Te Angiangi Marine Reserve

Te Angangi Marine Reserve was established in August 1997 and is managed by the Department of Conservation.

It is the only Marine Reserve in Hawke's Bay and covers an area of about 1.3 square nautical miles (446 hectares), extending 1 nautical mile offshore from the mean high water mark between Blackhead and Aramoana beaches. The Reserve protects a typical piece of Hawke's Bay coast. At low tide a board rock platform is exposed, giving access to a fascinating variety of marine life.

Distinctive plants and animals include the golden limpet, and large beds of Neptune's necklace, pink coraline seaweeds and eel grass. Small fish, crabs and juvenile paua and kina inhabit the rock pools.

The University of Waikato and Victoria University of Wellington are both involved in research projects based on monitoring and managing the reserve. They are particularly focused on determining the negative impacts on the landslides on the sea's intertidal platform, and the reserve's resilience to the sedimentation.

More than 100 people turned out to a planting day at Te Angiangi Reserve in July 2012, continuing the restoration work that's been underway since last April's weather bomb and earthquake.

The flood event, coupled with a 4.6 earthquake, devastated the coast reserve at Aramoana beach.

Many of the hill faces collapsed, burying parts of the beach, unleashed large amounts of sediment into the marine reserve waters and saw area of coastal Kairakau Forest (some of the last remaining on the East Coast of the North Island) wiped out.

July 2012 people from around the Hawke's Bay region made their way to Aramoana to assist with planting 1000 ngaio and 1000 flax along the beach front.

Chip McHardy's farm, Aramoana Station, borders the reserve where photos can't capture the true scale of the devastation.

Prior to the event, DOC had planted the coastal hills, between 5,000 and 10,000 trees, some of which have been lost.

Over the past year, substantial earthworks have been underway, removing trees and debris from the water's edge and slip areas and banking the soil up into a road along the reserve, where picnic areas are planned. The restoration project is being undertaken by the Aramoana Environmental & Education Charitable Trust, in association with the Department of Conservation, Ngati Kere rohe and community groups.