Seaweek 2021, Connecting With Our Seas, Toi Moana ~ Toi Tangata
Three New Zealanders who are embodying Seaweek on Facebook LIVE
Surrounded by 15,000 km of coastline, New Zealand is an ocean-lover’s paradise – so it is no surprise that we’ve got our fair share of New Zealanders who are ocean heroes.
During a Facebook LIVE panel discussion on Monday 8th March, three inspirational Kiwis – Charlie Thomas, Moana Tamaariki-Pohe and Rob Lewis, discussed personal motivations, the state of New Zealand’s ocean ecosystems, and what people can do to make a difference to the future of our seas. Amongst other things, our ocean ambassadors are cleaning up remote Pacific atolls, creating community movements for ocean kaitiakitanga, and combining education with shark spotting.
Nineteen-year-old Charlie Thomas is the champion of beach clean-ups. Spending a year on the remote Pacific atoll of Kure, near the swirling North Pacific Gyre that holds the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, Charlie found countless albatross corpses tangled in fishing gear and stuffed with plastic – they’d eaten bottle caps, lighters, and other rubbish washed across thousands of kilometres from Pacific Rim countries.
On Motuihe Island in Auckland’s Hauraki Gulf, Charlie found hundreds of tiny mermaid’s tears (also known as nurdles) along the high tide line – these are plastic beads that are used to make plastic products. They have even collected plastic bottles on the remote, uninhabited New Zealand Subantarctic Islands.
Upon hearing these awful stories, a common response from listeners is: what can we do to help? Well, Seaweek 2021 is already upon us with a buzz of activities – Charlie says they will be painting Hauraki Gulf wildlife to help raise awareness for the plight of these beautiful creatures, and there are beach clean-ups happening in many areas for people who want to get involved.
Charlie believes that renewing your connection with our precious moana/ocean can be as simple as going for a walk on the beach, taking the time to observe the habitat and wildlife around you – and what better time to start than during Seaweek? They also say that, for the future health of the Hauraki Gulf, it is important for us to be vigilant and to notice the changes that are happening around us over time so that we can take action to help protect this important place.
Community leader Moana Tamaariki-Pohe earned Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit last year for services to Māori and conservation. She has been a driving force behind restoring the mauri of Auckland’s Ōkahu Bay, working with a passionate team of people to remove boat moorings, and start the process of regenerating mussel beds to provide kaimoana and improve water quality for current and future generations.
In 2019, she and her sister set up Orākei Water Sports Waka Ama Club, an organisation that uses waka ama, traditionally Māori, as a vehicle to raise awareness of kaitiakitanga of the water and the land. The aim is to support people getting involved in conservation mahi through the sharing of knowledge and understanding of waka kaupapa, Te Ao Māori and kaitiakitanga.
She says enacting change in this area doesn’t have to be big and scary, invoking the sentiments of Martin Luther King Jr: “If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.”
Her advice would be to start local, be familiar with your local area, support existing conservation projects and focus on the little things you can do to make a big difference. She also says we all need to switch our mindset from ‘what we have the right to take’, to ‘what we are prepared to leave’.
For Seaweek 2021, Moana is helping Rangatahi with their mahi on the Ōtata Island kina barrens.
Otago University’s Rob Lewis is a marine scientist, a shark enthusiast and the leader of a citizen science project called Shark Spy where Kiwis around the country are encouraged to send in sightings of sharks along with photos of the animal, which experts behind the scenes will then identify and give feedback on.
He says it is helping scientists get a grasp on the declining shark numbers (a trend that we are seeing around the globe), filling in the information gaps from commercial fishery reports, and even showcasing the incredible distances individually-identified sharks are able to travel around the country.
Rob says he has enjoyed seeing how much this citizen science project has encouraged a growth in ocean awareness. Using charismatic species such as sharks to draw communities from around New Zealand – and especially school children – into science, opens the door to learning more about entire ocean ecosystems, and the important role of an apex predator.
For Seaweek this year, Rob will be giving other talks about sharks and Shark Spy, as well as supporting events at the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre in Otago.
This year’s Seaweek theme is about inspiring you to renew your connection with the moana/sea. Whether you’re into snorkel days and beach clean-ups, or films and expert lectures, head to our Seaweek event page for information about these activities and many others. We hope that you will get to know our ocean, it’s spaces and its inhabitants a little better in Seaweek 2021 and beyond.