Rāhui on mussels still on

Feb 6
1 min read

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 placed over the area of Ōhiwa Harbour to the harvest of mussels, or kuku. Te Rūnanga o Ngāti Awa requested the closure, Te rāhui kuku ki tua o Kanawa, to provide support for their traditional rāhui and boost the area of the harbour where mussel beds have been reseeded.

The kuku have made an impressive recovery thanks to the work of the Ōhiwa Harbour Implementation Forum and Dr Kura Paul Burke. For a healthy, sustainable mussel population in the harbour, however, everyone needs to play their part.

Anyone collecting mussels from Ōhiwa Harbour is asked to make sure to do so outside the rāhui area (see map below). While you’re there, you may want to help removing any 11 armed seastars you find - up to 50 can be taken within the recreational limit.

Sea stars can be spread to land, buried in your veggie patch or under your fruit trees. These seastars are major predators of mussels.

Mussels can also be sourced at the Whakatāne Heads where they are less vulnerable to overexploitation.

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