protected by a stopbank and a drainage system. Coastal sawmill settlements at Tinopai, Arapaoa, Batley, Matakohe, Oneriri, Ōruawharo, Pahi, Paparoa, Tanoa and Whakapirau (history photos on the Whakapirau Community Website) have become quiet backwaters. Pahi has become a launch point for houseboats and fishing. Matakohe has a museum which commemorates the kauri industry and the early Pākehā settlers. Today, Dargaville is the principal centre in the Kaipara area. Its population levelled in the 1960s. It is the country's main kūmara (sweet potato) producer. Fisheries Much of the coastal fishing industry in New Zealand depends on mangrove forests. About 80% of fish caught commercially are linked to food chains dependent on the mangroves, and at least 30 species of fish use mangrove wetlands at some stage of their life cycle. The marine and estuarine areas in the Kaipara Harbour breed snapper, mullet, flounder, sole, kahawai, white trevally, gurnard, yellow‑eyed mullet and skates, rays and sharks. The Kaipara is the largest estuarine harbour on the west coast of New Zealand and provides significant areas of suitable breeding grounds and habitats for juvenile fish. It has fewer problems with water quality than the Manukau, and is the single most significant wetland for west coast fisheries. In 2009, NIWA scientists discovered that 98 percent of snapper on the west coast of the North Island were originally juveniles from nurseries in the Kaipara. Snapper is New Zealand's largest recreational fishery, and is also a commercial fishery with an annual export value of $32 million. The findings show how fragile some fish stocks can be, and highlights the importance of protecting natural habitats, like the Kaipara. Native rock oysters are plentiful on the rocky shores, and the introduced Pacific oysters flourish lower in the intertidal zone. There are cockles and tuatua on the lower tidal flats, mussels from low tide on the rocks to subtidal beds closer to the mouth of the harbour, and scallops in the tidal channels. The scallop population has periodic incidences of high mortality, the causes of which have not been identified. Concerns in recent years about the size and availability of scallops have resulted in temporary closures of the scallop fisheries. Early versions of oyster farming occurred between the early 1900s and 1950s. Thousands of tons of rocks were placed along the shorelines to act as an additional substrate on which the natural rock oyster could grow. In 2002, the Crown