Dive into Wellington Harbour
The temperate waters around Wellington sustain highly diverse and productive marine ecosystems. Despite surrounding New Zealand’s capital city the marine habitats of Wellington harbour are unknown to most residents. Increasing urban and environmental pressures lead to the decline of these ecosystems. Volunteer divers and snorkelers document the marine environment and highlight how these important habitats disappear in front of our eyes if increasing community efforts to better manage and restore coastal marine ecosystems are not supported by local & central government and residents alike.
Seaweed Forests of Wellington
Large brown kelp species dominate the rocky reefs along Wellington’s coastline and provide shelter, habitat and food and act as natural shore protection.
Giant kelp (Macrocystis pyrifera) is particularly visible with fronds reaching up from the seafloor and floating along on the surface.
Volunteers monitor seaweeds along Wellington’s Miramar Peninsula since 2016. Read more about the giant kelp monitoring project and download project reports.
Project Baseline Wellington – Monitoring Giant Kelp is a Citizen Science Project by volunteer scuba divers with Project Baseline.
Kina Monitoring and Kina Barren
Kina are a natural part and thought-after species in seaweed habitats. Healthy ecosystems can sustain a large number of kina. In the absence of kina predators the natural balance tips and kina quickly graze off kelp forests down to barren rock, so called kina barren. Read more about how volunteers document the impact of kina grazing and how the monitoring data is supporting an iwi-led seaweed restoration project here!
Seaweed Outreach, Education & Regeneration
We started our outreach on seaweed with the seaweed mural at the Whairepo lagoon and a community seaweed snorkel at Kau Bay in 2018.
Our volunteers share their observations with school students and the community through the Explore Your Coast School Education Programme and community events.
Keen to support local marine projects? Find out more and support Explore Your Coast here. You can also purchase seaweed and ocean-inspired art by Nicole Miller with profits supporting Explore Your Coast outreach and education.