[1][7] In the lake and wetlands, there are populations of tuna kūwharuwharu (longfin eels), tuna hao (shortfin eels), toitoi (common bully), īnanga, kanae (yellow eyed mullet), kākahi (freshwater mussel), mohoao (black flounder), waikaka or hauhau (brown mudfish), kōuru (freshwater crayfish), panoko (torrentfish), giant kōkopu and redfin bully.

[6] The area is a habitat for a range of birds, including matuku (Australasian bittern), kuaka (bar-tailed godwit), pohowera (banded dotterel), taranui (caspian tern), weweia (New Zealand dabchick), pūwheto (spotless crake), kawau (black shag), tarāpuka (black-billed gull), kuriri (Pacific golden plover), pūtangitangi (paradise shelduck), kōtuku ngutupapa (royal spoonbill) and poaka (pied stilt).

According to some oral histories, the Polynesian explorer Kupe named the wetlands after touching down in the area several times.

According to other oral histories, explorer Haunui named the wetlands after the way the lake appeared to glisten from the Remutaka Ranges to the west.

Many Rangitāne and Ngāti Kahungunu fled the area, until a peace agreement signed at Pito-one in 1840 allowed them to return.

Georg Forster, a naturalist on Cook's ship, said it was the "“most convenient spot for European settlement", with extensive land suitable for cultivation.

[10][11] Several further steps were taken to protect the wetland, including the establishment of legal protections under the Resource Management Act in 1991, the development of an action plan by the Department of Conservation in 2000, the establishment of a clean streams accord by Fonterra in 2003, and the conversion of 130 hectares (320 acres) of marginal farmland to wetlands in 2004.

[10] The project aims to restore the wetland, which has been heavily polluted with high levels of nitrogen and phosphorus and has been facing erosion and sedimentation.

[19][20] In 2023, the Greater Wellington Regional Council reported that since the installation of a network of predator traps in 2013, they had removed hundreds of ferrets, feral cats and mice, and thousands of hedgehogs and rats.

Control of these predators has been linked to increasing populations of the nationally critical Australasian bittern or matuku hūrepo.

[21] The Wairarapa Moana Wetlands has walking tracks, there are cycling routes around the lake, and there are several spots for bird-watching, kayaking, windsurfing and fishing.