News ~ Pānui

It is a sure sign that autumn is here and winter is coming when the Eastern bar-tailed godwits, or kuaka, leave Ōhiwa Harbour. Weeks before they are off to their breeding grounds in Alaska, it is beautiful to watch the flocks of hundreds rising up and down in perfect harmony over the harbour. Bar-tailed godwit. Image: Rod Hay Their phenomenal, long-distance, non-stop flight from Alaska to New Zealand has attracted the curiosity of scientists and bird enthusiasts for many year

About ten kilometres as the crow flies from the shore of Ōhiwa Harbour lies Nukuhou North School. The Nukuhou stream, known locally as Ruakani awa, flows gently behind the school’s sports field. Other nearby landmarks are Pukenuioraho maunga (hill); the Waimana Valley and Te Urewera are also within sight. In years 0 to 8 about 60 children attend the small, rural, full primary school, located midway between Whakatāne and Ōpōtiki on State Highway 2. Many of the school’s tamarik

Looking after Ōhiwa Harbour’s precious shellfish is at the heart of kaitiaki around the harbour. This summer volunteers of the Upokorehe iwi Environmental Project and local Fisheries officers had a strong presence on the eastern side making sure people understood, and stuck to the rules: 50 mussels per person and 150 pipi per person – per day. The volunteer activity on the eastern side perfectly complemented the rāhui on mussel or kuku take still in place on the western side,

The Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) is not a silver bullet and is far from perfect. But like any tool, says Chris Brennan from Moxi -   Farm Forest Services, if you understand what it can and cannot do, you can use it safely. Most farmers have heard enough about carbon credits to be wary of them. And fair enough. When carbon becomes the main driver of land use, whole farms can be seen planted into pine and decisions that do not reflect good farming practice. The question is: “

Over 2025, the Ōhiwa Headland Sanctuary Trust 's possum control operations have focused on the area south of the main headland area, the ‘buffer’ (400-ha) to halt the reinvasion of possums into our ‘core’ area (1500-ha). This buffer extends from where Ōhiwa Harbour Road goes over towards State Highway 2, also known as Carson’s hill, to the south. This graph shows the Trust’s possum catches since September 2021 when the project began efforts to eradicate possums from the Ōhiw

Shellfish poachers will be prosecuted for “stealing from our shared resource”, says Fisheries New Zealand Gisborne/Whakatāne district manager Jordan Cooper. The warning comes following action taken by fishery officers in the Eastern Bay of Plenty who have caught several people over summer with hundreds of green-lipped mussels, some of them taken from the closed area off the Ōhope Road boatramp ( New Zealand Herald, 13 January 2026 ). In November 2024, a two-year closure was p

It’s great to see the sun shining again (most days!), though many farmers in the Ōhiwa catchment are still dealing with the aftermath of the intense rainfall event that hit the Waiōtahe Valley and Ōhiwa catchments on 30 July. Despite the significant damage across a relatively localised area, the event didn’t make national headlines. However, it certainly occupied many local minds then and now. Rainfall data from the Regional Council’s gauge at Whakatāne River (Awahou) recorde

There are good news for those keen on jumping into Ōhiwa Harbour’s waters this summer. In early November the first of the weekly tests carried out over summer confirmed the water quality at the Ōhope boat ramp is ‘good’. This mirrors the great majority of the 113 samples carried out over the last five years. In 94 per cent of times the water quality was rated ‘good’, in only 3 per cent caution was advised and in 4 per cent of samples, all of which were taken in the high rainf

With summer nearly here locals and visitors to Ōhiwa Harbour are gearing up to set the net for flounder, collect pipi or catch a snapper. It is timely that a local advocate for our ocean’s resources has just been given not one but two major awards.   On 11 September, the winners of the New Zealand Seafood Sustainability and Innovation Awards 2025 were announced at Parliament, recognising the many contributions of fishers, marine farmers, community groups and researchers from