[trx_list style=”ol”]
[trx_list_item]Anedotal and Factual information of Toheroa Population[/trx_list_item]
[trx_list_item]
Major events that may have caused/contributed to the toheroa decline[/trx_list_item]
[trx_list_item]Provide a brief written report and graphic’s if appropriate[/trx_list_item]
[trx_list_item]Production assistance able to be provided by Massey (e.g for large wall poster)[/trx_list_item]
[/trx_list]
1770 Te Rauparaha was born
1849 Kua mate Te Rauparaha
1845 The Manga Pirau kainga is home to at least 3000 people.
1847 Toatara 80 foot plus were cut down from Pukeatua Kuku and floated down the Ohau River along the coast to Otaki for Rangiatea Church
1848-51 Rangiatea built.
1855 An earthquake destroys the Manga Pirau Lagoon
1858 Cobb and Co Coach Services begins.
1860 Manga Pirau is still inhabited.
1860 Influenza epidemic drastically reduces the Maori population of the area.
1870 The Waikawa and Ohau rivers spilt and return to separate mouths.
1930’s Toheroa were counted in their millions at Dargarville and Muriwai factories at Waipapakauri on
Ninety Mile Beach and Tikinui near Dargarville canned them for export and tourist trade
1940 a peak year, 77 tonnes of toheroa products
1940 Canneries were setup in the north Kaipara and ninety mile beach, industry peaked by the early 1940
1945 When toheroa disappeared from ninety mile beach
When the Toheroa cannery was built near the ninety mile beach and elders of the tribe discovered that the toheroa was to be canned and sold
They met to consult together and their opinion was that the Mauri of the toheroa would depart from the ninety mile beach and there would be
No toheroa left in about fifteen to twenty years. Their predictions both about the departure and the length of time for it to occur proved to be
exactly right.
1946 Maori Battalion return from war to a Powhiri and a Hakari at Pipitea Marae. This was a much to do affair for all coastal marae along the
Kapiti coast and beyond I recall my Papa telling us how he and other Hapuu members harvested sugar bags of Toheroa to take to there Powhiri
for their hakari..
Click here to view video of Pipitea
1955 Population Studies on the Toheroa, Amphidesma ventricosum Gray (Eulamellibranchiata)
1960 Toheroa populations declined to the point where harvesting was no longer profitable.
1962 – 1967 Population surveys of Toheroa (Mollusca: Eulamellibranchiata):: 03 on Northland beaches…
1968 – Toheroa survey, Wellington west coast beaches
1969 Jill Sciascia digging for Toheroa
1977 September Hokio Beach Open Day
1980 The only permitted harvest of Toheroa has been by customary authorization.
1982 The last Open Season
1999 a Fisheries Ministry survey calculated the number of toheroa on Dargarville beach’s at 113.5 million this dropped to 58.2 million in 2006
2000 March MOF – Distribution and abundance of toheroa on ninety mile beach
2007-2009 Centre for Sustainability
2009 Toheroa die on Orepuki Beach
Even during the heyday of the toheroa it was known that numbers fluctuate enormously, sometimes within the space of a year.
When toheroa disappeared from ninety mile beach in 1945, local residents reported that similar total disappearances had occurred there
in 1888,1900, and 1917, and confidently predicted that toheroa would return in their former numbers in the near future.
2013 Our Kaumatua report that in their life time Toheroa was in prolific supply Aunty Borja remembers toheroa run’s .