Credit where it’s due: Ngāti Manuhiri helped stop the rockpool plunder

I don’t hand out praise to iwi very often. Most of the time, what we see is no mahi and plenty of take, take, take. Loud demands, endless grievances, and not much practical effort put into fixing the problems right in front of us.

This is one of the rare times I’m happy to say it plainly: Ngāti Manuhiri stepped up and helped make real, positive change.

For months, locals were watching the intertidal zone around the Whangaparāoa Peninsula get hammered. It’s not just a bit of casual gathering either. Whole patches of rockpools stripped back to bare rock. Catseyes, crabs, starfish, seaweed, anything that can be scooped, bagged, or pried loose. The kind of behaviour that turns a living coastline into a barren mess.

Instead of shrugging and letting it carry on, Ngāti Manuhiri got vocal about it. They backed action. They pushed for enforcement. They helped drive the point that this wasn’t “a few people picking up a feed”, it was systematic damage.

They weren’t alone either. Protect Whangaparāoa Rockpools (PWR), the Facebook group, and its founder Mark Lenton, deserve genuine credit as well. This is what community pressure is supposed to look like when it’s done properly. Submissions to Government. Evidence gathered and shared. Consistent messaging. Keeping the issue in the public eye until it couldn’t be ignored.

The Government has now brought in a two-year ban on harvesting from rockpools in North Auckland, and it is exactly the kind of circuit-breaker needed when an area is being stripped faster than it can recover.

This is what I want to see more of in New Zealand - a clear problem, clear evidence, and people prepared to do the unglamorous work to push for an outcome. Not posturing. Not endless symbolism. Not committees, hui, and photo ops that lead nowhere.

Just results.

What makes this stand out is that it didn’t rely on the usual script. There was no “hand us more power and we might solve it” routine. Instead, it was locals and Ngāti Manuhiri pushing the same basic principle that the coastline doesn’t belong to whoever can take the most, fastest. If you care about the environment, you don’t empty the rockpools. If you care about future generations, you don’t treat the intertidal zone like a free-for-all. That’s why I’m crediting them.

I think the last time I gave any praise to an iwi was back in Kaikohe, when more than 400 people marched down the main street to honour the tragically short life of Catalya Remana Tangimetua-Pepene. That was organised by Mutunga Rameka from Ngāpuhi and Ōkorihi Marae. It was community-led, heartfelt, and it showed leadership in the real world, not just online.

The Whangaparāoa ban should not be the end of it. If this is happening there, it’s happening elsewhere too. The moment you build a framework that works, you can apply it again. Other communities should be watching closely and preparing their own submissions, because the intertidal zone is being pressure-cooked all over the country.

I’m not interested in culture wars for the sake of it. I’m interested in outcomes. And this time, Ngāti Manuhiri helped deliver one. So, credit where it’s due.