It was interesting to take part in a Cockle shell (tuangi) survey at Cheltenham beach today with the Cheltenham caretakers, a group that have been monitoring the shellfish recovery since the early 1990's.
The target species the cockles (tuangi) also known as little necked clams used to be plentiful around our coastlines but have declined over the years. Over harvesting was thought to be the cause of the decline but other factors including algae blooms and sediment issues are also now recognized as contributing factors.
The surveys began in the early 90s' when a ban on sea life take was introduced in 1993 following very low counts of 31 cockles per square metre.. The Caretaker group was formed in 1992 with support from Forest & Bird.
Surveys were initially conducted every 6 months; the last one was 5 years ago as the cockles have been
slow to return.