Otamatea High School EMR 2009

Otamatea High School year 8's took part in the EMR programme in Term 1, 2009 with EMR coordinator, Kim Boyle. They investigated their local marine area (Whakapirau), and took part in 4 workshops, each delivered by a different organisation or local stakeholder. Workshops included:
Leane Makey pHd student studying the Kaipara Harbour - spoke about her research and let the kids use her sampling equipment and talked about how the students could help with research.
Peter and Christine Yardley local sustainable commercial fishing gurus - spoke about what they've seen change in the fisheries in the Kaipara over their long time there, showed some species that they catch and spoke about how they've had to change fishing practices to ensure the sustainability of the fishery.
Laura Shaft from Northland Regional Council's CoastCare - spoke about what the NRC does, different coastal habitats and how plants are important for the coastal environment.
Kim Boyle from EMR - spoke about catchments and ran an activity to demonstrate the large effect our actions on land can effect harbour environments.

Whakapirau

The students then looked more into local issues back school and decided on which one they would like to take action for. They learnt snorkeling skills in the pool with EMR before they ventured down to the Goat Island marine reserve for some inspiration. Here they saw the impact a no-take marine reserve has had on the area environmentally, socially and economically. They could then make their own decision on if they think marine reserves are a good idea and take this knowledge back to their own community and become Kaitiaki by having the knowledge and tools to take action on local marine issues.

The kids came up with some great actions including cleaning up a local drain on one of the students' farm and planting it with native plants to control erosion of sediment into the Kaipara Harbour, and getting an article into a spearfishing magazine about marine reserves.

Otamatea High School year 7 & 8's were also involved in EMR in 2007.