The Firth of Thames ( mi, Tikapa Moana-o-Hauraki) is a large bay located in the north of the

North Island The North Island, also officially named Te Ika-a-Māui, is one of the two main islands of New Zealand, separated from the larger but much less populous South Island by the Cook Strait. The island's area is , making it the world's 14th-largest ...

of New Zealand. It is the firth of the rivers

Waihou Waihou is a rural settlement in the Matamata-Piako District and Waikato region of New Zealand's North Island. It is located on between Te Aroha and Morrinsville and west of the Waihou River. Waihou Recreational Reserve provides sporting faci ...

and Piako, the former of which was formerly named the Thames River, and the town of Thames lies on its southeastern coast. Its Maori name is ''Tikapa''. In traditional legend, the firth and the greater Hauraki Gulf are protected by a taniwha named Ureia, who takes the form of a whale. The firth lies at the southern end of the Hauraki Gulf, southeast of the city of Auckland. It occupies a rift valley or

graben In geology, a graben () is a depressed block of the crust of a planet or moon, bordered by parallel normal faults. Etymology ''Graben'' is a loan word from German, meaning 'ditch' or 'trench'. The word was first used in the geologic contex ...

between the Coromandel Peninsula and Hunua Ranges, which continues into the Hauraki Plains to the south.

Conservation

The Firth of Thames is an important site for waders or shorebirds, and is listed as a wetland of international importance under the Ramsar Convention. The Miranda Shorebird Centre, operated by the

Miranda Naturalists' Trust Miranda may refer to: Law * ''Miranda v. Arizona'', an American legal case * ''Miranda'' warning, an American police warning given to suspects about their rights, before they are interrogated Places Australia * Miranda, New South Wales * Mirand ...

, is located on the

Seabird Coast The Seabird Coast, also known as the Wharekawa Coast, is a beach area situated on the Firth of Thames in the North Island of New Zealand, lies about three kilometres from the small town of Miranda, New Zealand, Miranda. It is the location of the P ...

, on the western shore of the bay at Miranda. However, the firth overall is severely damaged by man-made influences, especially dairy-farm run-off, and has not recovered from large-scale mussel dredging over 40 years after the practice ceased (more information in the Hauraki Gulf article). Whales such as

southern right whale The southern right whale (''Eubalaena australis'') is a baleen whale, one of three species classified as right whales belonging to the genus ''Eubalaena''. Southern right whales inhabit oceans south of the Equator, between the latitudes of 20 ...

s (one of two of the first confirmed birth records in main islands waters since the end of commercial and illegal whaling was observed in Browns Bay region in 2012) and

Bryde's whale Bryde's whale ( Brooder's), or the Bryde's whale complex, putatively comprises three species of rorqual and maybe four. The "complex" means the number and classification remains unclear because of a lack of definitive information and research ...

s can be seen in the bay to calve and rest.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Firth Of Thames Bays of Waikato Wetlands of Waikato Thames-Coromandel District Ramsar sites in New Zealand Rifts and grabens *