Wellington Regional Council coastal policy and monitoring

Abstract

The coastal environment is important to humans for its significance to trade and transport, fisheries, aesthetic and spiritual qualities, recreation, and oil and mineral resources. Another factor that is considered important to humans is the survival and protection of coastal ecosystems, because coastal ecosystems are ultimately linked to the survival of land-based ecosystems and also inevitably to the survival of humans. However, it is only relatively recently that human development has been associated with a serious impediment to the sustainability of that resource. In some countries it has become apparent that the coastal resource has been seriously damaged by human development to the extent that restoration is not possible in the near - medium future. For example, in the Netherlands all of the near shore coastal environment has been adversely affected by; [1] plastic waste, [2] heavy metal pollution, [3] eutrification, [4] high concentrations of nitrogen phosphorous and PCP, [5] toxic and foam producing algal blooms, [6] increasing presence of fish diseases and [7] serious ecological disturbances. Extensive emission standards and pollution and planning controls over the past decade have provided only very slight improvements National Environmental Outlook 1990- 2010 1992 National Institute of Public Health and Environmental Protection Netherlands. ISBN 90-6960-022-6. Compared to this not all New Zealand coastal resources have been under such great stress, and if we are serious about coastal management there is an opportunity to preserve and sustain the coastal resource that currently exits.