Environment – Aotea Green – Great Barrier Island News

Environment - Aotea Green

Council Imposes New Planning Controls on Five Barrier Sites

Five sites on Great Barrier Island have been brought under new cultural planning controls by Auckland Council, following a vote of its Policy and Planning Committee this month. The sites—Hirakimatā (Mount Hobson), Komahunga, Korotiti, Poutekorua, and Ruahine—are the first on…

Little Barrier Island Anchoring Ban as Caulerpa Crackdown Widens

Photo / Kathrin & Stefan Marks / CC

Visitor Levy Funds Poison and Trapping in National Parks

The government has announced that $22 million collected from international visitors will be used over the next three years to fund large-scale poison and trapping operations, and goat culls across New Zealand’s national parks and offshore islands. Conservation Minister Tama…

Environment - Aotea Green

Navy divers neutralise Second World War mines in Hauraki Gulf

Royal New Zealand Navy (RNZN) divers have safely disposed of Second World War-era mines recently discovered on the seafloor near Auckland. The mines, which were more than 80 years old, were originally part of a defensive minefield laid in the…

Nurdles scattered along a shoreline. These plastic pellets are often found embedded in seaweed or sand. Photo / hockadilly / Flickr (CC BY 2.0)

Plastic Pellets Wash Into Hauraki Gulf

Hundreds of thousands of plastic pellets — known as nurdles — have washed up on beaches across the Hauraki Gulf, including Oneroa Beach on Waiheke Island and the northern shore of Motuihe. The pellets are used in the manufacture of…

Environment - Aotea Green

Beneath the Ice, a Collapse Begins: How Antarctic Change Hits the Food Web

Jacqui Stuart, VUW, CC BY-NC-ND

Editorial: Kawau Island’s Poison Plan — Conservation or Chemical Catastrophe?

A new proposal could make Kawau Island the most chemically saturated inhabited island in New Zealand history. From June 2025 to April 2027, Auckland Council, with backing from DOC, Predator Free 2050 Ltd, and the Manuhiri Kaitiaki Charitable Trust, is…

This bright-green invasive caulerpa seaweed is smothering the delicate marine ecosystem on Great Barrier Island. Photo / Glenn Edney

Invasive Caulerpa Seaweed Detected Off Little Barrier Island

Patches of the invasive seaweed Exotic Caulerpa have been discovered at three locations off the northeast coast of Little Barrier Island, prompting a rapid response from local biosecurity and iwi groups. The seaweed, which includes the species Caulerpa brachypus and…