two main types of marine areas: marine reserves and marine mammal sanctuaries. Efforts are being made to expand the coverage of marine reserves as part of a marine protected area (MPA) network to ensure representative coverage of New Zealand’s marine habitats and ecosystems, while marine mammal sanctuaries are established to protect New Zealand’s whales, dolphins and seals.
Most of New Zealand’s 14 marine bioregions remain significantly under-represented in marine reserves.
What did we measure?
This measure reports on the area of New Zealand’s marine environment that is within marine reserves and marine mammal sanctuaries. It is assessed in the context of (a) coastal marine biogeographic regions (‘marine bioregions’); (b) marine areas within the 12 nautical mile territorial limit; and (c) marine areas within the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) limit. It does not include marine areas managed by DOC under other land status types that are not specific to the marine environment (e.g. nature reserves, wildlife reserves and other public conservation land) or MPAs that are not managed by DOC.
What did we find?
- New Zealand currently has 44 marine reserves covering approximately 9.8% or 17,698 km² of its marine area inside the 12 nautical mile territorial limit (see Figure 1 – Maps). Almost all of this area (96.5% or 17,083 km²) lies within 2 of New Zealand’s 14 marine bioregions: the ecologically important marine areas of the offshore Kermadec Islands and Subantarctic Islands. The remaining 3.5% (615 km²) occurs around New Zealand’s mainland coasts. Thus, most marine bioregions remain significantly under-represented in marine reserves (Table 1).
- New Zealand currently has eight marine mammal sanctuaries (Figure 1). Five sanctuaries around mainland New Zealand have primarily been established to help protect Hector’s and Māui dolphins, while the Auckland Islands sanctuary mainly aims to protect tohorā/southern right whales and rāpoka/New Zealand sea lions. The remaining two sanctuaries have been established near Kaikōura for the protection of whales and a kekeno/New Zealand fur seal breeding colony, respectively.
- No new marine reserves or marine mammal sanctuaries were established in 2019/20 (Table 2 & Figure 1) and a statutory option to expand the area of the Campbell Island/Moutere Ihupuku Marine Reserve lapsed. However, the completion of MPA planning processes for all regions of New Zealand remains a priority. Several workstreams relating to marine protection were progressed, including work on the reform of New Zealand’s MPA policy and legislation; Hauraki Gulf ‘Seachange’ plan implementation; MPA applications for the southeast South Island; and marine mammal sanctuary investigations in the South Taranaki Bight.