Until 2016, our organisation was called the East Coast Bays Coastal Protection Society.
From DOC’s website:
The Long Bay-Okura Marine Reserve was established in 1995. This was a community driven effort led by the East Coast Bays Coastal Protection Society.
The shores and waters of the Long Bay-Okura Marine Reserve are typical of those of the sheltered inner Hauraki Gulf. There is a diversity of coastal habitats that includes:
- the sandy beaches of Long Bay and Karepiro Bay
- the rocky reefs off the two headlands at either end of Long Bay
- the sandflats and mudflats of the Okura River and estuary.
While Toroa Point at the southern end of Long Bay is ‘moderately exposed’, the Okura River estuary, in contrast, becomes sheltered as it goes inland for some four kilometres, and its muddy waters host mangrove forests and saltmarsh.
The following story was published on Stuff in 2015.
Marine reserve creators reflect on battle
by Zizi Sparks
October 30, 2015
Ian Sage, left, and Ross Garrett original members of the society which achieved marine reserve status at Long Bay.
ZIZI SPARKS / FAIRFAX NZ
The last thing Jim Lewis told a close friend before he died was, “don’t forget about Okura”.
The late Lewis was an environmentalist and advocate for the area’s marine reserve which celebrates its 20th birthday this year.
Bernard Stanley, 91, has been a member of the society since 1998 and was on the receiving end of Lewis’ words.
“I wrote a series of articles on the progress at Long Bay,” Stanley says.
“The last one that Jim received, he was in hospital in his final days and he rang me and said, “That was a great article about the development of Long Bay but my last words to you are, “Don’t forget Okura.”” He died a week or so later.”
The East Coast Bays Coastal Protection Society was the driving force behind the marine reserve.
Just two of its members remain in the area, Ross Garrett and Ian Sage.
Garrett says the reserve has made a real difference to marine life.
He says Dick Matthews was the society’s chairman and a key player in the fight for the marine reserve but died just months before its status was finalised.
Sage joined the society as secretary in November 1992 after realising the value of Long Bay Regional Park and its surrounding waters.
“I’d come to the Shore to live in 1975 and I loved the place. I realised that Long Bay Regional Park was such a wonderful coastal facility,” he says.
Sage also worked for the Sir Peter Blake Marine Education Centre for nine years.
Marine biologist Teresa Moore was the chief executive of the centre for a while and is a member of the Long Bay-Okura Great Park Society.
She says the volunteers have made the reserve what it is today but to continue to protect it you also need to look after the land surrounding it.
“It’s really starting to flourish, but it needs to be nurtured,” she says.
Long Bay-Okura Marine Reserve was established in 1995 after a three-year battle and stretches from Toroa Point, south of Long Bay to the mouth of the Weiti River in the north.
No official celebration has been planned for the reserve’s birthday but something may be organised in the future.