Previously, the most abundant and extensive toheroa beds at Dargaville Beach were found in the
southern half of the beach, which was subjected to intensive harvesting during the early to mid twentieth
century. Surveys in the last decade have found that the northern half of the beach contained the most
toheroa (Akroyd et al. 2002, 2008).
In preparing the research proposal for the TOH201001 project, we undertook some preliminary
fieldwork at Dargaville Beach on 26 November 2010. NIWA’s sub-contractor Shade Smith (EAM Ltd.)
examined a section of the beach from Glinks Gully to Mahuta Gap (Figure 4) by driving along the beach
looking for signs of toheroa and by conducting some preliminary sampling. Several prominent, dense
toheroa beds were observed at specific locations along the beach, and these were easily distinguished by
the tens to hundreds of conspicuous siphon holes per square metre of sand. Preliminary sampling at one
bed, measuring approximately 114 m long by 40 m wide, revealed that in a 0.25 m2 quadrat, in which 12