The beaches in Mercury Bay are a major attraction for tourists and a major driver of income for the region. Whitianga beaches are of this type with Buffalo Beach being one of the major attractions, bring tourists from around the globe who feed our local economy. It is therefore imperative that we keep these beaches in pristine condition.
There is an increasingly vocal sentiment among locals that our Whitianga beaches are not what they once were. The central issue that causes this sentiment is the appearance, and challenges to the safety, of Whitianga’s beaches. The appearance is seriously impacted by the sheer magnitude of debris, of all sorts, all along the beaches, especially after each weather event. Most of the debris is large pine logs, pinecones, or in other words, forestry slash.
Of course, there is other detritus such as the odd incredibly durable palm branch, dog poos or other types of general organic matter but the key landscape feature along our Whitianga beaches is slash washing down our estuary from forestry sites and swirling around our bay, onto our beaches. Compared to other east coast beaches, Whitianga’s shoreline is by and large the most organically littered beach on the eastern Coromandel.
There seems to be a lack of resources to clean up our beaches after weather events, perhaps exacerbated by the apparently green philosophy of both our local and regional councils, a philosophy of letting nature take its course. This philosophy guarantees things are getting worse.
Even after the last major weather event, when council staff were thankfully cleaning out debris from Mother Browns creek, the staff were heaping the slash into piles along the riverside, which presumably they are hoping will break down naturally. What happens when the next storm comes and washes the piles back out into the bay?
For a town so dependent on holiday makers, tourism and hospitality, the state of our beaches is highly concerning.
Compare Whitianga to other beach-dependent holiday areas like the Gold Coast, where there is constant work grooming their beaches, and it becomes apparent that we must be damaging our own reputation as a beachside holiday destination. This can’t be good for business.
On the 23rd of May, a group of 25 locals from the estuary end of Buffalo Beach, decided that their end of the beach was a disgrace and they made the call to arms for volunteers to have a concerted beach cleanup. Good on them! As part of the community the Buffalo Beach Club joined in and provided a sausage sizzle. Good on them too!
According to the volunteers, the predominant ratio of beach debris was clearly and simply pine slash, logs, pinecones and the like.
A secondary but more disgusting part of the debris was; yes, you guessed it, dog poos. What is concerning is that a big part of the beautiful grass planting along that part of beach front has already been destroyed by the sheer levels of salty slash. The group did a wonderful job of clearing out that part of our waterfront resulting in large collections of debris which needed then to be discarded. This is where it gets interesting.
Council’s approach to these volunteers was to one, turn down any approach to discard the rubbish in the council tip. Two, the council was very concerned with the effect that such a beach rubbish clean up might have on some native lizards and spiders, and three, the council later approached the group with their opinion that they should put all of the rubbish back on the beach where they found it, and let nature deal to it. The problem is that there is nothing natural or native about pine slash, and the sheer volume of the slash means that nature will never cope with it.
Also, this request smacks of hypocrisy from the TCDC, who allow various man-made alterations and plantings to an area which is a natural sand spit. And let’s not even talk about the marine safety issues with all this floating debris.
We need to develop answers to some questions
What is our strategy to clean up our beaches?
Have we taken our green back to nature approach too far?
What should TCDC and Waikato Regional Council’s roles be?
What responsibility do the forestry companies bear for cleaning up their rubbish on our beaches?
Should local organisations who volunteer to clean up our beaches get more support and respect for their efforts?
Bottom line is that we need some common sense to prevail and we need to develop strategies to limit slash washing down the river, to clean up our beaches and to keep them clean, especially before the high season.
A potential remedy, which could also bring some communal fellowship and fun, could be to initiate a winter’s community bonfire where families can join in, picnic, dance and sing! Just a thought.
