Tāmaki Estuary Protection Society (TEPS)
The Tāmaki Estuary Protection Society (TEPS) is a non-profit organisation founded in 1969 by residents living around the waterway who wished to protect the Estuary’s special eco-system. It is an incorporated society with charitable status.
Local residents joined together initially as a concerned response to an Auckland Council proposal to turn the Tahuna Torea spit area into a city landfill rubbish site, and develop adjacent parts of the Estuary coastline as a large marina complex. They were successful in stopping those plans and the spit area has been retained as a Reserve.
Further successes include creating reserves and protecting wildlife.
Yet further threats continue. The Tāmaki Estuary was once a thriving eco system. Its sands are now polluted with the presence of heavy metals and its waterways are increasingly clogged with silt.
TEPS goal for the Estuary to be returned to a healthy environment for the wildlife and wider community.
Long term we would love to see Brown’s Island become a marine reserve with a focus on rehabilitating mussel beds, these would act as natural water filters for the incoming and outgoing tides at the mouth of the Tāmaki Estuary.
How amazing it would be to have a marine reserve so close to Auckland City!
