Over 100 people stopped by Breaker Bay Hall on Saturday 16 December to join Mountains to Sea Wellington’s (MTSW) free community snorkel and Love Rimurimu Seaweed Sea-lebration, presented with support from the WLG Community and Environment Fund.
MTSW initiated the Love Rimurimu project three years ago, after it came to light that local seaweed forests were in decline. Love Rimurimu is looking at how science and community can reverse the trend.
Our Sea-lebration featured all things seaweed including seaweed foraging tours, seaweed products, books, kōrero - and of course a chance to join one of MTSW’s classic community snorkels to get up close and personal with the seaweed forest around the coast of Breaker Bay.
Presented in collaboration with the Breaker Bay and Moa Point Progressive Association, the Hall was bustling with a local market featuring Te Motukairangi Weavers and a taonga pūoro maker (traditional Māori musical instruments), while Maori frybread filled the hall with delicious smells!
The event was held to mark major milestones for the Love Rimurimu project, in which rimu kakauroa, or giant kelp has been grown in the lab at NIWA and planted out by the MTSW team around the coast of Te Motu Kairangi / Miramar Peninsula. It also gave participants a chance to learn more about the current pressures on seaweed caused by warming temperatures, sediment, and human impacts on the coastal environment.
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