Harbours, bays and estuaries

– at the edges of land and sea

 Getting muddy
with cockles
Have you ever gathered cockles with your family?
Not only is it fun to gather cockles, but for many
Kiwis cockles are an important food source. In
some places cockles are under pressure. We
talked to Ministry of Fisheries Scientist Richard
Ford to find out more about this shellfish that
only grows in New Zealand.
Scientist
Richard ford
tells us all
about cockles,
What are cockles?
pipi and tuatua. Cockles or tuangi are bivalve molluscs. That
means they have soft bodies that are protected
by two outer shells – bi means two. Their two
shells or “valves” are connected by a short ligament
at the back that works like a hinge.
It might not look like it, but cockles can actually move
around. They burrow with their single foot into soft mud which
is why you have to dig for them when you go out to collect
them. If too much sediment gets dumped on them though – say
after a heavy rainfall when sediment is washed down from the
surrounding land – they can’t burrow out and may die.
The cockles we have in New Zealand are found nowhere else in
the world, although they’re closely related to other species around the
world that are often called clams. In fact, sometimes New Zealand cockles are
called little-necked clams.
Cockle.
Illustrations
by Lisa Paton.

bivalve molluscs

Photo courtesy
Ministry of
Fisheries.
 How do they eat?
Like other bivalves, cockles don’t
have heads. To eat, they pump
water across their gills and catch
phytoplankton (tiny plants). They
then move the phytoplankton into
their mouths. This process is
called filter feeding.
Cockle in motion.
You can tell when cockles are
filter feeding because their shells are open.
Where do they live?
Cockles can be found in estuaries, mudflats and intertidal beaches all around
New Zealand. Often cockles can be found near pipi beds, although pipi like to
grow in sandier places than cockles so their beds will often be closer to where the
estuary meets the sea.
Researchers have found that cockles prefer areas where there is plenty of
phytoplankton but not too much sediment being washed down by rivers and
streams.

Other shellfish that sometimes get

confused with cockles
Pipi (Paphies australis) live near the
mouth of estuaries and harbours. They have
a more oval-shaped shell.

(Paphies subtriangulata) Tuatua

are found on open beaches and have
a more irregular shell shape.

tside
M a i r Bank ou rtesy
Pipi ne
a r
u r . P h oto cou
o es.
h a n g a r ei Harb r y o f Fisheri
W inis t
Ford, M
Richard
Do cockles have predators?
Yes, especially when they’re young. Older
cockles are harder for predators to eat
because their shells are thicker and they
live deeper in the sediment.
Sand flounder and other predatory
fish eat cockles. Cockles are also an
important food source for many
shorebirds like oystercatchers.
There is a parasitic worm (Curtuteria
australis) that as an adult lives in
the intestines of some shorebirds.
The adult worm’s eggs are released
out of the infected bird’s faeces South Island pied oystercatcher on
into the water where cockle live. nest with egg, Waituna Wetlands
Scientific Reserve. Photo courtesy
Once the eggs hatch and move into the larvae
DOC, photographer Gordon Watson.
stage they are sometimes eaten by cockles.
Once eaten, the larvae move down into the region of the cockle’s foot and
replace some of the cockle’s muscle tissue which causes the cockle’s foot to
shorten. At that point, the infected cockle can’t burrow as deeply into the soft
mud. So the cockle is more easily seen by the shorebirds that prey on them.
When a shorebird eats an infected cockle the worm starts living in the bird’s
intestine and the whole process begins again.

The Chinese
Conservation Education
Trust monitors cockles
at Cockle Bay near
Auckland. Their work
helps the Ministry
of Fisheries know
how cockles are
doing there. It’s
also a good way to
teach people of
all ages about the
environment cockles
need to survive.
Photos courtesy CCET.

digging
 How old do cockles live to be?
Cockles can live to be about 25 years old. They
mature between the ages of two and seven.
Environmental factors like water temperature
and food can influence a cockle’s growth.

What impacts do humans have

on cockle numbers?
While in many places cockle numbers
are stable there are places where their
populations seem to be declining. We think
the reasons for this are that sometimes too
many people are taking too many cockles
(overharvesting), sometimes because
of land-based effects on their
habitat, and sometimes a combination of
both these things.
To address the overharvesting issue,
New Zealand limits people to taking only
big
s t o r m s can cause d 50 cockles each day in the Auckland-
Big an
for plants al
problems at live in our coast
Coromandel area and 150 each day for
h
animals t nt. This cockle bed the rest of the country. In some
e
environm oua Harbour was areas these limits seems sustainable,
a p d
in Whan g
b y s e d im ent carrie but in other areas cockle numbers
d s
smothere streams and river y
down fr o m Photo cou
r es
t
ig s t o r m .
during a b NIWA.
sey,
Don Morri

recording sampling
 are still declining. In some places, the beaches have been closed to shellfish
harvesting for periods of time with the hope the closure will allow cockle and
other shellfish populations to rebound.
In three areas in New Zealand cockles are also commercially harvested.
In these areas they are regulated (under the quota management system) and
monitored to make sure that cockle population numbers remain stable.
Perhaps the hardest issue to address is the effect of land-based activities
on cockle populations. After all, it’s hard for someone to realise that what
they do many kilometres away from an
estuary impacts the plants and animals
that live there. Across the country local
councils and community groups are
working on this issue though – through
planning processes, monitoring
programmes, and activities like riparian
restoration projects.

At Te Matuku estuary
on Waiheke Island,
students monitor cockles
as part of their year-
long education in marine
conservation through
WWF’s Auckland Marine
Matters Programme. Not
only do these students
count the cockles at Te
Matuku estuary, they
also measure them. The
site is being compared
with 11 other sites in
the Hauraki Gulf Marine
Park.
Photos courtesy Janet Hunt.
Cockles in trouble at
Cheltenham Beach
○ Cheltenham Beach is on Auckland’s North Shore, not far from the port
and the city centre. Despite being in the middle of a large city, until a
few years ago Cheltenham had a healthy population of good-sized
cockles that locals and visitors often enjoyed gathering.
○ In the early 1990s though, residents noticed that cockle
numbers were falling. They thought the cause was simply
overharvesting. So the Ministry of Fisheries applied a
temporary closure to harvesting for two years to enable
the population to recover.
○ A group of residents and Royal Forest and Bird
Protection Society members formed a group
called the Cheltenham Beach Caretakers. The
caretakers surveyed the cockle population so
everyone would know when harvesting could
begin again. The results were disappointing
as there was no sign of the hoped for
recovery. The first two-year closure was
extended for another two years, but with
still no significant increase in cockle
numbers, Cheltenham was closed
permanently to shellfish gathering.
○ Although cockles were once abundant
at this beach they have now almost
disappeared. People have not
taken any for over 10 years, so the
indications are that harvesting is not
the problem. While the exact cause
is unclear, it seems very likely that
environmental changes have
occurred at Cheltenham so
that it is no longer a suitable
habitat for these shellfish.

People gathering cockles.

Photo courtesy Ministry of Fisheries.
Acknowledgements
The Ministry of Fisheries and the Department of Conservation have developed this web-based
educational resource to help students learn more about the effects of land-based activities on our
coastal environment.

The student activities in this resource have been developed for Years 7&8, but many of the activities
may easily be adapted for older students.

Special thanks to the three scientists who agreed to be interviewed for this resource: Dave West,
Department of Conservation (Whitebait in our waters); Richard Ford, Ministry of Fisheries (Getting
muddy with cockles); and Mark Morrison, National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (Our
prized snapper).

Thanks also to Bruno David, Michael Hickford and Jane Goodman for reviewing and commenting
on the “Whitebait in our waters” story. Thanks to Blake Abernethy and Richard Fanselow for their
additions to “Getting muddy with cockles” and for reviewing this resource.

Eduardo Villouta, Department of Conservation, and Simon Thomas, Ministry of Fisheries, offered
valuable advice on the development of this resource.

Written by Shelly Farr Biswell.

Illustrations (unless otherwise noted) by Lisa Paton, Morphological Environmental Communication.

Teacher resource developed and written by Sue Clement.

Teacher resource reviewed by Tandi McRae.

The information in this resource was drawn, in part, from A review of land-based effects on coastal
fisheries and supporting biodiversity in New Zealand, New Zealand Aquatic Environment and
Biodiversity Report No. 37, 2009. This scientific review from the National Institute of Water &
Atmospheric Research was produced for the Ministry of Fisheries and is available at www.fish.govt.nz.

Ministry of Fisheries
Te Tautiaki i nga tini a Tangaroa

ASB Bank House

101–103 The Terrace
PO Box 1020
Wellington 6140
New Zealand

www.fish.govt.nz

Department of Conservation
Te Papa Atawhai

Conservation House – Whare Kaupapa Atawhai

18-32 Manners Street
PO Box 10420
Wellington 6143
New Zealand
www.doc.govt.nz

ISBN 978-0-478-11919-4 (Online)

August 2009

Front cover photo credits: Ian Trafford (top left); Chinese Conservation Education Trust (top right); Kim
Boyle, Whitebait Connection (middle); Kim Westerskov (bottom).