DOC scientists Kath Walker and Graeme Elliott have uncovered where and how the birds were perishing, learning these taonga are drowning on longline hooks set for tuna on the high seas and in New Zealand waters.

During 2022 our focus shifted towards recovery, supporting the efforts of Janice Molloy at the Southern Seabirds Solutions and her team, who are building a seabird-safe fishing toolkit for high seas tuna companies.

THE TOOLKIT WILL:

1. Include ocean maps that show fishing companies where threatened albatrosses live.
2. Explain the fishing practices vessels can use to avoid hooking seabirds.
3. Help companies demonstrate to their customers they are fishing in a seabird-safe way.

“Our hope is that the taonga species’ fast-track to extinction can be averted if we can encourage changes to longline fishing practices that mitigate against seabird bycatch.”
JANICE MOLLOY | SOUTHERN SEABIRDS SOLUTIONS

Marine conservation groups now have access to high quality visuals to tell powerful stories and connect people to the urgency of the issues.

Project Kahurangi, supported by Live Ocean Foundation, is the brainchild of ex-Ocean Race sailor, photographer and videographer Gareth Cooke born from his deep concern for the state of the ocean.

Off the back of a successful pilot phase Project Kahurangi was widely launched in October 2022 with multiple uses across billboard, websites, video production, keynote presentations, annual reports, social media and more.

This year the collaborative partnership between Live Ocean Foundation and TTVT has gone from strength to strength. Giving young Kiwis first-hand experiences on traditional waka hourua, Te Toki Voyaging Trust (TTVT) ensures that knowledge and skills used by master navigators who voyaged to Aotearoa are passed down, connecting rangitahi to the moana at the same time. In April ‘22 Live Ocean founders Peter Burling and Blair Tuke joined waka Haunui learning traditional waka  voyaging skills sailing from Umupuia Marae in Maraetai to the Bay of Islands.

In early 2023 Live Ocean Foundation announced a project partnership with Manta Watch New Zealand supporting Lydia Green in her ongoing work to better understand our oceanic manta population and educate New Zealanders about the mysterious and majestic ocean giants. More data, sightings and knowledge are crucial to changing their conservation status with DOC – they’re currently listed as ‘data deficient’ – to ensure they have a healthy future.

NEW KNOWLEDGE
Active courtship events and lots of heavily pregnant females suggest that Aotearoa and the Hauraki Gulf play a crucial role in this oceanic manta ray
population’s reproductive cycle.

In 2022 a global collaboration saw the first simultaneous satellite tagging program in every population of any whale species. Focusing on the tohora southern right whale, this work is being co-led by Dr Emma Carroll from the University of Auckland – Waipapa Taumata Rau, with the New Zealand subantarctic a key site.

Alongside support for a research voyage south, Live Ocean Foundation supporters have helped fund satellite trackers to support the ongoing work of Dr Carroll and her research partners as they seek to understand how these whales will cope with climate change, simultaneously providing insight into the response of the whole Southern Ocean ecosystem.

“As we come into El Niño from 3 years of La Niña, we will have the ability to see how the different populations respond in what might be the hottest
year ever recorded.” DR EMMA CARROLL | UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND

IMPACT

‘Taringa’ (Maori for ear) is an innovative acoustic buoy system designed to listen for and detect illegal fishing activity. The end goal is for a system that can notify authorities. It’s being developed by scientists at the University of Auckland and Ocean Acoustics, using existing work by leading New Zealand underwater acoustic technology company, Ocean Instruments.

“Thanks to Live Ocean Foundation support we have a specialist working on the AI element of the system, developing algorithms so a strategically placed acoustic buoy can identify and classify a boat that might be illegally fishing in a marine protected area for example.” CRAIG RADFORD | UNIVERSITY OF AUCKLAND

A kelp restoration project that seeks to restore flourishing marine ecosystems extended into Whakaraupō Lyttelton Harbour through a collaborative partnership that brought scientists, iwi, charity and sport together.

Mara Moana builds on ongoing research into the restoration of native rimurimu (or Giant Kelp) in selected South Island sites where kelp has been wiped out.

Led by Otago University’s Matt De Roe in collaboration with hapu of Te Runanga  o Ngai Tahu, the focus is on identifying and developing ‘climate resilient’ rimurimu for the best chance of restoration success. Impact league prize-money won by the NZ SailGP team helped fund Live Ocean Foundation project partners, University of Otago researchers and local Ngati Wheke divers, to start kelp reseeding trials in Whakaraupo Lyttelton Harbour in March 2023.

“This is our opportunity to restore what the ocean and coast here has lost. Being involved in this project from the early stages means we’ll have the skills and knowledge locally to continue this vital work.”
JOHN KOTTIER | PROGRAM MANAGER, NGĀTI WHEKE

IMPACT
$303K INVESTED OR COMMITTED

Four innovative marine research projects were supported by Impact League winnings from the NZ SailGP team with a total of $303k invested or committed.

$50K INVESTED
in climate-resilient kelp research and kelp restoration in Whakaraupo, Lyttelton
harbour.

$131K COMMITTED
to blue carbon research funding Dr Caitlin Blain and her world-leading research
into blue carbon sequestration.

$40K INVESTED
in kelp restoration research in Hauraki Gulf through the work of Dr Nick Shears.

$131K COMMITTED
to blue carbon research funding Dr Caitlin Blain and her world-leading research
into blue carbon sequestration.

$82.5K COMMITTED
to scale up national citizen science programme Marine Metre Squared.