Human Uses of the West Coast Marine and Coastal Environment

4.8 Current Coastal and Marine Protection and Management Area Measures

Several types of management controls are in place over defined parts of the West Coast coastal marine area as well as on the adjacent lands. These include:

coastal management areas of the West Coast Regional Coastal Plan,
areas listed in the Ngai Tahu Settlement Act 1998, and
conservation lands administered by the Department of Conservation.

These areas are shown in the segment maps in Chapter 5.

4.8.1 Crown Conservation Lands that Extend into the Coastal Marine Area.
Conservation areas that mostly protect the land (e.g. national parks and reserves) sometimes include small parts of the coastal marine area, often as a result of coastal erosion and river mouth changes. However, this section of the report concentrates on identifying only those conservation areas that are ‘properly’ within the West Coast coastal marine area (in terms of their size, integrity, location and/or purpose), based on the best available information.

Parts of the coastal marine area that are wholly or mostly within Crown conservation lands are listed below, grouped according to the estuarine and marine environmental domains identified in Chapters 2 and 3. It is important to note that this list has not been assessed against the ‘protection standard’ proposed by the MPA Policy, and so does not necessarily represent a list of marine protected areas.

Jackson Head and Jackson Bay/Okahu looking north east towards mouth of Arawhata River and Haast coastal plain.
Photo: D.L. Homer GNS

Tidal Flat Estuaries:
Saltwater Lagoon and some saltmarsh areas within Okarito Lagoon Wildlife Management Reserve.

Tidal Lagoons:
Totara Lagoon, Te Rahotaiepa Lagoon, Waitangiroto River, Five Mile Lagoon and Ohinemaka River.

River Mouths:
Taramakau, Hokitika, Wanganui, Poerua, Waiho, Cook, Karangarua, Paringa, Whakapohai, Waita, Haast, Waiatoto, Arawhata, Cascade and Hope Rivers.

Intertidal (open coast), Shallow subtidal (open coast), and Deep nearshore:
No substantial areas within conservation lands.