We found many fish with a gut full of kelp fly maggots.
100
Kelp fly maggots provide the protein for the yellow eyed mullet to ensure
successful spawning.
101
Finding where the kelp flies lay their eggs took some research as no one knew until
by luck we found them deep down under layers of beach cast seaweed. Note even
kelp flies are not found in mud.
102
Sample of a number of kelp fly maggots carrying out a process that has never had
any scientific study. The maggots are some how turning the cellulose in the beach
cast seaweed into protein. The protein now within the maggots is then eaten by
yellow eyed mullet who in turn are eaten by fish and dolphins that provides them
with their protein requirements prior to spawning. Mud from the iron sands
dredge waste will destroy the seaweed forests and stop beach cast seaweed from
coming ashore.
103
Mud smothers seaweed and prevents fish from obtaining their traditional food
sources. A past masters paper described how they lay their eggs by scrapping a
hollow in sand in bays that trapped warm water. They will not lay eggs in mud as
the mud will bury the eggs fish are not that dumb.
104
In 1990 Wanganui experienced massive flooding. The commercial catch of blue
cod from cod pots in MPI Area 8 Stat area 41 which is off both Patea and
Wanganui dropped from an annual catch of 38 tonnes to 15 tonnes even though
the fishing fleet had increased from 4 to 13 boats. Our clubs catch history showed
a marked increase in blue cod caught from both the shore and boat fishers. We
have found no fish can be caught off the shore when the waters run muddy. A
sample of blue cod we caught 5.4.14 to show their gut content.
105
A closer look at a blue cod showing this fish had eaten a sea perch and no mud.
106
This cod had eaten krill and other marine life swimming by. But once again no
mud can be seen.
107
This ones gut had a clear liquid and the remains of a fish. But no mud even when
they have been feeding on small scallops that can be found in sand.
108
Female tarakihi with ripe roe. These fish are usually found with seaweed in their
gut but never mud.
109
• The Joint Statement March 2014 section 15 fails to name a marine specie that
can live in mud day after day for twenty years. In our experience fish can not
be caught from the shore when the waters become dirty with mud.
• In the experts Joint Statement they said there is “uncertainty as to how these
(unnamed specie) will react in sediment concentrations”.
• The importance and the message our presentation brings has been given
recognition by the experts as they have quoted they are “not aware of any
reports that address these effects”. Yet the paper Dr J Grieve quotes in section
19 describes “that higher sediment concentrations result in lower intake of food
particles and fewer eggs are laid”. While that directly applies to zooplankton
NIWA have already produced a paper describing how fish eggs become buried
in mud.
• Further in section 19 the experts have concluded that “there was likely to be no
effect on zooplankton other than what is already existing in the natural
environment”. In section 20 “All the experts agree that direct effects of the
increase of sediment concentrations on zooplankton are highly unlikely” which
can only be described as unbelievable rubbish.
110
• The experts have just proven money talks and very naive of those who selected
them to expect people who are either employees of TTR or EPA to tell the
truth and still think they would keep their jobs is asking too much.
•
A detailed report from the North American Journal of Fisheries Management
titled “Effects of Suspended Sediments on Aquatic Ecosystems” has exposed the
Joint experts corrupted statements. For example referring to zooplankton
they described mud would cause a “reduced capacity to assimilate food”.
•
• For fish they describe “sediment acts directly on free living fish either by killing
them or by reducing their growth rate or resistance to disease” and that
“sediment interferes with development of eggs and larvae” and that sediment
“will modify natural movements and migration of fish”.
• These experts appointed by EPA and TTR have exposed their lack of marine
scientific knowledge and we seriously ask that the whole Joint Statement be
considered misinformation. They have failed to predict that fish will be
prevented from accessing their traditional spawning grounds causing fish to
lose their genetic memory. MPI will be first to prove we are correct as when
the mature fish are caught or die off they would have been prevented to111
guide
the newly recruited fish back to food sources and spawning grounds.
• When the past Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment John
Morgan Williams in his publication Missing Links described there was a
problem through the resource consent process he only touched on a far bigger
problem that we have personally experienced at all the ten resource consent
applications we have been at or taken an interest in when he said:
• “What this report does not cover: As we examined the relationship between
science and environmental policy it became clear that it involved a broader range
of issues than we could adequately address in a single report, for example:
• There are questions about whether science used in some adversarial approaches
to environmental policy and decision making contribute to sustainability. For
example there is the potential for scientific evidence to be selectively used in
resource consent hearings for the purpose of gaining or maintaining a particular
interest or position, which could be to the detriment of the broader principles of
sustainability.
• There are issues around the roles and influence of science and expert scientific
witnesses in legal proceedings on environmental issues (S1.3.1, p16).”
112
Protecting fragile marine intertidal ecosystems is non existent in the Wellington
region.
113
Hutt River mouth has become a dredge waste dump site
114
• Since the Wellington Regional Council was formed we experienced first hand
the lack of marine knowledge in the council. We have seen research projects
by pass taking notice of impacts. They have never evaluated the impact of
dredge waste or chemicals on marine species and senior management have
ignored our input and continued to destroy fragile marine ecosystems.
• The dredge waste being dumped into Wellington Harbour forms huge under
water balls of mud that can be seen rolling along Petone Beach just off shore
making clouds of mud. Commercial fishers can not use flounder set nets there.
In 1999 we tried to stop the WRC from dumping 1000 tonnes a year of dredge
waste 800 metres off the Hutt River into marine chart identified submarine
fresh water springs. The WRC called them natural holes and depressions in
the harbour through the media.
• The marine life in the springs you will see as I took a couple of photos and the
fish life is impressive. When the WRC failed to read books in their own library
or consult with marine recreational fishers the council produced a Wellington
Regional Coastal Plan they did not include the springs. As a result the HCC
has placed the integrity of the Hutt Ground Water artesian water supply
115at risk
by removing Point Howard Wharf piles known to enter the artesian gravels.
The mud is pushed into Wellington Harbour
116
The beginning of a major environmental disaster at Point Howard Wharf as
Wellington is about to loose considerable back pressure in the Waiwhetu Aquifer.
All because WRC would not include them in their coastal plan and NIWA failed to
record them at this location on their bathometric chart. Now piles identified by
science years ago as penetrating the aquifer are being removed by the HCC.
117
Current management of Wellington Harbour allows the destruction of
marine ecosystems.
118
As the tide comes in the mud breaks away and washes into the sea. It is all very
well for NIWA to compare the impact of mud at Wanganui with Wellington
Harbour telling us the harbour is filling up at the rate of 2 centimetres a year. But
NIWA said nothing to stop the Wellington Harbour submarine freshwater springs
being filled and only the WRMFA opposed it at the resource consent hearing.
119
While algae provides a major food source for fish they will not enter water this
heavy in mud.
120
By Comparison here is the
clean clear waters of Ohau
Bay on the south western
coast taken the same day
121
Comparing the Hutt River mouth with the rock pools at Makara. Full of life.
122
Another look at the rook pools at Makara.
123
After the sand is extracted the mud is held in a pit prior to being dumped into the
Wellington harbour.
124
125
Disposing of dredge waste the Wellington Regional Council way. This is on land
and only a small amount. But take 50 million tonnes a year that is the entre coal
production for more than 110 years from the Stockton Plateau mine. Or three
months of the total coal exports from Queensland that produces 196 million tonnes
a year at a time when commodity prices are plunging.
126
A resource consent was granted knowing the mud gets washed into the sea in
a southerly.
127
Dredge waste waiting to be washed into Wellington Harbour.
128
A resource consent was granted knowing the mud gets washed into the sea in
a southerly.
129
130
The mud rolls through the near shore shellfish beds smothering and killing the
shell fish. They was ashore days later.
131
Some times the impact of the mud is terrible along Petone Beach.
132
When I was on the Wellington Port Company dredging committee we worked out
a way to reduce the impact on marine life. We did not want a repeat of the
Auckland dredging waste disaster where both dump sites off Manukau and
Waitemata Harbours are completely dead with marine life yet to return. This
proposal to dump dredge waste six metre above the sea bed would never have
received a resource consent in Wellington.
133
Before the WRC had a chance
to fill in the submarine fresh
water springs I ran my boat
over them to record what they
looked like on my sounder
and take some photos.
It is not guess work to locate
these springs but finding the
mysid shrimps blooming was
a result of the timing required
to see the springs working
The springs are the reason
why Wellington harbour has
56 different specie over 500
grams. The photo is recorded
in the NZ National Library.
134
Mud and silt now
smothers everything in
this Wellington
Harbour submarine
fresh water spring.
135
The submarine fresh water springs of Wellington Harbour once bulged the surface
with drinkable fresh water. A marine chart may display a sea bed as flat but it
will also displayed hills, hollows and reefs. The hollow can be caused by fresh
water rising or by the current passing over a rock. Rising fresh water can be hard
to find if you don’t know when to look and in low flows a string of bubbles may be
all that can be seen. Victoria University never found one spring in all their trawl
surveys of the harbour. They helped WRC select the dredge waste dump site and
believed they had found a natural hollow until I told them it was a spring and I
had caught 30 snapper off them twice.
136
It is hardly surprising that NIWA and Dr Alan Orpin did not know of the springs
off Patea and Wanganui as NIWA did not have the marine knowledge to make an
accurate bathometric chart of Wellington Harbour. LINZ, DOC and WRC have
ignored our concerns and information since 1999 as they keep trying to keep them
a secret. LINZ will not include them on marine charts, WRC refuse to include
them in the Wellington Regional Coastal Plan, DOC refuses to recognise them as
areas of significant conservation value and NIWA will not identify the mysid
shrimps. The NIWA Wellington Harbour bathometric chart information looks
like guess work as many springs are missing and the springs displayed on LINZ
marine charts are not recorded.
137
The beginning of a major environmental disaster at Point Howard Wharf as
Wellington is about to loose considerable back pressure in the Waiwhetu Aquifer.
All because WRC would not include them in their coastal plan and NIWA failed to
record them at this location on their bathometric chart. Now piles identified by
science years ago as penetrating the aquifer are being removed by the HCC.
138
The error ridden NIWA
bathometric chart. Even
the massive spring under
the Seaview Wharf that
was caused during
construction is not shown.
The springs in Evans Bay,
Falcon Shoals, Point
Howard Wharf, off Aotea
Quay Wharf, off the wharf
at Somes Island, off Petone
Wharf at the break water
wall at the Seaview Marine
are not shown.
139
By not locating major
submarine fresh water
springs NIWA have
demonstrated they lack
research and marine
knowledge on how to locate
the springs.
Information could have
been found in the Book
Rugged Landscape by
Graeme Stevens and in a
thesis by Steven Harding
for a Masters of Science
Honours degree or the
story I wrote for the NZ
Fishing Coast to Coast
magazine titled The springs
of life.. Dead and buried?
140
While the springs appear to be located on this chart all underwater features are at
least 150 metres way from the location on the chart. The reason for this is all
marine charts were made from a survey in 1956 before GPS then transposed onto
electronic charts using the Wooden Goodem 49 system. After a while they
discovered the world was oval and a new system called WGS 84 was introduced.
141
Off the Patea river mouth there will be many submarine fresh water springs
judging by the many holes in the sea bed displayed on charts and the massive
schools of mackerel that arrive at night to eat the mysid shrimps. There is
another indicator as the geology in the hills behind Patea is a raised sea bed
covered in sand stone and shells with many tunnels in the area and some would go
into the sea. I discovered this when I was repairing motor scrapers at the Dam as
at times all work stopped as they had found previously unknown water tunnels
through the hills.
142
Wanganui to Patea submarine fresh water springs. While I can see where the
springs should be it takes a number of other conditions to occur before some one
could find them as these LINZ marine charts are at least 150 metres out. The
springs provide the food for shrimps in turn mackerel then fish and marine
mammals.
143
• When Rosemarie Thomas was a regional councillor she was informed that the
WRC council scientists and those at Victoria University and NIWA could not
find a reason as to why there was no longer native fish or eels in the Pencarrow
and Fitzroy Lakes.
•
She asked if I could visit the lakes to see if I could find the cause. Accepting
the challenge I visited the lakes with our clubs most experienced shore fisher.
When he described they could no longer catch moki in front of the shingle piles
I realised the problem. The shingle piles were in fact dredge waste dump sites
with sand removed. Without sand the shingle could no longer retain water and
the sand hoppers the food that moki eat could no longer live there. Without
sand at the lake outlets the lakes water could no longer reach the sea.
• Photos taken in February 1946 clearly show both the lakes water reaching the
sea. The errors made by the WRC in granting the resource consent to mine in
front of the lakes and also allow mining into the sea was the main reason. The
loss of access to the sea for the lake waters also destroyed the major spawning
area for the regions yellow eyed mullet schools and after five years they
disappeared as well. Although advised and shown photos how to repair the
damaged lake outlets senior WRC management have been reluctant to accept
144
our marine knowledge and the experience of other councils.
Fitzroy Lake has never had an outlet to the sea since the WRC allowed sand
mining at the lakes outlet.
145
The Wellington Regional Council designed a new lake outlet. The outlet is to the
same standard as the Wellington Coastal Plan and that also blocks off fresh water.
146
For WRC to intentionally construct a lake outlet without sand is environmental
vandalism but their scientists as well as NIWA and Victoria University scientists
could not see the fault. This an example of NZ marine scientific knowledge. No
wonder NIWA scientists can not see what is wrong with the sand mining
application.
147
148
As a result of sand mining the water from the Fitzroy Lake rarely reaches the sea.
The WRC has created a soak hole. Before mining the lakes water reached the sea
even in a drought. This error by WRC caused a major marine fish spawning area
to be lost forever. Sand mining changes the marine environment for ever.
149
Pencarrow Lake outlet. For years HCC, WRC, DOC, NIWA, Victoria University
and Iwi would drive past and see the eels and native fish dying in this pool. But
due to their combined lack of marine knowledge they did not see the problem and
as result never produced a cure.
150
Out from the small pool some times the water made a bigger pool. However still
the waters from this lake never reach the sea. All due to sand mining resource
consent errors by WRC. Although advised how to correct the error they have
failed to implement the cure.
151
Sand is not a renewable resource and the drive for more high quality sand will
cause major problems for future generations. Sand mining in process Fitzroy Bay
Wellington 7.04
152
153
In the photo there could be 50 piles of dredge waste each of about 50 tonnes
making a total of 2500 tonnes. Now imagine that pile 20,000 times higher as you
would be dreaming to believe a trench could be dug eleven metres into the sea bed
and stay upright to take the 45 million tonnes of waste. All the waste will do is sit
on top of a slight depression as the machine advances. Every hour at the rate of
8000 tonnes an hour the pile is 3 times higher until at the end of the year the pile is
18,000 times higher than what you can see in this photo. This is mining on a
massive scale.
154
Sand mining produces considerable waste. The process is not renewable and once
the sand is extracted the waste can not retain water and without water there is no
life.
155
156
Sand mining Wainuiomata Beach in the 1980s
157
Wainuiomata Beach after years of sand mining. Sand mining is not a renewable
resource
158
While some can find a use for mining waste in a fish tank its value is limited. Note
there is no sand on this beach.
159
A beach without sand has no life
160
For years we knew the fast ferries were sucking up the pilchard and yellow eyed
mullet schools and washing the seaweed off the beaches with their 48 two metre
tidal waves a day. The blue cod also lost their seaweed as it became smothered in
mud and as seaweed grows through photosynthesis the weed quickly died.
Marine science has demonstrated in the Joint Statement we have senior marine
scientists who still have not a clue about the life under water.
161
It was not until I drove my boat into the wake of the fast ferry and took this photo
off my depth sounder showing the under water wave blasting the sea bed at 42
metres that the full impact could be judged as the Sounds are less than 35 metres.
Three months after I sent this photo to Sandra Lee the ferries were taken out of
service.
162
Makara Stream. It is very naive for anyone to think that behind the dredge there
will be walls standing 11 metres high when we have gravity acting on both the land
and underwater. The exposed mud now a slurry will be in a uncontrollable state
and will flow around the machine and up into the water column. The mud
flowing up to the surface will be massive and uncontrollable as the method has
lacked any common sense from scientists from the beginning.
163
• Power and communication cables are laid with a plough all around the World.
In the north sea they made massive ploughs to lay the oil pipe lines.
• It is unbelievable that those at TTR think their under water wall of sand will
remain up right so that they can fill in the trench. In reality there will be no
trench remaining just a slight hollow in the sea bed. Just as if you dug a trench
on the beach the sea will bring sand and it will be filled in. If not all sand
castles the children made will be still there the next day.
• The next question by removing 50 million tonnes a year where will the sand
come from for nature to fill in the trench as the discharge waste product will
arrive too late and will only lie on top of the sand nature provided.
• As the most active zone is the beaches the sand will have to come from the
coastal beaches. But the beaches are already being exposed to bigger tidal
surges and bigger storm surfs. Who will provide the money and skills to
protect the beaches when already councils are not allowing buildings near the
coast or barriers to properties properties.
164
Makara Stream banks can not remain upright near the stream. Off the Patea
under water the result will be far worse as the sand would have been liquefied by
the process. It is misinformation by scientists to say there will be a trench with
walls at the extraction site. Once the product is extracted the site will rapidly
become a slight hollow in the sea bed just as hole on a beach becomes.
165
Underwater the result will look like this or even worse as mud and silt coming out
of a pipe at 133 tonnes a second six metres or more above the sea bed will cover
rocks and make it impossible for new growth to attach. Even if they did attach
they could not grow as they obtain their food source from the sun and the mud will
turn the marine environment into night.
166
It is obvious the result will be instantaneous as all marine life would have lost their
food source and spawning grounds. Then after five to seven year the fish will loose
their genetic memory and die off never to return to the coast again. Just as they
have done in Porirua Harbour and Fitzroy Lake. Marine specie do not dig in mud
looking for algae food.
167
In Wellington Paua only grow to this size because we have clean water. New
Plymouth and Pukerua Bay have dirt water and they call the paua stunted. When
Mt Ruapehu erupted the pumis came down the Wanganui River and arrived at
the Makara Beach three days later. Mud and silt will smother the paua at
D’Urville Island and as science describes this area as the major spawning area for
all paua the paua industry will almost collapse over night as the paua will have no
food.
168
Glasswort beds in the Makara Estuary can also be found around our coastal shore
line. As the tide comes in they provide marine specie with food source. Mud will
smother these plants.
169
To give an indication of how fragile these plants are this photo is showing the
fruit, leaves and flowers that yellow eyed mullet graze on. Mud destroys this
food source.
170
There is an obvious error proposed by TTR as they proposes to take water
samples 15 cm below the sea surface. This will produce corrupted information as
freshwater floats as a thin layer on the open sea. The method should be all samples
must be taken 0 to 15 cm from the surface. Take for example the HCC waste
water spreading a slim layer over Fitzroy Bay before coming into Wellington
Harbour with the incoming tide and with a south easterly into Seatoun Beaches.
171
The slick of waste water chemicals rising from the broken WCC outfall in Lyall
Bay. The dredge waste product being discharged on the sea bed will be “brine”
which is mix of sea and fresh water however it will also contain flocking chemicals.
This product will be lighter than seawater and as such will come straight back up
to the surface. Every flocking chemical poisons marine life. Iron sands contain
carbon a product that Woods Hole Institute spread over the sea causing a massive
algae bloom. The iron sands waste now on the surface with carbon that will cause
a massive algae bloom for years however this bloom will contain chemicals making
the algae bloom poisonous. Fish eat algae and overseas they found marine
mammals that died from eating poisonous fish. Beaching of marine mammals will
be almost a daily event.
172
Fresh water travels can travel on the sea surface for fifty miles or more in light
winds. The effect of WCC waste water travelling along the coast is put on display
every time it rains and a south-easterly wind arrives. The effect is just like
blowing on a saucer of water the wind pushes the waste water into all the rock
pools along the coast until the public gets a whiff and the beaches to Owhiro Bay
are closed although the product travels a lot further than that. The Cawthron
marine scientist told the WCC resource consent that 4000 litres a second would
mix with sea water inside 200 metres. We exposed his misinformation to the NZ
Environment Court with overseas publications proving scientists use their position
to destroy the environment.
173
Chemicals from the WCC waste water plant wash ashore killing all intertidal life
along the Wellington South coast. It only takes one pass and the rocks have been
chemically washed and just like washing your house the algae fails to grow again.
Algae is major marine food source. The chemical coming from the plant will have
an impact on marine life as the ribbon of chemical enriched surface water weaves
around the site pushed by the wind. Scientists tell me it will take five to seven
years before algae will grow again mean while all shellfish along the shore line will
disappear.
174
With these photos of WRC mud management Iwi used them to demand the
Porirua City Council take ownership of the harbour. No fish can be caught in this
harbour now. The following photos show what I found when I tracked the source.
Porirua 08.
175
176
177
Mud then came along the coast smothering the intertidal marine ecosystems on the
rocks of the Aotea Lagoon next to Okowai Lagoon. All marine life dies under these
conditions.
178
179
Lagoons and Porirua Harbour being filled with mud from Aotea subdivision.
Harbour lost a metre of depth in ten years and fish no longer can be caught there.
All due to mismanagement of sediment by Wellington Regional Council
180
The result of excessive run off. The Porirua ramp keeps going down as it was a
metre deeper at low tide, ten years ago. The harbour also had shell fish but not
now as being buried in mud kills everything. Ten years ago Waka crews once
swam across the harbour here now they can walk across.
181
Surface currents don’t go in computer manufactured rhythms. They are
generated by changing air pressure systems. I have been the first in NZ to record
that high air pressures lowers sea levels. A week later a deep low developed off
the Chatham Islands raising sea levels that produced through the Cook Strait a
current so strong it ripped out the salmon farm in the Sounds.
182
Ohau Point with the sun above it. The current can run to the south for twenty
four hours or more. The returning surface water produces a current that has to be
seen to be believed as at Ohau Point the pressure waves caused by the returning
water can be over three metres. At Terawhiti Point this fast current hits the
surface waters from another system producing peaking and collapsing waves. One
of the fast ferries found they had entered pressure waves over sixteen metres high
and as they collapsed the ferry free fell and stove in its side by over a metre.
183
Meridian accepted my marine knowledge for the West Wind turbine farm.
Instead of break waters and causeways they built a wharf where I suggested and
when they had finished pulled it out as I suggested. There was no environmental
damage and all turbine parts were safely unloaded.
184
• How fast this returning current can be described as three days after the
Wanganui floods we had mud off Makara and three days after a volcanic
eruption we had pumice at Makara.
• There can be no doubt that Wellington will be also smothered in mud from the
iron sands extraction. But so will D’Urville Island and Admiralty Bay the site
of massive mussel farm. The Marlborough Sounds will once again return to a
mud hole and the blue cod will move out again.
• For commercial the impact of the mud travelling with the fast north to south
current will be massive. For example paua will no longer have access to the
new seaweed and they will die out. The spat from crayfish spawning at
D’Urville Island that collects in the big back eddy off the Wairarapa Coast
before travelling onto that coast and drifting in the sub Antarctic flow up to
Gisborne will no longer be there.
• It is little wonder Hadfield could not give an answer to the question “how far
will the mud travel” as his computer model is just that a model. Just as a
computer game of fishing is as you caught nothing and you learnt nothing while
others were in the real world catching real fish and learning about the real
185
environment.
The Makara coast line with Mana and Kapiti Islands in the distance. The mud
slick from any iron sands mining will arrive days after the operation begins. In the
distance is Pukerua Bay where we called a public meeting to sell the idea of a
closed fishing area for line fishing only. It was an attempt to improve paua stocks
in the bay. It has not been successful as while paua spat arrives the food source of
the paua keeps getting smothered in mud from the rivers north of the bay.
186
When the F69 was being proposed to be sunk off Island Bay such was NIWA’s
knowledge of the Cook Strait currents they said nothing. Marine charts for
Wellington depict sea bed currents of .9 knots at its fastest which has nothing to
do with surface currents. Knowing the currents at the site it was easy to
predict that this boat would quickly break up and wrote a story in the NZ
Fishing C2C about its future and no one believed me. When it broke up weeks
after it was sunk TV3 news asked how I knew and what will happen now.
187
Low pressure systems and on shore winds raise sea levels resulting in extremely
fast currents through the Cook Strait. Attending ten resource consent hearings I
have yet to find a marine scientist who has a basic understanding of the marine
environment. I have now had WRC scientists argue that fresh water does not
float on sea water and another thinks Porirua Harbour main cause of pollution is
from boy racers and cigarette buts.
188
Huge seas such as this create massive surface and sea bed currents not just in
Wellington but all around the country. The NIWA description of the currents off
Patea are a joke as any surfer or recreational fisher will tell you. These scientists
should have researched history and learnt from the 1962 huge southerly swell that
came with no wind and picked up the 40 tonne rocks protecting the new airport
runway. The so called 0.2 knot currents that LINZ tell you that are in Lyall Bay
rolled them along the coast into the outer bay of the Taputeranga Island at Island
Bay.
189
Low pressure systems when combined with other factors can raise sea levels over
two meters and cause a lot of damage. Science in NZ has never predicted a sea
surge event but NIWA scientists are quick to warn the public to watch out for the
next high tide and in doing so confirming they have little marine knowledge.
190
The currents generated by sea water surges will be surface currents which have
nothing to do with the NIWA computer models as they have been made from the
misinformation on LINZ marine charts which depict sea bed currents as surface
currents.
191
NIWA could not forecast the over two metre tidal surge that combined with strong
winds that flooded the Seaview industrial area in seawater causing millions of
dollars damage. Tidal surges are not that hard to predict but NIWA has not
developed the resources to predict them and even less when they tell the public to
wait for the next high tide.
192
This is an example of the changing weather patterns that also washed out the rail
tracks in Wellington Harbour. Not once has the NIWA current model for
Wanganui described surface currents.
193
Red gurnard spawn in shallow waters close to shore such as Lyall Bay then their
eggs rise to the surface to be pushed by the wind into the inshore shallows. Blue
cod also spawn in the shallows and their eggs get pushed by the wind into the
shallows where they hatch. But their eggs will be unable to hatch as they will be
buried in mud. There is a secret world under the sea that few understand but
many destroy.
194
• We live in a “society that in many areas really does not know what it
does not know”. So said Dr J Morgan Williams the past
Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment in 2004 in his
foreword to another excellent document called See Change.
• He also went on to say “we need a much deeper understanding of
the demands and pressures of our current society on the health and
long term sustainability of our natural resources”.
•
In 1999 he produced a document called Setting course for a
sustainable future: the management of New Zealand’s marine
environment in which he had this to say “New Zealand’s lack of
marine knowledge is a serious environmental and economic risk”.
195
• In December 1999 the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment
(PCE) Dr J Morgan Williams published a document called Setting Course for a
Sustainable Future. The Management of New Zealand's Marine Environment.
• In section 5, page 74, Adequacy of Environmental Information (5.2) "Different
kinds of information" he had this to say: -• However, in an information scarce environment like the marine environment,
informal information will often be a resource that marine managers cannot afford
to neglect or ignore.
• At an Oceans Policy meeting I was asked how can we use your marine
knowledge. My reply was I do not know what you don’t know until you say or
do something then I know you don’t know. This resource consent has exposed
there is serious lack of marine scientific knowledge in NZ.
• There were no computer generated models in our presentation just photos
showing that our marine fish do not eat mud. The muddy brine will travel
great distances on the sea surface impacting on the mussel industry in the
Sounds and game fishing industry to the north. The muddy brine at 2,222
litres a second will prevent native fresh water fish from seeking out clean sea
water in which to live. Maui dolphins will no longer be able to feed in their
traditional waters
• In an age where every one is accountable the impact on the marine
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environment and other industries will be so great it will be unacceptable.