Connecting with the sea
Seaweek helps reef project team remember accomplishments
OPINION: Supporters of Project Reef South Taranaki, Arohatia te ākau Taranaki ki te tonga, have a lot to celebrate during Seaweek, which is New Zealand’s annual event that aims to inspire Kiwis to connect with the sea and runs until March 13.
The project, set up to study a previously unknown reef 11km offshore and 23m deep, is in its seventh year.
With the support of the South Taranaki Underwater Club, divers have captured amazing footage, scientifically surveyed the reef floor over the years, deployed baited underwater videos to survey the predatory reef fish, conducted plankton trawls, sent samples for identification to Niwa, taken ocean water samples for environmental DNA analysis, and deployed secchi disks for monitoring water clarity.
They have also tagged fish, deployed a hydrophone to capture the orchestra of sounds at the reef and deployed a first of its kind camera secured at the reef to take footage day and night.
South Taranaki Fishing Charters assisted local high school students to conduct fishing surveys and tag fish.
Local schools, kura and kindergartens, rest homes and community groups have had visits, there have been presentations at national conferences and coverage in the Connected Y4 school journal.
Young Ocean Explorers and TVNZ’s Heihei programme, will feature the project later this year.
An exhibition, ‘‘Reef Alive’’, opened at Puke Ariki in mid 2021, with the final half of the display anticipated to open before the end of the year. It was exhibited at Aotea Utanganui in 2017.
Art has been important for sharing the marine life offshore of South Taranaki – from a short film ‘‘Reef Revolution’’ shared locally and at film festivals overseas, to collaborating with the Pātea Area School, Taranaki community, and artists to instal a colourful mural of the reef and corten steel marine sculptures in Pātea.
The ‘‘Project Reef’’ is now recognised as being of outstanding natural character in the Taranaki Regional Council Coastal Plan.
The project is grateful for support from the Toi Foundation and Creative Community funding, local donations of time and funds, Wildlife Conservation Society (an underwater drone), and collaborations that enabled the Project Reef to be multibeam, ecological and habitat-mapped.
Seaweek is held annually by the New Zealand Association for Environmental Education, a national, non-profit organisation that promotes and supports lifelong learning and encourages behaviour that leads to sustainability for New Zealand/ Aotearoa.