A two-year fishing closure across Tutukaka Harbour, Ngunguru Bay, and the broader Rehuotane Ki Tai area comes into force this Friday, 26 June 2026. If you have a trip planned to these waters, here is what you need to know before you launch.
The closure zone covers 73.6 square kilometres, with its boundary stretching from Middle Gable, just north of Tutukaka Head, south to Paparoa on the northern side of Parauwanui Beach and extending about three nautical miles offshore. The Ngunguru and Horahora rivers and their estuaries are included within the boundary.
From Friday, it will be prohibited to take cockles, garfish, mussels, octopus, pāua, pipi, packhorse rock lobster, rock oysters, sea cucumbers, seahorses, starfish, tuatua, or various crabs and sea snails from within the zone. Spiny rock lobster falls outside the scope of this notice, as it is already managed under separate restrictions.
Net fishing is banned inside Tutukaka Harbour and across both the Ngunguru and Horahora rivers and their estuaries. Standard landing nets used to secure a fish already caught on a line remain legal. Trawl and Danish seine nets are not addressed by this notice because they were already prohibited from these waters.
Anyone heading to the Tutukaka Coast this weekend should check the full closure map on the Ministry for Primary Industries website before setting off.
