Seaweek at Patons Rock: crabs, eels, whale rescue and dune protection
Richard de Hamel talking to the children about ‘Smart Fishing’. “Imagine you were trying to eat chocolate off this....” Photo: Supplied.
Helping children to experience, enjoy and understand life in the ocean is an important way to help protect this vast ecosystem. People don’t care about something they don’t know.
To assist this process, nearly 150 children from Golden Bay’s schools took part in a Seaweek event at Patons Rock on Thursday 18 March.
Each class moved around five different “stations” run by people knowledgeable in that area. Jenny Treloar from Forest & Bird taught the children about eels - young and old forms, short and long fin; Rob Lewis (TDC) ran a dune protection and planting station; Richard de Hamel (from the NZ Marine Studies Centre) got them all thinking about “Smart Fishing” and marine reserves, Nigel Mountfort (DOC) had them unpacking the whale rescue trailer to rescue a big plastic whale. Rob Francis and Claire Webster (TDC) had the kids pretending to be barnacles, crabs and penguins in games designed to help them experience life from a marine organism’s perspective.
By the end of the day the children were full of stories, information and thanks. Many parents may have learned a few new things that evening.
Submitted
