Seaweek helping locals reconnect with their ‘moana’

JULIA WADE

Seven days of highlighting, celebrating and marvelling about the beauty of the world’s marine life began this week, with the environmentally inspiring Seaweek beginning on March 6.

Seaweek ‘Kaupapa Moana’ (values, deep ocean) national co-ordinator, Sara Kullins, says the annual event is about inspiring all Kiwis to renew their connections with the sea ‘to better understand its habitats, characteristics and inhabitants and how to care for them’.

“Did you know up to 85 percent of New Zealand wildlife could be in the ocean?”

Activities to engage kiwis in celebrating the sea have already begun nationwide, with guided snorkel tours at Goat Island marine reserves, harbour and beach clean ups including Uretiti on March 13, education days, film screenings and seminars on biodiversity, guided walks, and even a driftwood carving competition.

Mangawhai Beach School are holding a competition with students invited to create a vision board or poster showing their connection to, and future hopes for, ‘our moana’, with posters to be displayed in the school’s library from March 11.

Kullins says it’s a chance for the whole family to be involved with activities such as the ‘Citizen Science’ projects, which records ‘shark sightings to types of beach litter’ including downloading the ‘eOceans’ app, the global science initiative which enables users to record and help track the health of the world’s oceans, marine life and pollution.

“Plastic pollution has been firmly established as one of the greatest dangers to the marine environment, and what we see on the beach is only a fraction of the problem,” Kullins says. “Most marine pollution is already on the sea floor, an estimated 70 percent of plastic pollution has sunk to the seabed, 15 percent is on the sea surface, with a further 15 percent on the sea shore… but we can all get involved and make a difference.”

n For more information visit seaweek.org.nz

Seaweek is a great opportunity for Mangawhai locals to stop and think about how they can preserve and protect their ocean and what lives in it. PHOTO/JULIA WADE