Fish & Game New Zealand welcomes the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment report today that is calling for an approach to managing estuaries that treat estuaries and the waterways that feed into them as a single entity from the mountains to the sea.

"Estuaries are important recreational areas. They are dynamic, rich ecosystems where freshwater from rivers and streams flows into and mixes with saltwater from the sea," Fish & Game New Zealand Chief Executive Martin Taylor says.

The report, managing our estuaries, describes a wide range of problems - overlapping jurisdictions, overlapping responsibilities, ever-changing policies, and inadequate enforcement and compliance.

"We agree with Mr Upton that the mandatory inclusion of estuaries as part of Freshwater Management Units under the National Policy Statement for Freshwater 2020 (NPS-FM), and robust monitoring that supports decision making require immediate attention.

"In our submission to the Ministry for the Environment on the draft National Policy Statement, we made it clear that the NPS-FM does not link well to coastal environments.

"Estuaries are often the most sensitive downstream environment, and freshwater needs to be managed to achieve good health in estuaries. At the moment, the link between the NPS-FM and the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement is not clear.

"It is essential that national direction specifically requires councils to manage freshwater to achieve the objectives of the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement for estuaries and harbours.

"This is so important is because we have estuaries such as the New River estuary on the doorstep of Invercargill that is being suffocated by macroalgae, or the Kaipara harbour which has big problems particularly at the northern end with sediment load.

"We call on the Government to make sure estuaries are protected for future generations."

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