News & Events

Our nomination ‘Restoring natural form and function to our coastlines to benefit the public and the environment’ in the “Protecting our Coasts and Oceans” category has been short-listed as a finalist in this year’s Green Ribbon Awards.

The ceremony and announcement of the winners will be held on 8 June. Our chair Greg and one of our other trustees will be attending.

Firstly, I would like to thank the Coastal Restoration Trust for their support in awarding me one of the postgraduate study awards for this year, this award will go a long way in assisting with some of the financial pressures faced during my study.

The Masters Research project I am working on at Victoria University of Wellington, in conjunction with the University of Auckland, is focussed on taking a geochemical approach to solving a long running scientific debate in the Coastal Science literature; ‘What processes dominate shore platform development along the rocky coast?’ Are they cut through the action of waves or by the sub-aerial weathering of the cliff that backs the shore platform? This is important as we want to identify the suite of processes which represent the baseline conditions for shore platforms. This informs us of how human action in the recent past and going into the future has and will affect these baselines.

To answer this question I am undertaking an analysis of Cosmogenic Nuclide accumulation on two of New Zealand’s prominent shore platforms at the Kaikoura Peninsula and at Okakari Point near the Leigh Marine reserve in Auckland. This method will tell us the long-term history of development for these shore platforms, how old they are, and how fast they form. With this information we can take a numerical modelling approach to work out which processes have been at work on these interesting coastal features, and work out how the sea cliffs respond to changes in sea level and what this might mean for coastal hazards in the future.

So far I have completed field sampling at the two shore platforms and I have almost completed the lab chemistry for the Kaikoura samples, I expect to have the first set of results In July.

Following our media release of 13 January, Kiwis loving NZ’s beaches to death, (see this story) an article appeared in the NZ Herald on 10 February: It focuses mostly on the numbers of beach visitors by area/city. However, Greg Bennett, our chair is quoted on our views of coastal restoration. See the full article here.

Seaweek will be held Saturday 25 February to Sunday 5 March 2017.

This is New Zealand’s annual national week about the sea. Hosted by the NZ Association for Environmental Education (NZAEE), Seaweek focuses on learning from the sea. It’s about exciting and inspiring all New Zealanders to renew their connections with the sea! Not just for children or those involved with formal education – it’s a time for all of us to get to know our ocean, its habitats, characteristics and inhabitants better.

Check out the website to see what is happening in your area or list your own events.

The National Trust Community Weed Busting Project is funded by DOC and seeks to facilitate and assist community groups waging war on weeds in ecological areas to support biodiversity. Through this project Coast Care groups may be able to access funding to combat weeds, for tools, materials, Growsafe certifications, herbicides, transport and food on volunteer days etc.

If you are looking for some extra assistance for this kind of thing, please contact Mike Urlich directly on 022 0430 9402 or at .