Film-maker on board with conservation
A new Christchurch venture hopes to offer marine researchers a boat to use and will document their efforts to promote ocean conservation.
Blue Cradle is a new social enterprise aiming to educate people about marine conservation and ocean literacy.
Founder James Nikitine, a film-maker and marine science graduate, said the project would operate a boat that researchers could use and would film their work to promote ocean regeneration.
He was looking at several boat options, including a 14-metre boat with an aluminium hull in the Bay of Islands, and hoped to have one ready to go by August.
Nikitine said the world’s oceans were in decline because of humans, and it was no secret climate change and the biodiversity crisis have had a great impact on the ocean.
Blue Cradle intends to run three programmes: education, research and digital outreach.
The educational activities would use the boat and work with schools, educational institutes and the general public.
The research programme would focus on marine conservation and regenerating the ocean, with researchers able to use the boat to carry out their research.
Regular videos and content would be made from the boat to tell the story of the researchers’ work.
Nikitine said this was some of Blue Cradle’s most important work as it would have the most visibility. There was a ‘‘big gap’’ in Canterbury regarding ocean sustainability and conservation.
He was working with potential partners and sponsors to set Blue Cradle up, but the Covid-19 lockdown had made meeting people tricky. He had been talking with Nga¯ i Tahu, academic institutes, seafood companies, Lyttelton Port and ChristchurchNZ, he said.
Nikitine is also a co-founder of Manaia Productions, a film-making company focused on conservation. It recently produced a short video promoting ocean conservation that was narrated by singer Sting.
He also works as a consultant for the United Nations and a variety of government agencies around the globe.
Nikitine was born in France and has a degree in film, and a master’s degree in marine systems and policies from the University of Edinburgh. He previously worked as a divemaster in Samoa and at the Great Barrier Reef off the Queensland coast.