Footage shot by an independent filmmaker shows how precarious life has become for the little penguins living at the site of a controversial marina development on Waiheke Island
When Masterton-based filmmaker Phil Stebbing needed to come to Auckland to do some interviews for a documentary on murdered British woman, Grace Millane, he took a side trip to Waiheke Island.
Stebbing, who has also been a wildlife photographer for most of his 30-year career, had been watching from afar the long-running protest against the building of a new marina at Pūtiki Bay
“I've been following what has been going on up there and I wanted to know why the protesters were so determined to stay there and going in the water to make their point,” says Stebbing.
Police recently made 14 arrests in one week after violent clashes with security guards and construction staff. The developers are building a marina with 186 berths and 72 carparks. Protest group, Protect Pūtiki says the construction of the marina threatens the survival of a colony of kororā - the small penguin.
Populations of the kororā, the world’s smallest penguin, are in decline around New Zealand’s coast and The Department of Conservation (DoC) classifies them as “at risk”.
“I felt the coverage of the issue was too focused on the protests and not about the actual ecology - what was happening to these birds.”
Stebbing took a special infrared camera, one of only two in the country, to Waiheke in an effort to film the kororā, which is nocturnal.
“As a wildlife filmmaker with a very powerful infrared set up, camera, and lights that don’t disturb the kororā I was well able to get footage that otherwise would have been difficult to capture. What my footage shows is that the birds are not only living in a building site but are being badly impacted by the works.
“The birds are sitting on eggs now and who knows what is going to happen when those chicks fledge and head out into the water with drilling going on and 25-kilogram buoys everywhere.”
Stebbing says he made the film with no financial support from the protesters, or any other group, and did not film on private land.
The British-born filmmaker has filmed endangered and vulnerable species in many parts of the world and thinks the little penguins at Pūtiki Bay deserve better protection.
“Compared to the care and protection that I have seen when filming penguins in places like Phillip Island in Victoria, Australia, where there are incredibly strict controls and in South Africa SANCCOB (Southern African Foundation for the Conservation of Coastal Birds) is doing an amazing job looking after the African penguin. I am a bit stunned by the lack of care and disregard for the kororā by the environment minister and DoC. I can hardly believe this is actually happening.”
