Foveaux Strait
Foveaux Strait is a strait that separates Stewart Island from the South Island of New Zealand. The width of the strait ranges from about, and the depth varies between. The earliest known chart of the strait was prepared by American sealer, Owen Folger Smith from a whaleboat of the sealing brig Union in 1804.
The passage was named Foveaux Strait in March 1809, after Joseph Foveaux, the Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales in Australia. Ferry services across Foveaux Strait began in 1877 and continue to operate regularly between Bluff Harbour and Oban. The strait has been described as "one of the roughest and most unpredictable stretches of water in the world". Severe weather and sea conditions in the strait have contributed to multiple shipwrecks and fatalities. One of these losses was the wreck of the SS Tararua in 1881—the worst maritime disaster for civilian vessels in New Zealand's history, with 131 fatalities. There are currently no formal definitions of the eastern and western boundaries of the strait.
The waters of Foveaux Strait are the main location in New Zealand for dredging for Bluff oysters. There are a large number of small islands in the strait, including Ruapuke Island and the northern Muttonbird Islands. These islands are locations for muttonbirding—the harvest by Rakiura Māori of sooty shearwater chicks. New Zealand fur seals in the region were hunted in major seal hunting operations in the early 1800s until populations were severely depleted, and whaling was a major industry over the 40-year period from 1844 to 1885.
Foveaux Strait is known for its biodiversity, particularly seabirds and marine mammals. The region has significant populations of seven species of globally threatened seabirds, including yellow-eyed penguins. Multiple areas of coastline, islands and open sea within the strait have been recognised as Important Bird and Biodiversity Areas. Some marine mammals are resident in the strait throughout the year, while others, such as baleen whales, pass through in winter and spring on migration. The wider region also has small populations of nationally endangered dolphins, including Hector's dolphin. The Catlins Coast Marine Mammal Sanctuary lies mostly within the strait.
Geography
Scope
Foveaux Strait is a seaway separating Stewart Island from the South Island in New Zealand. The width of the strait ranges from about. There is no formal definition of the eastern and western boundaries of the strait — different sources set the eastern boundary of the strait at Waipapa Point, or alternatively further east at Waikawa Harbour. The western boundary has been defined as a line at 167° 43'E, or further west at Sand Hill Point. Depending on the definition of eastern and western boundaries, the area of the strait is approximately.Physical geography and climate
There are a large number of small islands in the strait, including Raratoka Island, Dog Island, the Muttonbird Islands and Ruapuke Island. The Solander Islands lie to the west; they are outside of the area usually defined as Foveaux Strait. Major landforms on the northern coast of the strait include three large bays, Te Waewae Bay, Oreti Beach, Toetoes Bay and Bluff Harbour.During the Last Glacial Period when sea levels were at least lower than current levels, the South Island and Stewart Island were connected by a coastal plain. This claim is also supported by the gravel patterns in the strait, which are distinguishable by petrographis analyses of the pebbles, that confirm the existence of dryland. After sea levels began to rise 7,000 years ago, Foveaux Strait was created between the two islands. The sea floor in the strait slopes towards the west, increasing in depth from around. The sea floor is mostly flat with patches of coarse pebble and an upfault of bedrock close to sea level, near Te Waewae Bay. Small amounts of Stiracolpus symmetricus shells and fine sands lie nearby, which occur of the mouths of some rivers, salinities in the strait is constantly low, particularly near the river mouths of the southern coastline of the Southland, such as the Waiau River.
The climate of the Foveaux Strait region is severe by New Zealand standards with daily average temperatures of around 14 °C in summer, and 5.3 °C in winter. The annual average rainfall is more than and there are around 100 windy days per year. Gale force winds are common in Foveaux Strait, with a frequency that is second only to Cook Strait.
Sea conditions
The sea conditions and tidal currents in Foveaux Strait are influenced by the sub-tropical convergence zone. This is a frontal zone between subantarctic waters to the south, and subtropical waters to the north. The southern boundary of the STCZ lies at around 46 °S, and runs eastwards from Tasmania. It gives rise to the Southland Current that flows from the continental shelf west of Stewart Island, through Foveaux Strait and then north along the coast of the South Island. The Southland Current carries a mixture of sub-tropical water and some sub-antarctic waters from the Australasian region, and it has a major influence on ocean conditions in Foveaux Strait and the south-east coast of the South Island.Foveaux Strait has been described as "one of the roughest and most unpredictable stretches of water in the world". Strong westerly winds regularly blow through the strait of up to an hour, frequently creating swells with an average height of over and occasionally over. The tidal stream in the strait can flow at speeds of per second and up to per second during spring tides. In 1850 the survey vessel HMS Acheron was caught in a gale in Foveaux Strait that lasted for five days. The vessel took shelter at Ruapuke Island, but Captain John Lort Stokes reported: "All this time the sea resembled a huge boiling cauldron, hissing and roaring, whilst its break over the numerous reefs by which the vessel was encompassed had an appearance awfully impressive when seen in the gloom of approaching night". Many whaling ships used Port William on the northwest coast of Steward Island as shelter when there was strong westerlies or severe sea conditions in Foveaux Strait.
The French navigator Jules de Blosseville on board a French expeditionary vessel Coquille, was the first person to describe the strait in detail. He wrote in 1823: "Whirlpools are frequently to be met with and the position is one of great peril when the direction of the waves is contrary to that of the wind". Blosseville also compared Foveaux Strait with Bass Strait, writing that currents were "much stronger", with the most dangerous being between Raratoka Island and the South Island, where "the flow and ebb rush through with a speed of as much as per hour). The combination of wind, tides and seafloor topography in Foveaux Strait can lead to steep waves, dangerous overfalls and tidal rips. Sea conditions are rough when fresh winds blow in the opposite direction to a strong tidal flow. In 2009, following several accident investigations, Maritime New Zealand arranged for warning notes to be added to charts of the area.
Toponymy
The Māori name for the strait is Te Ara a Kiwa, meaning the pathway of Kiwa. A less common alternative Māori name for the strait is Te Ara a Kewa. There are numerous stories in Māori mythology about the origin of the names. In one account, Kiwa became exhausted from crossing the isthmus which connected Murihiku and Rakiura. He asked the whale Kewa to chew through the isthmus to create a waterway, so he could travel to Rakiura using a waka.The earliest known chart of the strait was prepared by an American sealer, Owen Folger Smith. Smith charted the strait from the whaleboat of the sealing brig Union in 1804; on his 1806 chart, he named it Smith's Strait. Smith's chart was given to Governor of New South Wales, Philip Gidley King, who did not make it public, even though he was duty bound to communicate all hydrographic discoveries to the Admiralty. Later in 1806, another American vessel, the Favorite, collected large amounts of sealskin from the area before continuing its journey to Sydney through the strait, leading to the passage being referred to as "Favorite's Strait" by some early maps and American logbooks.
Captain John Grono named the strait Foveaux Strait in March 1809 after his friend Joseph Foveaux, Lieutenant-Governor of New South Wales. His vessel Governor Bligh struck a rock in the strait, but suffered little damage. He described the strait as being about in width, and "with very dangerous navigation from the numerous rocks, shoals and little islands, with which it is crowded". The sealing brig Pegasus, commanded by Eber Bunker, ran aground in the strait in 1809, and in the report on the grounding in The Sydney Gazette, the strait was called Foveaux Strait.
In 1824, one Captain Kent of the Elizabeth Henrietta attempted to rename the strait to "Tees Strait", but was unsuccessful. A more recent proposal, in 1968, for the strait to be renamed to "Kupe Strait", was also unsuccessful.
History
Māori settlement
In Māori oral tradition, their history in the Southland region is traced to the arrival of two chiefs, Rākaihautū and Tamatea. Rākaihautū is a tīpuna of the Waitaha people, and was the captain of the Uruao waka. The waka Tākitimu, captained by Tamatea, was wrecked near Te Waewae Bay on the shores of what is now called Foveaux Strait. In the traditional account, the Tākitimu Mountains in Southland are the overturned hull of the canoe. The name given to the lower parts of the South Island was Murihiku, a name that is loosely translated as 'the tail end' of the land.Murihiku Māori were mostly hunter-gatherers who settled around Foveaux Strait including coastal settlements such as Bluff and Riverton, moving between inland areas and the coast, including the shores and islands of the strait. They established permanent settlements on Ruapuke Island in Foveaux Strait, and on the South Island coastline at Aparima, Awarua and Waikawa. The ocean provided food year round, and tītī were taken from islands off Rakiura. Groups would move inland to fish and catch eels in the rivers between late winter and into summer. In the autumn, they hunted birds including weka, kākā, takahē, kererū, and kākāpō.
Significant Māori settlements existed in the Foveaux Strait area, most notably on Ruapuke Island. It was the location of a major Ngāi Tahu settlement in the nineteenth century and was the home to southern rangatira, Tūhawaiki. He was the first of the southern chiefs to sign the Treaty of Waitangi. Ruapuke was an important site for two of the country's earliest industries, the harvesting of harakeke and fur seal skins.
The pre-colonial population is estimated at 350 Māori on the northern side of the strait, spread between the modern-day settlement of Bluff and Ruapuke Island. Stewart Island had about 85 Māori, primarily occupying Horseshoe Bay and an area referred to as Te Wehi-a-Te-Wera, a narrow peninsula of the entrance of Paterson Inlet.
In the early 19th century, Honekai, a Māori chief in the Foveaux Strait region, declared that Ngāi Tahu women and European sealers could stay together in Whenua Hou, west Stewart Island, under his protection, making it one of New Zealand's first multiracial communities. The island had previously been known as Kanawera, after a prominent Kāti Māmoe chief.