Kina Monitoring at Kapiti Island

February, 2022 by Nicole – Marine Citizen Science, Kina, Sea urchin, Seaweed, Wellington Underwater Club

Slow change is often difficult to spot. When I returned to the Hole in the Wall dive site at Kapiti Island in March 2021 the change since my last dive was striking. A big boulder was densely covered in kina and the seaweed around the point was visibly impacted by kina grazing with patches of barren rock, stumpy seaweed stalks and, on a closer look, large numbers of kina under the kelp canopy in seaweed covered areas.

We had already started kina monitoring in Wellington harbour and had a set of methods ready to go. With a good forecast and the Guardians of Kapiti Island Marine Reserve ready to take us to the site we set out on a day of monitoring and days of data analysis… 

Check out more photos, read about our kina monitoring methods and download the monitoring report here.