MUDDY FEET - Auckland Regional Council

2
• Establishment of nature reserves in wetlands, and promotion of training in the fields of
wetland research and management.
• Consultation with other Contracting Parties about implementation of the Convention.
The first Oceania regional meeting of the Ramsar Convention was held in Hamilton, New
Zealand in December 1998. New Zealand has designated five wetlands for inclusion in the
List of Wetlands of International Importance, three of which are in the Waikato Region.
Chronologically, from date of designation, these are:
• Farewell Spit and the Waituna Wetland (both August 1976) – South Island
• Whangamarino and Kopuatai Peat Dome (both December 1989) – Waikato
• Firth of Thames (January 1990) – a short distance NE of Whangamarino and Kopuatai
The April 2001 report from the Auditor General of New Zealand on Meeting International
Environmental Obligations points to some weaknesses in our wetlands standards, citing the
“…. lack of a coherent national policy framework on wetlands.” and, “There is also evidence
that wetland degradation in New Zealand is worse than it ought to have been. To an extent
this may have been inevitable. But it is probable that the cause lies, in part, in the lack of
guidance – both in legislative and policy terms – on where the balance should lie between
development and wetland protection. We believe the variability and differing values of
wetlands lead directly to difficulties in application and implementation of the Ramsar
Convention. And these difficulties reinforce the need to develop a national wetlands planning
framework to set priorities, targets, standards, and so on within an agreed understanding of
the Convention obligation of as far as possible the wise use of wetlands.”
1.3 General Description of the Firth of Thames
The Firth of Thames, or Tikapa Moana, is a shallow marine embayment, which lies in the
northern part of the Hauraki Rift, bounded by fault lines along the Hunua and Coromandel
ranges (see 1.6). The Firth’s northern boundary, merging into the greater Hauraki Gulf, is
situated due east of Auckland, running from Thumb Point (NE Waiheke Island) to
Coromandel Harbour, approximately following the line of 36º44' S latitude, between 175º11'
and 175º31' E longitude (Figure 1-1). The Firth is between eleven and fourteen nautical miles
wide and reaches a maximum depth of 35 metres near its northern limits. About 95% of the
Firth is less than 30 metres deep.
The Firth of Thames is the primary receiving environment for the ~3600 km 2 Hauraki
Catchment. The inner half of the Firth (south of a line drawn between Tararu in the east and
Kaiaua in the west) is very shallow (Figure 8-1), with a maximum depth of five metres
(mainly in the middle) at mean low water spring tides (MLWS). For nearly all of the coastal
area covered by the Ramsar designation, the intertidal zone is between one and two
kilometres wide, with no more than a 1.5m change in altitude between its inner and outer
margins.
EcoQuest Education Foundation EQRS/1 12/04