CAWTHRON INSTITUTE | REPORT NO. 2877 AUGUST 2016 REPORT NO. 2877 SENSITIVE HABITATS AND THREATENED SPECIES IN THE TARANAKI COASTAL MARINE AREA (TCMA) — DATABASE INVESTIGATION 1 CAWTHRON INSTITUTE | REPORT NO. 2877 AUGUST 2016 SENSITIVE HABITATS AND THREATENED SPECIES IN THE TARANAKI COASTAL MARINE AREA (TCMA) — DATABASE INVESTIGATION OLIVIA JOHNSTON Prepared for Taranaki Regional Council (TRC) CAWTHRON INSTITUTE 98 Halifax Street East, Nelson 7010 | Private Bag 2, Nelson 7042 | New Zealand Ph. +64 3 548 2319 | Fax. +64 3 546 9464 www.cawthron.org.nz REVIEWED BY: APPROVED FOR RELEASE BY: Ross Sneddon Natasha Berkett ISSUE DATE: 10 August 2016 RECOMMENDED CITATION: Johnston O 2016. Sensitive habitats and threatened species in the Taranaki Coastal Marine Area (TCMA) - database investigation. Prepared for Taranaki Regional Council. Cawthron Report No. 2877. 28 p. plus appendices. © COPYRIGHT: This publication must not be reproduced or distributed, electronically or otherwise, in whole or in part without the written permission of the Copyright Holder, which is the party that commissioned the report. CAWTHRON INSTITUTE | REPORT NO. 2877 AUGUST 2016 TABLE OF CONTENTS 1. INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Background .................................................................................................................................................... 1 1.2. Scope ............................................................................................................................................................. 1 1.3. Taranaki Coastal Marine Area (TCMA) .......................................................................................................... 1 1.3.1. Physical description................................................................................................................................... 1 1.3.2. Sensitive habitats background .................................................................................................................. 5 2. METHODS ..................................................................................................................... 6 2.1. Obtaining a New Zealand marine invertebrate species list ............................................................................. 6 2.2. Determining threatened taxa .......................................................................................................................... 6 2.3. Determining sensitive and/or outstanding habitats ......................................................................................... 7 2.3.1. Possible indicator taxa selection ............................................................................................................... 7 2.4. Unique taxa records ....................................................................................................................................... 8 2.5. Data presentation ........................................................................................................................................... 8 3. RESULTS ...................................................................................................................... 9 3.1. Threatened taxa ............................................................................................................................................. 9 3.1.1. Nemertesia elongata (Totton 1930) ........................................................................................................... 9 3.1.2. Cominella quoyana griseicalx (Willan 1979) .............................................................................................. 9 3.1.3. Madrepora oculata (Linnaeus 1758) ......................................................................................................... 9 3.1.4. Leptomithrax tuberculatus mortenseni (Bennett 1964) ............................................................................ 10 3.1.5. Eurygonias hyalacanthus (Farquhar 1913) ............................................................................................. 10 3.2. Sensitive and/or outstanding habitats ........................................................................................................... 12 3.2.1. Beds of large bivalve molluscs ................................................................................................................ 12 3.2.2. Brachiopods ............................................................................................................................................ 14 3.2.3. Bryozoan thickets .................................................................................................................................... 14 3.2.4. Calcareous tube worm thickets ............................................................................................................... 15 3.2.5. Chaetopteridae worm fields ..................................................................................................................... 16 3.2.6. Macroalgae beds ..................................................................................................................................... 17 3.2.7. Sea pen field ........................................................................................................................................... 18 3.2.8. Sponge gardens ...................................................................................................................................... 18 3.2.9. Stony coral thickets or reefs .................................................................................................................... 19 3.2.10. Rhodolith (maerl) beds ............................................................................................................................ 20 3.2.11. Xenophyophore (sessile protozoan) beds ............................................................................................... 21 3.3. Unique taxa records ..................................................................................................................................... 21 3.3.1. Extent of area investigated ...................................................................................................................... 22 4. SUMMARY ...................................................................................................................23 5. RECOMMENDATIONS .................................................................................................25 6. REFERENCES .............................................................................................................26 7. APPENDICES ...............................................................................................................29 i AUGUST 2016 REPORT NO. 2877 | CAWTHRON INSTITUTE LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Top: Taranaki regional boundary and coastal marine area (CMA), New Zealand. ............ 3 Figure 2. Taranaki coastal marine area (TCMA), anthropogenic marine structures/protection areas, marine reserves, and marine protected areas, over-laid on LINZ charts NZ43, 443 and 45. ......................................................................................................................... 4 Figure 3. Taranaki coastal marine area (TCMA), in relation to the closest recorded instances of threatened marine invertebrates ....................................................................................... 11 Figure 4. The Taranaki coastal marine area (TCMA), in relation to records of possible sensitive marine habitat indicators. .................................................................................................. 13 Figure 5: The Taranaki coastal marine area (TCMA), in relation to invertebrate taxa records (OBIS 2016) in the New Zealand region. .......................................................................... 22 LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Possible sensitive habitat indicator species matches within and in the regional vicinity (within approximately 200 km) of the TCMA boundary, using the OBIS (2016) database. .......................................................................................................................... 24 LIST OF APPENDICES Appendix 1. Summary table of EEZ Act 2013. Schedule 6 - Sensitive environments .......................... 29 Appendix 2. EEZ (2012) possible indicator species list and source references. Presented as an excel list. See attached electronic files. ............................................................................ 30 Appendix 3. OBIS (2016) data export. Presented as an excel list. See attached electronic files. ....... 30 Appendix 4. Threatened and/or at-risk species from within, and in the vicinity-of, the TCMA. Presented as an excel list (Freeman et al. 2010) and GIS mapping package. See attached electronic files. ................................................................................................... 30 Appendix 5. Possible sensitive environment indicator species EEZ (2012) from within in the vicinity-of, the TCMA. Presented as an excel list and GIS mapping package. See attached electronic files. ................................................................................................... 30 Appendix 6. Unique taxa within the TCMA data spreadsheet (OBIS 2016) and GIS mapping package. See attached electronic files. ...........................................................................