National Marine and Freshwater Education Wananga – Conference 2010
Theme - Mountains to Sea – Collaboration for conservation of our marine and freshwater environments in schools and communities.
Purpose
An inspirational professional development and networking opport...
Being an isolated small rural school, many of the students at Purua had never been snorkelling before and had limited knowledge about marine biodiversity, and none of them knew what a marine reserve was. The community knowledge was also very minimal. This community is very focused on farming and the terrestrial environment. The closest marine reserves are the distant Poor Knights Islands, which are only accessible by boat, and the Whangarei Harbour marine reserve (1 hour drive away) which was only established in 2006.
The immediate environment around Purua is intensively farmed and water quality studies show that many waterways around the area are highly degraded. The Purua catchment flows into the Kaipara Harbour on the west coast. The closest marine environment is on the east coast in the Whangarei harbour and the Tutukaka coast. The Whangarei harbour and the Tutukaka coast have high human impacts including fishing (commercial and rec), sewage discharge, rubbish and pollutants from stormwater and runoff. These areas do have marine reserves which need protecting, the Whangarei Harbour has a marine reserve consisting of two sites which has compliance issues and the Tutukaka coast has the offshore islands the Poor Knights marine reserve.
The Purua community enjoy the rural environment that they live in. EMR highlighted the connections between land and sea and encouraged them to get involved in marine conservation.
Both parents and students were engaged and excited throughout the project. Teachers explained that “Parents are much more aware [about marine protection] and the enthusiasm from the younger students was mind blowing and made me realise just how much education needs to move out!”
Many of the students had never snorkelled before and learned that “snorkelling is fun!”
The students clearly felt empowered by their hands-on snorkeling experience at the unprotected local beach at Mcleods Bay, and were very excited about the Goat Island marine reserve camp where they learnt about marine reserves first-hand, and compared it with Mcleods Bay. They learnt that “at the marine reserve there is more fish and at the local unprotected beach there was lots of empty shells and littering”.
Many of the students are now confident snorkellers and are passionate about marine life. They are aware of the concept of a marine reserve and many expressed the opinion that “marine reserves are the best place to go snorkeling and learn, because the fish are not afraid of you and there's so much more to see”.
Purua School will be studying freshwater in Term 1, 2009, with the theme “from rural inland waters to the sea” and aim to continue raising awareness in the community about how they are connected and can be involved in marine protection. Expected marine biodiversity outcomes from this project is improved water quality in the Purua catchment.
A few of the senior students picked up on the compliance issues at the WHMR and focused their action projects on raising awareness in the community on the boundaries of the reserve, and brainstorming ways to encourage compliance. One of these students, Nayman Peters, won the EMR annual Poor Knights trip. Nayman came up with a clever camera design (camouflaged) aimed at catching offenders who fish inside the reserve. Nayman's ideas have been forwarded to the Department of Conservation.
