Blue maomao throng about the pinnacles, and barrel-like kingfish cruise past in platoons. Yet, even here the door is open to fishers. Like a missing slice from a pie, the boundary of the marine reserve allows fishing almost in the centre of the circular reserve.

When the Rena wrecked on Astrolabe Reef in 2011 an exclusion zone was established around it. Within two years it became a rich and diverse biodiversity hotspot, heaving with fish. The exclusion was later lifted, and fishers decimated the reef within months. Key sites around the Bay of Plenty need protection.