One commenter said: \u201cHopefully they eat dodgy snails and get violently ill\u201d. Another said: \u201cKill them all.\u201d<\/p>\n
RNZ has chosen not to repeat some of the comments.<\/p>\n
Aman Kaur has taken her two daughters to several Merc events.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was looking for a nice day with the kids where we could connect together as a family and learn a few things.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m a solo mum. I don\u2019t feel very confident around the sea myself. I\u2019m okay to stay on the beach and take a walk around the beach. But going into the water or closer to tidepools, I don\u2019t feel very comfortable doing that on my own with the kids. But both the children love water, so I don\u2019t want to hold them back. I want them to be able to explore.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said it was sad to see people got the wrong idea about what Merc was doing at the Takapuna reef.<\/p>\n
\u201cSomeone could have just spoken to one of the co-ordinators or anybody at the event instead of making an assumption.<\/p>\n
\u201cMerc events are actually helping people not to overfish, and they\u2019re actually helping them learn what\u2019s okay to do and what\u2019s not okay to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
Merc general manager Yuin Foong said the Facebook comments were \u201cdistressing\u201d for the families who participated and their staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was posted on a fishing page, and then it was shared by an administrator of one of these rockpool pages, and it just took on a life of its own,\u201d Foong said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe comments were saying, \u2018They can\u2019t go to Whangapar\u0101oa, so they\u2019re coming down to Takapuna\u2019, when really it\u2019s a completely different community for a completely different purpose, and people are making a number of assumptions and getting really hostile.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s really scary that these people are directing those comments at what ultimately are kids learning and exploring rockpools.\u201d<\/p>\n
A two-year ban on taking most sea life from intertidal zones, including rockpools, from the Whangapar\u0101oa Peninsula and further north at Kawau Bay and \u014cmaha Bay, has been in place since March 12.<\/p>\n
But there have been calls for that ban to extend to other coastlines.<\/p>\n
Foong said enjoying rockpool life rather than taking it home was part of Merc\u2019s message.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were doing really good stuff.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had amazing kids and amazing parents from all sorts of backgrounds at our events, looking at what there is to see in the tidepools, how do we care for the species in them, why should we leave them behind? Just sparking that wonder, curiosity, care and compassion for animals and creatures and the flora and fauna in the rockpools and how important they are for a healthy ocean.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said they came across a family collecting from the rockpools near their Takapuna event and they had a \u201cfriendly chat\u201d about why harvesting was discouraged.<\/p>\n
\u201cOne of our team had a bit of a yarn with them about why the species are really important and what we\u2019re trying to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
But commenters on Facebook said someone should \u201ccall immigration\u201d on the Merc group and \u201csend them back to their country\u201d.<\/p>\n
Foong said racist remarks he had seen in rockpool Facebook groups were frustrating and unhelpful.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy lived experience of coming here as a migrant is that people embraced us into the New Zealand community, and I ended up being a really passionate conservationist.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019d like to think that the majority of people have care and compassion and put some time and energy into working with people rather than perpetuating a rhetoric that ends up in a combative response with people putting up walls and defending things.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re going to win over hearts and minds through compassion, understanding, education and manaakitanga.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mark Lenton, who moderates the Protect Whangapar\u0101oa Rockpools Facebook group, said a post about the event \u2013 with a photo of its participants \u2013 was shared in its Facebook group but he removed it within a few hours.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are sent footage of people who are supposedly depleting and decimating our rockpools,\u201d Lenton said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn this particular scenario, a member of the public had observed a large group who appeared to be pillaging the rockpools. This was just another example that we put onto our group. As soon as we were made aware that it was innocent, the post was removed.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, this is just one of those things that happen in the height of the current climate. Ninety-nine per cent of instances that we post are actual events of rockpool depletion and decimation, which must be stamped out.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said he removed users who made inappropriate comments from their group.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s vile, it has no benefit. We are targeting the behaviour. We\u2019re targeting an outcome which preserves marine life for all New Zealanders.\u201d<\/p>\n
Luella Bartlett from Protect Piha Rockpools, which also has a Facebook group, said she was confused about why Merc chose to do tidepool explorations at Takapuna Reef and Army Bay.<\/p>\n
She assumed the events would be held at the Long Bay-Okura Marine Reserve where Merc is based.<\/p>\n
\u201c[Merc] were using beaches which are desperately trying to recover \u2013 some which aren\u2019t closed for harvesting yet \u2013 as part of their tidepool discovery, places which have been absolutely decimated by harvesters.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said she understood why people responded negatively to Merc\u2019s events.<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople\u2019s reactions were as you would expect for communities that are watching the beaches they grew up on get devastated.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome of them were fairly vigilante, but the moderators in all [rockpool] groups are really proactive at taking down comments that are not respectful or helpful as fast as they possibly can when things like that happen.<\/p>\n
\u201cFamilies should be able to go to the beach and feel safe. That\u2019s absolutely No 1.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut at the same time, if we want ecosystems to recover, such as at Army Bay, do we really want to be taking 50 kids trampling through there and picking things up?\u201d<\/p>\n
Foong said participants are given ice cream containers during its events.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put a little bit of water in and put a species in there, and the kids can get close to look. But then they can put it back. Everything goes back.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s actually really beautiful because we talk to the kids about what habitat would we take them from and how do we ensure we put them back into the right habitat? Because not all habitats are the same.\u201d<\/p>\n
He said it was unfair to assume someone at the rockpools was harvesting because they had a container, and where they chose to do tidepool explorations was considered and well thought out.<\/p>\n
\u201cIntertidal and rockpool species have to survive fully submerged and entirely uncovered, depending on the tide and weather conditions. This makes them remarkably resilient. Therefore, we don\u2019t believe there is any long-term harm to them as a result of an informed and guided short-term physical interaction with people.<\/p>\n
\u201cEngaging people with the marine ecosystem and fostering care and understanding is a good thing, especially in a robust intertidal habitat.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bartlett said many people, including fishers, were on edge while waiting for legislation, as part of a Fisheries review of recreational shellfish harvesting rules for Auckland.<\/p>\n
\u201cFishers are seeing fisheries being shut down left, right and centre, losing access to so much, not just finfish, but also crayfish, p\u0101ua and scallops, and all these things we\u2019re losing on our foreshores. So when people see big groups of people with buckets, the immediate reaction is outrage.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said a full ban on harvesting from all intertidal zones was needed to give rockpools a chance at recovery.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One commenter said: \u201cHopefully they eat dodgy snails and get violently ill\u201d. Another said: \u201cKill them all.\u201d RNZ…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":515841,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1443,5660,1061,33965,8231,85959,13832,111,43,139,69,1642,1523,164358,85316,61],"class_list":["post-515840","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-about","tag-attacks","tag-children","tag-designed","tag-event","tag-hopkins","tag-jessica","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-online","tag-over","tag-rockpools","tag-teach","tag-to"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515840","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=515840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/515840\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/515841"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=515840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=515840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=515840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}