A mātauranga Māori and science approach to enhancement and resilience of puerulus kōura (Jasus edwardsii) in a changing climate

“Ko au ko te moana. Ko te moana ko au”

“I am the ocean. The ocean is me”

Acknowledgements

Ngā mihi maioha ki taku whānau o Tauranga Moana mō te tautoko o tēnei rangahau. Ki ngā tangata o Ngāi Te Rangi, ko Ngāti Ranginui, ko Ngāti Pūkenga, tēnā koutou. Ka nui te mihi ki Te Kōmata o Te Tonga rātou ko Te Whare Wānanga o Waikato, Te Poti o Tauranga, he mea tautāwhi ā ngā iwi o Tauranga Moana hei tiaki te kaupapa. Ngā mihi mahana hoki au ki ngā tohu o te moana nei.

I acknowledge and deeply thank my wider family of Tauranga Moana for the ongoing support for this research, the people of Ngāī Te Rangi, Ngāti Ranginui and Ngāti Pukenga. I greatly thank the Deep South Challenge team, my supervisors at University of Waikato and the Port of Tauranga who have supported me and the people of Tauranga Moana to implement this project. I also pay my warmest respects to the guidance of the moana. 

Introduction

This research fundamentally stems from the aspirations of Tauranga Moana iwi, who have observed the localised decline of taonga marine species over many generations. A key priority for the research was to provide an access pathway to share and enable mana whenua to collect pēpi kōura during the most vulnerable stage of life, on-grow them using aquaculture, study their behaviours and nutritional requirements and to prepare to rehabilitate them for release back to the wild.

The anecdotal evidence of mana whenua and the scientific monitoring, tells us the kōura population in Tauranga Moana has declined. These concerns are supported by baseline monitoring carried out in 2013 and the consequent surveys carried out in 2022/23 that used mātauranga Māori and marine science to identify kōura distribution, abundance and sizing in the Tauranga Moana Mātaitai Reserve.

A webpage version of this summary can be found here.