there is a common phrase used in many
films talks media and the phrase is
protect our coasts and oceans but I’d
like you to pause for a moment and
consider if you had to protect your
local coastal ocean what exactly would
you be protecting I’d like to begin by
asking you two questions first how many
of you here have looked at a marine
chart showing the varying depths of the
sea off your local coast have you ever
considered how deep you would be say 5
10 20 kilometers offshore and just like
on land
how many uplifts and unique geological
features lie of your coasts we are all
really familiar with a fantastic variety
of landscapes here in Taranaki
but why I wonder do the landscapes under
the sea fall for so many of us into the
great unknown and it certainly was the
great unknown for me not being a
fisherman diver or boaty I first looked
at a marine chat from my local ocean
back in 2014 and I was blown away I
discovered how unique the seafloor of
South Taranaki is a shallow shelf
extends way out over 22 kilometres
offshore out through the talon a key
Regional Council’s jurisdiction and into
the AES edge or exclusive economic zone
so why is depth so important well from
an ecological perspective depth has an
important role to play as it impacts on
a degree of light to reach the seafloor
and the ability to photosynthesize for
the microscopic plants that live on the
sea floor
those that float on the ocean waters and
the largest seaweeds and algae that
cover our reefs now for my second
question for you how many of you here
have chatted to a local diver or
fisherman and asked them as I naively
did back in 2014 so much out there off
our coast and I remember now they’re
quizzical look of really you don’t know
and they began to talk of the fish the
dolphins the soup of plankton the Orca
the blue penguin
the reaps reefs what kind of reefs and
they described reefs close to shore
reefs far offshore each with our own
characteristics different shapes some
Papa rocks some hard rock caves
pinnacles and varying meters in height I
watch videos the divers had taken to be
honest felt kind of a shame that so much
life existed off my coast that I knew so
little about how many others I wondered
were like me it was quite a revelation
to discover that many and my community
were unaware and certainly unaware of
the offshore reefs and the biodiversity
to be found on them and this is where my
talk today gets really exciting I’m one
of the volunteer project leads for a
community led science investigation into
a hard rocky reef studded with
fossilized shells and covered and
inhabited by a great variety of life it
lies 11 kilometres offshore of partyi
South Taranaki the aim of our project
called project reef life is to determine
how unique the South Taranaki offshore
reefs are and to share our data and
knowledge with our community our Erie
project partners the wider New Zealand
community and scientific experts we have
an incredibly challenging environment in
which to do our research first the depth
at 23 metres we have enough air in our
tanks to survey the reef for 30 to 40
minutes and then there’s a matter of
accessing the sea through the party
about even the most seasoned boat he
treats it with great respect and then
there are the strong currents meaning we
have a narrow window opportunity in
which to do our research effectively the
tune of tide outside of this the
currents can be so strong you can’t swim
into them this is far from doing surveys
on shallow tropical reefs and skimpy
stalks our divers wear five mil wetsuits
so all these environmental challenges
influence the design and development of
a first offer
kind insitu camera secured at the reef
taking short video this day and night
one of the great strengths of our
project is collaboration and building
the Institute camera was the first such
important collaboration I got in contact
with a super creative electrical
engineer I knew Leif Robertson
engineering manager at Wells Group here
in New Plymouth this photograph shows
the mark one version of our institution
with the sophisticated wiper which keeps
the front of the housing free from
colonizing organisms and this photograph
shows the intervalometer that Leif
designed which instructs the camera and
lighting when to turn on and off we are
a pretty innovative project team Richie
guy volunteer project engineer and
secretary of the South Taranaki
underwater Club took over the early
camera trials using his goldfish pond
for testing watertight testing and his
beer fridge for testing battery life
under cold conditions we were however to
face an unanticipated hurdle the reef
proved too hard to drill into to secure
our camera
Bruce Boyd fellow project lead and
member of the South Taranaki underwater
Club wasn’t fazed he would build a
structure that could withstand as strong
currents and he did a one-ton pyramid
constructed from concrete slabs he built
in his garage and then took out on his
boat and secured at the reef I wonder if
you’ve ever thought of the sounds on a
reef at the beginning of the project I
had just finished reading about dr.
Craig Radford from Auckland University’s
Marine Lab and his work documenting the
sounds of marine species like Pinner
eating I contacted him and discovered he
hadn’t recorded the acoustic sounds in
South Taranaki he was happy to loan us a
hydrophone and review some of the sound
files when when situation
so the hydrophone has recorded the
unique sounds of fish species the call
of a whale believe
to be a humpback and an aftershock
Rumble from the kaikoura earthquake
before i introduce you to the other
science we conduct let’s briefly meet
the project reefs home to many species
of plants and animals to date we’ve
recorded over a hundred species in a
publicly accessible database called i
naturalist so why is the reef such a
great home well first it’s a long way
from shore 11 kilometers so less impact
it from sediment events from rivers and
cliff falls second its height reducing
sand inundation and third the South
Taranaki Bight benefits from
nutrient-rich waters which are brought
in from an upwelling from the South
Ireland some of the highest densities of
zooplankton a New Zealand have been
recorded in the South Taranaki Bight and
large densities of South and krill in
the partyish shoals and talking about
zooplankton prior to this project
I hadn’t appreciated how many creatures
like fish crabs crayfish and Kenna begin
their lives as larvae floating on ocean
currents for weeks months and even over
a year depending on the species now if
you were a larvae and wanted somewhere
safe to settle and grow somewhere with
crevices and overhangs and a forest to
hide in well our project reef provides
just that the reef is a blaze of
beautiful color though if we didn’t
shine our camera lights you probably
wouldn’t realize as the sea filters the
light spectrum red light has the longest
wavelength and the least amount of
energy so is largely lost by about four
and a half meters orange light by eight
our project reef is at 23 metres deep to
show you what I mean here’s a photo of
one of our sponge gardens with little
light we haven’t shown our camera lights
Medel blue and with light we shine our
camera lights a beautiful mass of orange
sponges greets you then there are the
jewel and enemies stretching four meters
at the project reef gorgeous orange
purple and pink and these stunning
creatures the clown nudie Bronx with
their intense orange spots and purple
gills here they are with their beautiful
rose shaped egg case it’s funny to think
how little I knew prior to project reef
life about New Zealand sponges yet now
as any other project team will tell you
I’m really passionate about them at the
beginning of the project I got in
contact with the New Zealand sponge
specialists from Newark dr. Michelle
Kelly who has identified from
photographs and samples we’ve given her
22 species to date with more waiting to
be identified such collaboration adds a
great and important richness to our
project so why do I love sponges well I
love the variety of shapes and colors at
the project reef we have round red balls
bright yellow and orange finger forms
sprawling grain masses Christmas pudding
looking ones hey I I could go on sponges
are an animal a pretty incredible animal
the genetic diversity represented in the
sponge world far exceeds the human
genome and indeed the entire mammal
world and because sponges don’t move
around they produce chemicals in order
to defend themselves from organisms
wanting to eat and settle on them and
many of those chemicals have anti-cancer
antibacterial anti-inflammatory and
antidepressant properties ninety-five
percent of sponges found in New Zealand
are endemic meaning found only here
we’ve had a few sponge highlights the
latest newest sponge guide contains two
of bruce’s awesome sponge photographs
and through my reading of that guide I
recognised an unusual sponge washed up
on my beach it’s a possible new species
and now safely stored away at newer I’ve
had to go through a massive upskilling
in terms of my fish knowledge from
basically no to now being able to
understand and recognize many of the
fish at the project reef understanding
something about their amazing life
cycles they’re feeding preferences their
ages again early on in the project
I’ve got in contact with a New Zealand
fish expert from Te Papa Andrew Stuart
which has been a fantastic collaboration
who would have thought that some fish
can change sexes like the curious blue
cod and the beautiful scarlet rats at
the project reef which can change from
female to male amazing many of the fish
at the project reef are plankton feeders
like the googly eyed leather jackets and
the nocturnal common roughy so what
about the science we conduct well
excitingly we have two project partner
high schools involved one method we use
is a benthic survey and benthic means
sea floor we run randomly generated
transect lines with a tape over the reef
taking a photo every meter using
open-source software a hundred random
points per photo are assigned with our
marine scientist Josh and high school
students identifying the substrate or
organism on each point in order to
determine the percentage coverage of
plants and animals at the reef another
method we use is a fishing survey with
the aim to find the diversity and
abundance of predatory reef fish two
high schools are involved in gathering
they go out on chat of vessel trips to
the reef and analyzing the data we
recently tried another method a baited
underwater video with our students
working with our marine scientists to
review all the frames of a 30-minute
video in order to find the one frame
with the greatest number of blue cod so
what’s the glamour of our project is
definitely the stunning photos and
videos we take there is a massive amount
of work in analyzing the hundreds of
data files we obtain a real highlight
for us was in June 2017
when the project team and high school
students presented our findings to the
Education and Science Select Committee
at Parliament I believe sharing
knowledge with policymakers is crucial
New Zealand’s current legislation Able’s
the economic development of our ocean
but also consider
the environmental impacts information
from project reef life has been shared
regionally with the Tanaka Regional
Council with the project reef now
recognized in their draft coastal plan
as an outstanding natural feature
information from project reef life has
been shared nationally by various
parties to the decision-making committee
of the EPA or Environmental Protection
Authority which recently granted a
35-year permit to mine up to 50 million
tons per year of seabed material in
twenty to forty three meter depths of
partyi the project reef was mentioned
numerous times in the decision document
and included in one of the monitoring
conditions attached to the granting of
consent to the great delight of the
project team we have been formally
recognized in 2016 winning at Annunaki
Regional Council environmental award and
in 2017 winning a national green ribbon
award in conclusion project reef life
has delightfully grown in directions we
never anticipated at the start we didn’t
let the vastness of the ocean intimidate
us instead we chose a rocky offshore
reef a hotspot of biodiversity and let
it tell its story and the more we look
and explore the more exciting the story
becomes I hope the reef continues to
tell its story and generations continue
to learn and share its tales I asked you
at the beginning of my talk if you had
to protect your local coastal ocean what
exactly would you be protecting my
wishes that my talk today has inspired you all to go and find out thank you
films talks media and the phrase is
protect our coasts and oceans but I’d
like you to pause for a moment and
consider if you had to protect your
local coastal ocean what exactly would
you be protecting I’d like to begin by
asking you two questions first how many
of you here have looked at a marine
chart showing the varying depths of the
sea off your local coast have you ever
considered how deep you would be say 5
10 20 kilometers offshore and just like
on land
how many uplifts and unique geological
features lie of your coasts we are all
really familiar with a fantastic variety
of landscapes here in Taranaki
but why I wonder do the landscapes under
the sea fall for so many of us into the
great unknown and it certainly was the
great unknown for me not being a
fisherman diver or boaty I first looked
at a marine chat from my local ocean
back in 2014 and I was blown away I
discovered how unique the seafloor of
South Taranaki is a shallow shelf
extends way out over 22 kilometres
offshore out through the talon a key
Regional Council’s jurisdiction and into
the AES edge or exclusive economic zone
so why is depth so important well from
an ecological perspective depth has an
important role to play as it impacts on
a degree of light to reach the seafloor
and the ability to photosynthesize for
the microscopic plants that live on the
sea floor
those that float on the ocean waters and
the largest seaweeds and algae that
cover our reefs now for my second
question for you how many of you here
have chatted to a local diver or
fisherman and asked them as I naively
did back in 2014 so much out there off
our coast and I remember now they’re
quizzical look of really you don’t know
and they began to talk of the fish the
dolphins the soup of plankton the Orca
the blue penguin
the reaps reefs what kind of reefs and
they described reefs close to shore
reefs far offshore each with our own
characteristics different shapes some
Papa rocks some hard rock caves
pinnacles and varying meters in height I
watch videos the divers had taken to be
honest felt kind of a shame that so much
life existed off my coast that I knew so
little about how many others I wondered
were like me it was quite a revelation
to discover that many and my community
were unaware and certainly unaware of
the offshore reefs and the biodiversity
to be found on them and this is where my
talk today gets really exciting I’m one
of the volunteer project leads for a
community led science investigation into
a hard rocky reef studded with
fossilized shells and covered and
inhabited by a great variety of life it
lies 11 kilometres offshore of partyi
South Taranaki the aim of our project
called project reef life is to determine
how unique the South Taranaki offshore
reefs are and to share our data and
knowledge with our community our Erie
project partners the wider New Zealand
community and scientific experts we have
an incredibly challenging environment in
which to do our research first the depth
at 23 metres we have enough air in our
tanks to survey the reef for 30 to 40
minutes and then there’s a matter of
accessing the sea through the party
about even the most seasoned boat he
treats it with great respect and then
there are the strong currents meaning we
have a narrow window opportunity in
which to do our research effectively the
tune of tide outside of this the
currents can be so strong you can’t swim
into them this is far from doing surveys
on shallow tropical reefs and skimpy
stalks our divers wear five mil wetsuits
so all these environmental challenges
influence the design and development of
a first offer
kind insitu camera secured at the reef
taking short video this day and night
one of the great strengths of our
project is collaboration and building
the Institute camera was the first such
important collaboration I got in contact
with a super creative electrical
engineer I knew Leif Robertson
engineering manager at Wells Group here
in New Plymouth this photograph shows
the mark one version of our institution
with the sophisticated wiper which keeps
the front of the housing free from
colonizing organisms and this photograph
shows the intervalometer that Leif
designed which instructs the camera and
lighting when to turn on and off we are
a pretty innovative project team Richie
guy volunteer project engineer and
secretary of the South Taranaki
underwater Club took over the early
camera trials using his goldfish pond
for testing watertight testing and his
beer fridge for testing battery life
under cold conditions we were however to
face an unanticipated hurdle the reef
proved too hard to drill into to secure
our camera
Bruce Boyd fellow project lead and
member of the South Taranaki underwater
Club wasn’t fazed he would build a
structure that could withstand as strong
currents and he did a one-ton pyramid
constructed from concrete slabs he built
in his garage and then took out on his
boat and secured at the reef I wonder if
you’ve ever thought of the sounds on a
reef at the beginning of the project I
had just finished reading about dr.
Craig Radford from Auckland University’s
Marine Lab and his work documenting the
sounds of marine species like Pinner
eating I contacted him and discovered he
hadn’t recorded the acoustic sounds in
South Taranaki he was happy to loan us a
hydrophone and review some of the sound
files when when situation
so the hydrophone has recorded the
unique sounds of fish species the call
of a whale believe
to be a humpback and an aftershock
Rumble from the kaikoura earthquake
before i introduce you to the other
science we conduct let’s briefly meet
the project reefs home to many species
of plants and animals to date we’ve
recorded over a hundred species in a
publicly accessible database called i
naturalist so why is the reef such a
great home well first it’s a long way
from shore 11 kilometers so less impact
it from sediment events from rivers and
cliff falls second its height reducing
sand inundation and third the South
Taranaki Bight benefits from
nutrient-rich waters which are brought
in from an upwelling from the South
Ireland some of the highest densities of
zooplankton a New Zealand have been
recorded in the South Taranaki Bight and
large densities of South and krill in
the partyish shoals and talking about
zooplankton prior to this project
I hadn’t appreciated how many creatures
like fish crabs crayfish and Kenna begin
their lives as larvae floating on ocean
currents for weeks months and even over
a year depending on the species now if
you were a larvae and wanted somewhere
safe to settle and grow somewhere with
crevices and overhangs and a forest to
hide in well our project reef provides
just that the reef is a blaze of
beautiful color though if we didn’t
shine our camera lights you probably
wouldn’t realize as the sea filters the
light spectrum red light has the longest
wavelength and the least amount of
energy so is largely lost by about four
and a half meters orange light by eight
our project reef is at 23 metres deep to
show you what I mean here’s a photo of
one of our sponge gardens with little
light we haven’t shown our camera lights
Medel blue and with light we shine our
camera lights a beautiful mass of orange
sponges greets you then there are the
jewel and enemies stretching four meters
at the project reef gorgeous orange
purple and pink and these stunning
creatures the clown nudie Bronx with
their intense orange spots and purple
gills here they are with their beautiful
rose shaped egg case it’s funny to think
how little I knew prior to project reef
life about New Zealand sponges yet now
as any other project team will tell you
I’m really passionate about them at the
beginning of the project I got in
contact with the New Zealand sponge
specialists from Newark dr. Michelle
Kelly who has identified from
photographs and samples we’ve given her
22 species to date with more waiting to
be identified such collaboration adds a
great and important richness to our
project so why do I love sponges well I
love the variety of shapes and colors at
the project reef we have round red balls
bright yellow and orange finger forms
sprawling grain masses Christmas pudding
looking ones hey I I could go on sponges
are an animal a pretty incredible animal
the genetic diversity represented in the
sponge world far exceeds the human
genome and indeed the entire mammal
world and because sponges don’t move
around they produce chemicals in order
to defend themselves from organisms
wanting to eat and settle on them and
many of those chemicals have anti-cancer
antibacterial anti-inflammatory and
antidepressant properties ninety-five
percent of sponges found in New Zealand
are endemic meaning found only here
we’ve had a few sponge highlights the
latest newest sponge guide contains two
of bruce’s awesome sponge photographs
and through my reading of that guide I
recognised an unusual sponge washed up
on my beach it’s a possible new species
and now safely stored away at newer I’ve
had to go through a massive upskilling
in terms of my fish knowledge from
basically no to now being able to
understand and recognize many of the
fish at the project reef understanding
something about their amazing life
cycles they’re feeding preferences their
ages again early on in the project
I’ve got in contact with a New Zealand
fish expert from Te Papa Andrew Stuart
which has been a fantastic collaboration
who would have thought that some fish
can change sexes like the curious blue
cod and the beautiful scarlet rats at
the project reef which can change from
female to male amazing many of the fish
at the project reef are plankton feeders
like the googly eyed leather jackets and
the nocturnal common roughy so what
about the science we conduct well
excitingly we have two project partner
high schools involved one method we use
is a benthic survey and benthic means
sea floor we run randomly generated
transect lines with a tape over the reef
taking a photo every meter using
open-source software a hundred random
points per photo are assigned with our
marine scientist Josh and high school
students identifying the substrate or
organism on each point in order to
determine the percentage coverage of
plants and animals at the reef another
method we use is a fishing survey with
the aim to find the diversity and
abundance of predatory reef fish two
high schools are involved in gathering
they go out on chat of vessel trips to
the reef and analyzing the data we
recently tried another method a baited
underwater video with our students
working with our marine scientists to
review all the frames of a 30-minute
video in order to find the one frame
with the greatest number of blue cod so
what’s the glamour of our project is
definitely the stunning photos and
videos we take there is a massive amount
of work in analyzing the hundreds of
data files we obtain a real highlight
for us was in June 2017
when the project team and high school
students presented our findings to the
Education and Science Select Committee
at Parliament I believe sharing
knowledge with policymakers is crucial
New Zealand’s current legislation Able’s
the economic development of our ocean
but also consider
the environmental impacts information
from project reef life has been shared
regionally with the Tanaka Regional
Council with the project reef now
recognized in their draft coastal plan
as an outstanding natural feature
information from project reef life has
been shared nationally by various
parties to the decision-making committee
of the EPA or Environmental Protection
Authority which recently granted a
35-year permit to mine up to 50 million
tons per year of seabed material in
twenty to forty three meter depths of
partyi the project reef was mentioned
numerous times in the decision document
and included in one of the monitoring
conditions attached to the granting of
consent to the great delight of the
project team we have been formally
recognized in 2016 winning at Annunaki
Regional Council environmental award and
in 2017 winning a national green ribbon
award in conclusion project reef life
has delightfully grown in directions we
never anticipated at the start we didn’t
let the vastness of the ocean intimidate
us instead we chose a rocky offshore
reef a hotspot of biodiversity and let
it tell its story and the more we look
and explore the more exciting the story
becomes I hope the reef continues to
tell its story and generations continue
to learn and share its tales I asked you
at the beginning of my talk if you had
to protect your local coastal ocean what
exactly would you be protecting my
wishes that my talk today has inspired you all to go and find out thank you
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