Welcome to our first ever Te Awanui Tauranga Harbour quarterly e-newsletter. Please subscribe to future editions by clicking ‘subscribe’ below so you can stay updated on our work to care for Tauranga Harbour and its surrounding land and waterways.

708 local volunteers and school children have helped collect a whopping 1.8 tonnes of rubbish, scrap metal and recyclables from the Tauranga Harbour margins so far this summer, through the Tauranga City and Bay of Plenty Regional Council estuary and stream clean-up programme, supported by Downer NZ. 

The rubbish was collected during five clean up days, held at the Kopurererua Valley Stream, Maungatapu foreshore, Memorial Park, Tye Park, Sherwood Stream Reserve and the Matua salt marsh.

A big thank you to Tauranga Intermediate, Tauriko Primary School, Otumoetai Primary School, Otumoetai College, Bellevue School, Maungatapu Primary School, Welcome Bay Primary School and the NZ Motor Caravan Association who mucked in to care for their harbour! Give them a ‘like’ and check out photos and updates at www.facebook.com/taurangaestuarycleanup 

We’ll be planning events for 2016 soon, and we’re keen to help locals care for their local estuaries, streams or reserves. So if your area needs a litter clean up, please let us know by calling Radleigh Cairns at Tauranga City Council, phone 07 577 7000. 

The Regional, City and District Councils have worked together to complete eight sea lettuce clean ups already this season. So far we’ve collected a total of nearly 430 tonnes of washed up sea lettuce from the foreshore at Ongare Point, Kauri Point, Pahoia, Kulim and Fergusson Parks. That’s already more than the 350 tonnes collected last summer.

Sea lettuce is a naturally occurring algae that’s native to New Zealand. Its growth is fuelled by nutrients that come from both natural oceanic sources and land run-off. Regional Council monitoring data collected since 1991 shows that our largest sea lettuce blooms have coincided with El Nino weather patterns when there’s lower rainfall and less land run-off but more cool water and oceanic nutrients coming in from the sea. 

You can report problems with sea lettuce build up on the foreshore by calling Bay of Plenty Regional Council Pollution Hotline (phone 0800 884 883) or Tauranga City Council’s contact centre (phone 07 577 7000). 

Three PhD projects that will help us better understand sea lettuce dynamics have been completed this year by Waikato University students. The reports are currently under review and should be available early next year. See www.boprc.govt.nz/sealettuce for more sea lettuce information and videos.

The Bay of Plenty Navigation Safety Bylaw is being reviewed. The Bylaw identifies dedicated areas for surfing, skiing, jet skiing (personal watercraft) and passive recreation. It also sets the rules for anchoring, wearing life jackets and many other things.

Bay of Plenty Regional Council is currently gathering informal feedback and wants to know what you think about the current rules and what issues are important to you. Bylaw changes will be notified for formal public submissions next year.

Visit www.boprc.govt.nz/navbylawreview or call Shawn Baker on 0800 884 880 to find out more and have your say.

Regional Council’s maritime team and their band of hard working volunteer harbour wardens have started summer patrols. 

They’ll be out and about reminding harbour users about boating rules and helping to keep everyone safe on the water this season.

Don’t hesitate to ask for help or say "hi" if you see them.  Their boats have new decals this year, making them easier to spot than ever before.

Eighty businesses in the Maleme Street and Fraser Cove industrial areas have been audited this year to check for potential pollution problems. The checks were done by Tauranga City and Bay of Plenty Regional Council staff as part of a collaborative pollution prevention programme and implementation of a cultural impact assessment by Ngai Te Ahi and Ngati Ruahine.

Only one major concern was discovered; a vehicle and equipment wash bay was found to be discharging directly to the Maleme Street drain and the Waimapu River. This has now been resolved and staff are working on minor improvements with 50 audited businesses to keep storm water run-off as clean as possible. A formal report on the audit findings is being compiled and will be available in early 2016.

Next year’s pollution prevention audits will focus on Tauranga central business district and nearby areas, starting January 2016. Storm water run-off from these areas has been routinely sampled and is showing elevated levels of some contaminants including copper, zinc, lead and bacteria (e-coli). The audits will help to identify potential contaminant sources.  

Matua, Otumoetai and Pilot Bay beaches will soon have more sand. 

Harbour dredging, natural erosion and development impacts in recent years have seen some of our once-sandy harbour beaches turned to mudflats. 

Tauranga City Council has now secured resource consent to use some of the Port’s dredged sand to re-nourish beaches near several harbour reserves including Kulim Park, Memorial Park, Fergusson Park, Maxwells Road Esplanade Reserve and Pilot Bay. 

The re-nourishment will mean more sand for locals to enjoy at popular picnic spots.  It should also reduce sea lettuce build-up and make collection easier by raising the beach level and smoothing out the contours. Work will happen over summer, starting with Pilot Bay in December.   

Bay of Plenty Regional Council has progressed plans to improve all-tide access for Matakana Island residents.  Resource consent applications were lodged this month to dredge the Opureora Channel and use the dredged spoil for beach nourishment on Opureora Spit. 

The consent applications were lodged with Western Bay of Plenty District and Bay of Plenty Regional Councils, following consultation with 21 potentially affected parties. They’ll be processed as non-notified applications. Subject to consent approval, dredging is scheduled to occur in April or May 2016.

Together with Ministry of Business Innovation and Employment, Bay of Plenty Regional Council is contributing to a new four-year research project that uses Tauranga Harbour as a case study for empowering iwi and hapu to monitor and manage estuary health.

The project involves development of a baseline data set, a model for assessing ecological health of sub-tidal estuary systems, and a web-enabled Estuarine Cultural Health Index (ECHI). Iwi and hapū will be trained to use the cultural health index to help inform their decisions about coastal management issues.

The $4.4m research project will be delivered through a partnership between Manaaki Te Awanui Trust, Massey University, University of Waikato, Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Cawthron Institute, WakaDigital Ltd and Market Economics Ltd.

Western Bay of Plenty District Council is developing a 30 year district-wide policy which will guide Council’s approach in addressing the threat of harbour and coastal erosion and sea-level rise across the District. The Policy, once adopted, will include guidelines around what areas or infrastructure is most important to protect, how, and where funding should come from.

Erosion and sea level rise is an issue being addressed by many councils across the country. Western Bay’s policy development was prompted by research that showed the potential risk erosion poses to the district in 100 years’ time. 

Throughout November, the council started collecting community feedback through an online forum and website. About 1000 visits were made to the webpage, with more than 500 people downloading research and 100 taking part in forums and polls.  

The next step is for Council to analyse the feedback, identify a preferred option and go back to the community for further feedback on a draft policy  in early 2016. Keep an eye out for more Living with the Changing Tides updates at www.westernbay.govt.nz