Jackson Bay / Okahu () is a gently curving bay on the southern West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. It faces the Tasman Sea to the north, and is backed by the Southern Alps. It contains the settlements of Hannahs Clearing, Waiatoto, Neils Beach, and the fishing village of Jackson Bay at its western end. The bay is the southernmost terminus of the West Coast's roads.
Toponymy
Jackson Bay was named Open Bay by Captain Cook; the origins of its current name are obscure. Possible namesake sources include: Port Jackson, New South Wales; James Hayter Jackson, a local whaler; or William Jackson, a sealer said to have been part of a party that was marooned in the area in 1810. In the early years of settlement, the bay was known as Jackson's Bay, later losing its possessive. Following the passage of the Ngāi Tahu Claims Settlement Act 1998, the name of the bay was officially altered to Jackson Bay / Okahu.
History
Jackson Bay and the mouth of the Arawhata River was home to a Māori settlement for hundreds of years. Māori harvested fish and seals, and gathered the valuable pounamu (greenstone) that originated in the Red Hills inland. When the explorer John Boultbee visited the bay in 1826, the settlement's population was about 300, but it had declined by the time Europeans began to settle the area, and was abandoned in 1866. On the foreshore of Jackson Bay is a grave and marker for Claude Ollivier of the schooner Ada, who died in Jackson Bay on 27 August 1862.
Geography
Setting
This bay is the only sheltered harbour between Greymouth, north, and Milford Sound, south (although "sheltered" is a relative term, as it is fully exposed to northerly storms). The waters off the coast are particularly productive, marking the convergence of the cool West Wind Drift and the warm Westland Current.
Economy
The settlement of Jackson Bay is New Zealand's closest harbour to Australia, and supports a fishing industry of small boats catching mostly tuna and spiny lobster (known in New Zealand as crayfish or koura), although not many of the fishers live in the bay. The settlement contains about 30 dwellings, but few permanent residents, and in the summer so many recreational fishers come with their boats from Central Otago or Queenstown for a weekend's fishing that local iwi Te Rūnanga o Makaawhio have discussed setting up mataitai reserves (marine reserves).
Located on the foreshore is The Craypot, a fish-and-chip stand and one of the main tourist attractions of the settlement. Originally constructed in Timaru as a pie cart, it was moved to Cromwell to support the construction of the Clyde Dam in the 1980s. The Cromwell pie cart was sold to a Haast local, who towed it over the Haast Pass behind a tractor and set it up on the Jackson Bay waterfront.
Important bird area
The stretch of coastline from Jackson Head for about westwards to the mouth of the Stafford River has been identified as an Important Bird Area because it supports a breeding population of Fiordland penguins.
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