on the North Island, with approximately 75% of the estuary’s water volume leaving on the low tide. The new marina basin at low tide is below sea level. Since the consent was granted, many new, and non-notified consents have been granted, including that the boat channel no longer has to be rock walled, meaning that a great deal more marine material is to be permanently removed from the estuary's sedimentary cycle. Surfers, environmentalists and Māori have opposed the marina due to the effects upon a major wetland area and the risk to a world-class left hand surf break. An Environment Court hearing stipulated that the marina could go ahead as long as certain conditions were met. Chris Carter, a former Minister of Conservation, blocked the development but his decision was judicially reviewed by the marina developers. The decision was sent back to Conservation Minister Chris Carter, who stated that in the interests of transparency he would then give the final decision to Environment Minister David Benson-Pope, who allowed the marina to go ahead provided that strict conditions were met regarding containment of dredged materials during construction and monitoring of the world-famous surf break at the estuary's entrance. Several rare species were displaced or exterminated for the development, including the rare Oligosoma moco skink. The marina opened in November 2009. In May 2012 a meeting of local surfers and Coastal processes scientists concluded that the Whangamatā Bar had degraded for the sport of surfing, soon after the Surfbreak Protection Society released a Report citing that the Bar monitoring plan enlisted by the council was not capable of detecting changes to the Whangamatā Bar, because Maintenance dredging events were not correlated with The Bar monitoring surveys. Even so, the surveys were showing a degraded surfing quality on the Bar. The Whangamatā Bar is Protected under the New Zealand Coastal Policy Statement 2010, yet to date the Local Authority, Waikato Regional Council (WRC) state that there is not enough science to prove that the degradation is caused by the marina or some other natural phenomena. However, while WRC acknowledges that the Whangamatā Bar has degraded, WRC appear unwilling to enforce the Marina developers to conduct the appropriate science to ascertain the cause. The Environmental Defence Society has offered to host a workshop (without prejudice) to find positive outcomes. To date, the Waikato regional Council have not taken up this offer, which may mean