Wagner Nicky: Kaikōura (Te Tai-o-Marokura) Marine Management Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeWagner Nicky: Kaikōura (Te Tai-o-Marokura) Marine Management Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 20 March 2014. Volume:697;Page:16921. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]NICKY WAGNER (National—Christchurch Central):I too am very pleased to be able to support this bill the Kaikōura (Te Tai-o-Marokura) Marine Management Bill. I am really pleased because it is an exciting day for the people of Kaikōura many of whom have been involved in the Te Korowai o Te Tai o Marokura project for over 7 years working on coming up with an innovative and different way to protect their marine environment. It is a collaborative process and it has worked very well. It has had locals from all around the community representing all the different stakeholders working to get this protection for the Kaikōura that they love correct.If you think about marine protection Kiwis are very keen on marine reserves. They are particularly keen on marine reserves that are not where they go fishing. As you know fishing is one of our most popular pastimes in New Zealand and fishers tend to be very passionate about their secret fishing spots and they visit them regularly. They are also passionate about marine reserves but not where they go fishing. New Zealand was the first country in the world to introduce the idea of no-take reserves but it is the location—the fact that it is your favourite fishing spot—that has caused huge debate when people suggest new marine reserves. There has often been huge and quite bitter debate that has divided communities.It was not until the Guardians of Fiordland Fisheries and Marine Environment got together and developed a stakeholder model that it could work with the community around the areas: the people who go fishing there the people who have tourist operations the people who are conservationists—the people who are really involved in their area. It got them together and came up with a mutually agreed process and some marine protection that everybody could sign off. I think that is the answer for marine reserves. The huge subantarctic marine reserves that the Minister of Conservation visited last month were very successfully negotiated through a collaborative stakeholder forum. I think that is what it is all about. We do want to protect our marine reserves. Some of us have vested interests in certain spots but if we can get together and have a bit of give and take we can come up with something that really works.Now we have Te Korowai. This is an example of a very successful collaborative community process and it has really delivered an intelligent well-supported and comprehensive marine package for that area. It is innovative it is different and it has different levels of protection right across that Kaikōura coast. First of all it provides for the Hikurangi Marine Reserve and that covers 10416 hectares—so it is a very large area. It protects all the species in the area including whales and fur seals but it also protects that very unique hugely deep submarine canyon that goes along the Kaikōura coast for about 23 kilometres. It also protects the other natural marine habitats in the area. The bill also creates a whale sanctuary. That is to protect the whales themselves and also the habitat of the whales. The sanctuary stretches all the way from Gore Bay to the Clarence River—that is over 91 kilometres of land mass—and then it stretches out way past our territorial waters into our exclusive economic zone about 56 kilometres off the coast. Again it is a very large area that will be protected for the whales and the whale habitat.It also creates a sanctuary for New Zealand fur seals. This will be at Ōhau Point which is an area where they naturally congregate already and where the colony can be observed by the public. It is a particularly popular area for tourists so far because it has a unique feature: it has a seal pup creche. The seal pup creche is in a stream with a waterfall that goes up into the bush behind up from the beach. The mothers pop their seal pups there when they go out fishing and they leave them there. It has become a tourist attraction where you can walk up through the bush along the stream to this waterfall and you can see dozens of baby seals playing in the water while their mothers go out to get their dinner for them. It is area that has been naturally popular with tourists people enjoy it and now that will be protected as well.There will also be some customary fishing protection through two taiāpure and mātaitai and finally there have been significant changes to fishing regulations. Again this is an interesting story. Locals have got together and they have looked at it. They have reduced the bag catches of some species they have actually made some prohibitions on other species and they have reduced the legal take sizes. I was very interested to hear this weekend when I was at Kaikōura fishermen talking about “Oh well we really can’t take our whole bag because those Korowai people won’t like it.” So they are actually already reducing their take for the future so they can protect their marine environment.I would very much like to congratulate the people of Kaikōura. It has been a long haul—7 years—and a great collaborative process. Everybody has been involved. It is leading to an excellent bill that we will be very pleased to put through the Local Government and Environment Committee. Thank you.