Hauraki Gulf Forum

The Hauraki Gulf Forum has released its State of the Environment Report 2008 on 3 June 2008. Environment Waikato is highly involved in the Forum and also a main contributor to this report. Clearly, our coasts and coastal waters along the Firth of Thames and the Coromandel Peninsula all belong to the Hauraki Gulf. But also our catchments from as far south as the Waikato District also flow into it.

The Forum is constituted under the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park Act 2000 and works to integrate management across the Gulf and its catchments. One of the key functions of the Forum under the Act is to prepare a State of the Environment Report (SER) for the Hauraki Gulf. It must do so every three years.

To learn more about the report, please refer to the summary, or for more in-depth information you can access the full report. The summary and the full report are available to download in pdf format below:

Summary - State of the Environment Report (SER) for the Hauraki Gulf
(1004 kb, 143 seconds to download, 56k modem)

Full report - State of the Environment Report (SER) for the Hauraki Gulf
(2851 kb, 407 seconds to download, 56k modem)

Weaving the Strands

The November issue of the Hauraki Gulf Forum's newsletter Weaving the Strands is now available on-line. Stories in this issue include:

• Health warnings after dog deaths
• TTX causal factor
• Cockle deaths culprit identified
• Hauraki river ranks poorly
• Kawakawa Bay to get wastewater treatment
• Rangitoto-Motutapu sanctuary update
• Oi/ petrels breed at Tawharanui
• New marine farming space approved
• P&O Cruises chooses Auckland base
• Pacific Series racing to return
• New book on what’s happening to our coast

The Chairman asks, “Recent events have given us reason to be concerned. Could these be signs that the Gulf is shifting into a qualitatively different state…?”