Action in the Community - Experiencing Marine Reserves

23/12/2021

Blaze Nicholas (13 years) has been part of the Experiencing Marine Reserves (EMR) (www.emr.org.nz) programme since day one (his mum is the founder!). He has participated in EMR with Whananaki School and Kamo Intermediate. He has also more recently volunteered as a trainee snorkel guide and drone photographer for EMR events.  This year for his school science fair project, he decided to monitor a seagrass patch in the Whananaki estuary during the night and day at high tide. Check out his video to see the results. He found a lot more creatures inside the seagrass compared to outside, and found the seagrass to come alive at night with bait!

This estuary specific video monitoring system could be used to monitor underwater sea life in estuaries by other students, specifically seagrass.  

Blaze also created this poster for the community to raise awareness of what seagrass patches look like in the Whananaki estuary and to avoid disturbance of the area. 

Blaze and his video monitoring equitment!