news bites

STUDENT JOINS TARA EXPEDITION The famous schooner which once belonged to Sir Peter Blake will pick up a special guest on its way to an historic stopover in Auckland in July. University of Auckland science student Neelam Hari, 23, will join the crew of the Tara Expedition as an observer on its leg between Suva and Auckland. Neelam was selected for the oncein-a-lifetime trip by the French-based EPOP project (e-participatory Observers Project). It aims to implement an international network of young observers to raise awareness on climate and environmental change issues. While on board Neelam will shoot a short film about climate and environmental change on a smartphone. “This experience is such an incredible honour and it will stretch me right out of my comfort zone,” says Neelam, who

...once-ina-lifetime trip...

is in the final year of a MSC degree. Tara is the boat on which Peter Blake was killed by pirates in the Amazon in 2001. Then known as Seamaster, it is the first time it has returned to New Zealand shores. The Tara is part-way through a two-year environmental survey across the Pacific Ocean. The schooner was renamed by a French philanthropist and family friend of Sir Peter Blake, who has funded the vessel since 2003 to cross all the world’s oceans conducting research and informing on climate change. The EPOP project is a separate initiative to raise awareness of island nations’ vulnerability to climate change. The organisation is funding 10 young Pacific ambassadors to create three to fourminute films about the environmental issues facing their own oceans. Neelam is the only New Zealand ambassador with the others from New Caledonia, Vanuatu and Fiji.