Thousands of crayfish and paua wash up dead on East Coast beach after Cyclone Hale. Video / Graeme Atkins
Thousands of dead crayfish and pāua are believed to have washed up on a remote East Coast beach leaving locals distraught as they discover the depths of Cyclone Hale’s environmental damage.
Ngāti Porou biodiversity ranger Graeme Atkins, who lives with his whānau near the mouth of the Waiapu River, came across the heartbreaking discovery as the slow process of cleaning up began after yet another devastating storm.
Atkins, a former Department of Conservation (DoC) ranger who has spent decades fighting to save threatened species and ecosystems, said he normally has a “thick skin” due to his work and was “not one to show my emotions”.
Just a few of the dead crayfish found after Cyclone Hale that likely suffocated in the muddy seawater caused by land run-off. Photo / Graeme Atkins
But Friday was different, as thousands of kaimoana were found washed ashore.
“I consider myself the eternal optimist and can find good in most people and most situations,” said Atkins.
“[I] can’t remember the last time I cried so much.”
Atkins said the creatures had likely suffocated in the sea, which was still a milky chocolate brown, laden with silt and sediment washed down from the nearby river with a dirty trail stretching kilometres out to sea.
Dead pāua washed up near the Waiapu River on the East Coast after Cyclone Hale. Photo / Graeme Atkins
He said they could smell the “stench” of dead sealife before they could see it.
He estimated in a small patch of the beach - covered in layers of silt and slash from upstream as far as the eye could see - there were thousands of dead crayfish and pāua.
“I hate to think how much is across this whole beach, across the coast.”
In among the slash - much of it pine alongside some plantings from farms and native forest - were truckloads of rubbish, including everything from nappies to microwaves.
Atkins said it was not only recently dumped rubbish but potentially from old makeshift landfills unearthed as the river torrent tore further inland with each storm.
A large landslide dam in the Waiorongomai tributary of the Tapuaeroa River west of Ruatoria. Photo / Civil Defence Tairāwhiti
One of the worst things about the environmental destruction was that it was now becoming commonplace and much of it had been predicted.
Atkins said there needed to be a “maunga to moana” focus with environmental damage in the Raukumara Conservation Park inland, leading to increased landslips and sediment washing into the waterways and moana.
The aftermath of Cyclone Hale near the mouth of the Waiapu River, with the beach buried under layers of slash and sea a milk chocolate brown full of silt and sediment. Photo / Graeme Atkins
He also said there needed to be a “serious community discussion” about various land uses, such as forestry, although he was reluctant to point fingers.
Forestry in particular has come under fire in recent years, with storm damage in Tolaga Bay in 2018 from slash or leftover forestry debris after harvests leading to five companies being prosecuted and fined hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Gisborne District Council has vowed to step up its monitoring of forestry companies to improve their practices, but the impacts of this storm - particularly around Tolaga Bay again - and other storms in recent years indicate more work needs to be done.
The Waiapu catchment is home to some of the largest areas of forestry in the region. It is also the country’s catchment most prone to erosion.
The eroding land chokes the Ngāti Porou iwi’s sacred Waiapu River with 35 million tonnes of sediment each year. That’s 17 per cent of the entire country’s sediment from 0.6 per cent of the land.
All of it eventually flows into the sea and smothers reefs that have provided kaimoana for generations.
“At this rate of loss and damage there will be no future in the Waiapu Valley and the wider East Coast for our tamariki and mokopuna,” Atkins said.
“Never has our whenua, denuded of vegetation, been so exposed and vulnerable to these heavy rain events.
“There are many recent scars across our pastoral and commercial forest landscapes that bear this out.
“Our awa are now just open drains devoid of freshwater life moving vast amounts of silt and sediment to the moana.
“The damage done to our moana, inshore reefs and intertidal platforms by this suffocating blanket of mud, silt and sediment is no less dramatic than the damage occurring on the whenua.
“Future generations will not have the luxury of having the abundance of kaimoana that previous generations had.”
A major slip in the Wairongomai Gully in the Waiapu Catchment, seen months before the major storm, which likely contributed much of the sediment. Photo / Graeme Atkins
Atkins said with each storm the riverbed rose further, meaning with the next storm the river flooded more easily.
Atkins said many whānau, including his own, needed to have “heartbreaking” discussions about the future of living in the area.
“All of what has been predicted with climate change is happening before our eyes, and I cannot see it getting any better,” Atkins said.
On Friday the Government announced an initial contribution of $150,000 to the Mayoral Relief Fund to help communities in Tairāwhiti following Cyclone Hale.
Minister for Emergency Management Kieran McAnulty said Tairāwhiti had suffered the most severe damage and the funding would assist impacted communities as they began their clean-up.
It was too early to know the full cost of the damage but the initial contribution was for the community to get immediate support to those who need it.
“My thoughts are with everyone who has been impacted by Cyclone Hale over recent days.
“Tairāwhiti communities have already been through a number of severe weather events over the last year, and the Government is committed to supporting the recovery effort.”
The funding is on top of $100,000 the Ministry for Primary Industries made available to farmers and growers in the region and support from the Ministry of Social Development for displaced residents.
