Collaborative Seaweek event

Seaweek, Kaupapa Moana, is an annual national week that has been celebrating the sea for over 30 years.

It is run by the Sir Peter Blake Marine Education and Recreation Centre and relies on a vast network of volunteers to organise events.

On March 4, Forest and Bird and TOSSI headed up a small gathering of local conservation groups to celebrate this year’s Seaweek at Anchor Bay, Tāwharanui.

The groups got together to celebrate our amazing shoreline, the life it supports and how that connects to the land. These voluntary conservation groups spend much of their efforts on supporting improvements to the land-based flora and fauna such tree planting, bird counts, monitoring, pest control and so on.

Some work is also directed to our shore birds, such as dotterels, Cooks petrel and oi. But it’s a valuable experience to wander among the rocky shoreline, check out the rock pools and wonder at the life contained in this very special environment. Land and sea are not separate, they blend into each other and are intrinsically connected to form one ecosystem of many layers.

F&B and TOSSI were joined by members of Snells Shoreline Conservation Community, Restore Rodney East, and some of the team also work with Friends of Awa Matakanakana and the Forest Bridge Trust, so the connectivity was also reflected in the group of volunteers that came together for the day.

The volunteers chatted to visitors, sharing the work that is done by the groups, as well as encouraging them to check out the rocky shoreline for themselves.

The conditions of the sea precluded any snorkelling, and after the recent storm events it was a bit murky anyway. There was a decent swell on the day, great for all the surfers out there, but not for looking in rock pools! It was only much later in the afternoon that a few of the team could explore among the rocks a little, being careful not to get taken out by a rogue wave. However, there was still plenty to see – fish, snails, barnacles, mussels, periwinkles, limpets and more.

The sea, the shoreline, the land, the rivers and the streams – there is no line between them, they are interconnected as is the life they support. Let’s take care of it all.