Open letter from the Pete Beech of the Guardians to the Marlborough District Council

Kia Ora,

I’m disappointed that I was unable to attend your workshop to discuss long term strategic planning of the Sounds. As you know my whanau are the sixth generation to have lived here in Totaranui, the name means that the Sounds is our Mother, she gives us birth feeds us shelters us and protects us.

She has provided generations of my whanau with livelihoods from her bountiful resources, none of them ever thought that those resources would ever run out but within our generation they have.

Marlborough people have to take ownership, and acknowledge that we and our tipuna are the ones who are responsible for the collapse and have a moral responsible to restore and enhance the natural environment.

The sounds has never been managed properly, its been a succession of mono cultures, including Maori period, sealers, whalers, commercial fishing, dredging diving. Pastoral farming, gold mining, forestry & aquaculture.

Mother nature wasn’t designed to support monocultures, she’s designed to accommodate biodiversity of hundreds of trees, plants, shrubs, birds, insects, fish, kiamoana and benthic communities.

Sooner or later all monocultures collapse, we need to learn from the lessons of the past and the only way the natural environment of the sounds can be restored given the huge pressure that it is under from population , commercial , recreation and customary fishing diving , aquaculture, forestry, commercial, shipping, recreational use and tourism is through long term Strategic planning.

Council of course needs to balance the protection of the environment against the residential rights and constraints, as well as the need to provide for economic growth and development (economic argument) so we appreciate that it is a balancing act.

However in the past the economic argument has always held precedence over the environment.

I believe that we need to regard the environment in business terms, and refer to it as our Natural Capital .

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Ferry Kaitaki in the Marlborough Sounds

In the early 1960’s the Inter-Island Ferry ‘Tamahine’, which travelled at a speed of 14 knots through the Sounds, was replaced by the new generation roll-on, roll-off ferry, the ‘Aramoana’. The ‘Aramoana’ had a service speed of 17 knots. In a very short time our residents started to notice the fine sand being stripped off the beaches. Agreement was reached between the Sounds Settlers, and N.Z.Rail to reduce the speed to 14 knots upon entering the Sounds. ‘Aramoana’ was followed by her sister ships the ‘Aranui’, ‘Arahanga’, ‘Aratika’, ‘Arahura’.and the latest, the ‘Aratere’.

N.Z.Rail was sold, purchased by the American multi-national Wisconsin Rail and re-named, Tranz Rail. Unfortunately, the 14-knot speed limit agreement was dishonoured and discontinued.

1994 saw the introduction of the ‘Albeyzen’, a high speed mono-hull, by a company called Sea Shuttle, owned by Brooke Mckenzie and capable of travelling at 36 knots or more. Tranz Rail saw this as a serious threat to their monopoly, moved quickly and leased the ‘Lynx’, a first-generation high-speed catamaran capable of travelling at 38 knots. This was the beginning of a new era in shipping, one that everyone was excited about. New technology: We are all fascinated by speed.

The buzz didn’t last long however. Because of the size of their wake, the effects the new “fast ferries” had on the environment and the threat to human safety were catastrophic!

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