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Oceans
Legally protected marine areas
A range of different measures are in place to manage New Zealand’s marine ecosystems, habitats and species. These include marine reserves, marine parks, several types of customary areas (mātaitai, taiapure and rāhui), fisheries closures, seasonal closures, cable protection zones, and marine mammal sanctuaries.
Of the legal tools available, marine reserves provide the greatest measure of protection for our marine environment. They prohibit fishing, the removal or dumping of any material, dredging, construction, or any other direct human disturbance of the marine environment. As such, marine reserves are often known as ‘no-take’ zones.
To report on marine areas with legal protection, we measure the percentage of:
- New Zealand’s territorial sea protected by marine reserves
- each class of the Coastal Biogeographic Regions Classification protected by a marine reserve (this shows the degree of protection given to different types of marine ecosystems).
Did you know?
- As much as 80 per cent of New Zealand’s plant and animal species occur in the marine environment and 44 per cent are not found anywhere else in the world.
- However, about 30 per cent of our marine environment is thought to be affected by human activities.
Information on the limitations of the marine areas with legal protection indicator.
This information has come from the latest environmental report card on marine areas with legal protection.
Last updated: December 2008
