Dive Right In with Gwyn Brown from Tauranga Dive

As predicted in earlier columns, the Rena is staying right where she is. Despite the appeal lodged against the decision, she isn't going anywhere. It's A: too expensive to remove the rest of her, B: too dangerous to remove the rest of her, and C: further removal will cause more damage to Astrolabe than leaving her there, although the reef would recover from this in time.

It's time for some of us to change tact and think about making a purse out of the whole sorry sow's ear saga. Tauranga Dive members have dived the wreck site, twice, and there are two things to note.

One, Astrolabe is teaming with life. There are mass schools of fish, the likes of which haven't been seen in the Bay for a long time.

The wreck is doing what all wrecks do; supporting the ecosystem, providing a habitat and sheltering marine life. After four-plus years of having a breather from fishing, both commercial and recreational, as well as divers, the reef is balancing itself out again – and the results are simply breathtaking.

The second thing to note is it will soon be open to the public, and within four months or less from that date, Astrolabe will be pillaged utterly and put back to what in comparison will be a barren wasteland.

Dr Roger Grace has written many submissions, conducted many surveys around NZ on marine eco-systems, and has written on and been consulted on about the Rena.

He states: 'The national goal in the Biodiversity Strategy 2000 (DOC 2000) is for 10 per cent of the territorial sea to be in Marine Protected Areas effective for protection of biodiversity. This policy should apply regionally as well as nationally.”

And: 'Snapper stocks in the Bay of Plenty are at around 10 per cent of their pre-fished biomass, on the verge of the trigger-point to officially close the fishery. The target biomass for sustainability is 40 per cent of the pre-fished biomass.”

It is at this point I can hear the recreational fishers say: 'Rubbish, we are having the best fishing ever”. Hmmm… I wonder what is contributing to the sudden increase of full fish bins? I wonder why when you fish around the edges of the exclusion zone, and that includes Okaparu and Motiti, you can catch your limit way quicker than usual? I wonder why it is that even the amateur recreational fishers are having a great day out on the water? Why did a group of free divers come into the shop last weekend grinning from ear to ear about the mass of large Kingi swimming at Okaparu?

It's time to wake up and smell the proverbial fish fillets. Yes, the Rena was a massive disaster, and yes there are still plastic beads on Motiti's beaches. No one wanted to see that.

But we all have a massive opportunity here to have a nursing ground, where all the hard work has already been done, continue to grow and produce results for all of us.

Personally, I'm happy an appeal has been lodged against the wreck staying, because it means the exclusion zone will continue for a bit longer. And hopefully, I am really, really hoping here that the groundswell for a Rahui to be put in place, a ‘no take' zone around the reef will become a reality.

It will be years of red tape for Astrolabe to become a fully protected marine reserve, but the first step is to get some sort of protection started.

The hardest thing about establishing a ‘no take' area is for the first four-five years, no benefit is seen while the reef recovers.

We've already passed that stage; we're already seeing the benefits. Going forward, Astrolabe could become the Poor Knights of the Bay. It's perfectly positioned to be a bread basket for recreational fishers, divers, and tourists.

Change your thinking from what you are going to make out of Astrolabe when it opens, what you can take, what small gains for your pocket or your fridge – to what it could produce in the very near future. Surely that's worth it?