MARINE EDUCATION IN RESERVES

19
Apr

Two of our grand kids have had school trips to the Poor Knights Islands. They have also been taken by their schools to Goat Island, Leigh and to the Motukaroro Marine Reserve in Whangarei Harbour. They got to swim right around it seeing octopuses, pipefish and seahorses.
by Wade Doak

I have recently been on Poor Knights trips where five year olds snorkeled along the cliff walls supported by buoyancy devices and attended by adults.  There are young kids around nowadays who can recognize and name most of the more commonly seen PK fishes.  With so many kids getting out to the Poor Knights as part of their education I burn with envy at my own deprived childhood in Canterbury [sob, sob] and glow with delight at the present scene.  I am virtually incandescent! 

We never, in all those days of battling for total no-take marine reserves, envisaged the Poor Knights would ever become so accessible to youngsters.  Charterboats once took over two hours to get there, rocking and rolling all the way, and with about ten divers aboard and no crew other than a skipper, there was no room for kids.  In those days you had to have parents with their own boat to travel out there- and then, the main activity was most likely catching as much fish as possible. 

But these days it is all happening.  Some of the charter boat operators especially cater for kids and their crews, young, groovy and enthusiastic, really know their marine life like pop music.  They take out parties of more than thirty students with ease.

I do not know how all this hands-on marine education will affect the future, but feel pretty sure that it wont be a prolongation of the past.  When I took up diving in 1954 it was two years before I even saw a fish- but then, all I wanted to do was shaft it with a spear.  We knew so very little about fishes, other than as bits of meat. 

Perhaps my dream of the wet library as an amenity for every school: a marine reserve within daily travel range, is on its way; at least for the lucky kids around Whangarei.  But what about in Christchurch, Dunedin or many other parts of New Zealand?

For more information

Wade’s World - website

One Ocean Online - Meet the Experts - Wade Doak