Download FAR 2025/27 Intertidal shellfish monitoring in the northern North Island region, 2024–25

People in New Zealand enjoy the collection of seafood as a recreational and customary activity along the country’s coastline. Two important seafood species in coastal areas are cockles and pipi, which occur in intertidal sediments of beaches, estuaries, and large tidal inlets and harbours. In northern New Zealand, cockles and pipi have been regularly monitored for several decades across different sites in Northland, Auckland, Waikato, and Bay of Plenty. This monitoring aims to ensure the persistence of their populations, providing information of the abundance, density, and population size structure of cockles and pipi. Presented here are the survey findings from the summer of 2024–25, with population information for Pataua Estuary (Northland), Cockle Bay, Kawakawa Bay (West), Mill Bay, Ōkahu and Okoromai bays (Auckland and its wider region), Ōhiwa Harbour, Otūmoetai (Tauranga Harbour), and Waiotahe Estuary (Bay of Plenty), and Whangapoua and Whitianga harbours (Waikato). Both cockle and pipi populations across these northern sites were generally large, consisting of millions of individuals. Their densities varied dependent on the site, but were a minimum of over 140 individuals per square metre for cockles, and over 180 individuals per square metre for pipi, except at one site (Pataua Estuary). At several sites, small-sized individuals made up most of the population, highlighting strong recruitment events that preceded the data collection.