Kia ora koutou,
Please follow the link to access our latest press release :
New press release
Reply
Category Archives: Conservation- Native bird specie- Indigenous project-Habitat restoration- Pest control
Silver Enviroschool Recognition for Te Mahia School
On the 5th of November, Te Mahia School students organised a Powhiri to celebrate their Silver Recognition as part of their Enviro school programme. Whanau and teachers were much impressed by the presentations given and the work achieved so far. It was quite inspiring to see the progress made in such a short period of time. Next years’ programme looks quite exciting with a lot of hands on activities and a focus on our Blue Penguin restoration programme. Congratulations to the students, teachers, whanau and Jenni Scothern our School Coordinator.
Whangawehi AGM
The Whangawehi Catchment Group gathered for their second AGM on Thursday 29th October 2015 at Kaiuku Marae.
Jamie Cox announced he is stepping down from the Chairman position and gave a speech acknowledging the progression and recognition that has been made by the community group in such a short period of time. He encouraged the group to widen it’s engagement with local community group to strengthen it’s support over time. The Whangawehi Catchment Management Group would like to thank Jamie for his strong leadership and support shown over the past three years.
Leon Symes also announced his intentions to resign from his treasurer position due to other commitments. Leon has been instrumental in the creation and set up of the Incorporated Society and will be dearly missed by all. The group would like to acknowledge all the voluntary effort he put into the group when already committed to a number of other projects. The Group would like to wish him all the best with future endeavours.
Whangawehi Fundraising Campaign, 4 days to go
Kia ora koutou, Hi all,
With less than 4 days to go, we need your support to reach our fundraising targets. Please follow the link and donate to :
http://millionmetres.org.nz/donate/
Check out our short video and support the project : FundraisingcampaignWhangawehi
Thank you
Water monitoring at Whangawehi
Hi all,
Arthur Bowen, our water monitoring coordinator, did our spring assessment as part of our water monitoring programme. Water quality looked pretty good but the main highlight was the observation of large numbers of birds in the retired areas. Fish numbers are also on the increase especially White Baits and Eels. Mud snails and cockles were sampled in the estuary and sent to Hills Laboratory to be tested for heavy metals and hydrocarbons. Both planting sites on Grandy Lake/Taharoa and Pongaroa are looking magnificent which is quite encouraging.
Rae Te Nahu honored with a Local Hero Medal
Dear Rae Te Nahu,
CONGRATULATIONS
Our regional judges of the Kiwibank Local Hero’s Category, part of the New Zealander of the Year Awards are proud to recognise the contribution you are making to the lives of others by rewarding you with a Local Hero Medal.
The Kiwibank Local Hero award recognizes people whose selflessness and determination have made a difference in the community.
We have received over 460 nominations in the Local Hero category; of those nominations 292 worthy recipients such as yourself were identified and will be honoured with a Local Hero Medal at special public events held throughout the country in November and December of this year.
We hope you, and a few very special supporters such as family, friends and colleagues will be able to attend the Local Hero Ceremony below;
Date: Thursday 19th November
Time: 5:30pm
Venue: Bushmere Arms – Main Road, Waerenga-a-Hika
Light refreshments will be served from 5:30pm with the formal presentation commencing at 6:00pm.
5 days to go before the end of our fundraising campaign.
Hi all,
The Whangawehi Catchment Management Group started a fundraising campaign in June 2015 to fund the establishment of native trees along the Whangawehi river. In 5 days, the fundraising campaign will be finished. We have already achieved a lot but we need your support to reach our target. You can support us by promoting the campaign to your friends and neighbours or by donating on : http://millionmetres.org.nz/donate/.
Thank you for your help in improving water quality and biodiversity in our region.
Na mihi nui
Nic
Press release : 2 weeks to go
Our fundraising campaign finishes in 2 weeks time. Thank you for your support.
Room 1 students share their reef workshop learnings
The journey of the Crayfish
The journey of Crayfish
The journey of crayfish started in the sea but our day started down at Whangawehi as we waited patiently for the boat Aurora to come and dock down in the Jetty. Skippered by Selwyn and his crewman Tom they pulled into the jetty with baskets full of crayfish. The tamariki got a close up look of the crayfish in their baskets.
Both our journey and the crayfish’s journey carried on to Mahia Beach as we trailed behind Selwyn’s truck that carried the sea creatures. We got to view the holding pools where the crayfish were transferred into from the truck. Yvette weighed the catches in their baskets before they were put into the pools. The water in the holding pools had to be around 11 degrees to keep the crayfish from getting distressed. No more than 12kg of crayfish were put in each basket allowing room for the crayfish to move around. The holding pools that we viewed could fit up to two tonne of crayfish but the truck that transports them out of Mahia can’t hold as much crayfish therefore the number of trips per week varies.
When the crayfish are delivered to the depot in Masterton or Wellington they are graded A, B, C or D based on their size. Crayfish are then exported to other countries and are put into special chilly bins to hibernate. The temperature inside the chilly bin is lowered in order for the crayfish to hibernate and sleep. When the crayfish arrive at their destination the temperature in the chilly bin is increased resulting in the crayfish waking. Majority of the crayfish that leave our shores are exported to Asian countries, one in particular is China.
We all had an amazing day learning about crayfish. The tamariki also held a crayfish and loved posing holding them. We learnt interesting facts about crayfish and crayfishing too. A female crayfish has fins on the inside of its tail and that is where the eggs are kept. Around the beginning of October is when female crayfish start dropping their eggs. Two of the most important facts the children were told is you cannot take crayfish with eggs, and the legal size in which you can take a crayfish, is it has to measure at least 60mm across the tail.
Thank you Selwyn, Tom and Yvette for sharing your experiences and knowledge of crayfish, crayfishing, storing and exporting crayfish, and also to the crayfish where none were harmed in our journey!
Te Mahia school student enjoyed their reef workshop
A message from Nicky O’Brien, School Principal at Te Mahia and studenets
Kiaora korua,
The children, staff, bus driver, parents – everyone, was absolutely buzzing about the session yesterday. Sandy Telford who drives the bus said she was in bed at 10pm last night trying to go to sleep and still going over all of what she had leant during the session. A very big successful day thank you Jenni. Once again working your magic.
http://www.temahiaroom2.blogspot.co.nz/2015/10/enviro-schools-beach-day.html
Today we had an amazing enviroschools trip.
It began with a trip down to Whangawehi where we met the Aurora, and their crayfish catch for the day. Rob and Selwyn where there to show us what they had caught for the day, and showed us how they loaded them onto the back of the truck.
From there they drove them around to Nanny Doi’s house where they have special crayfish pools. These pools are where the crayfish stay before being trucked down to Wellington, and from there they fly out to China.
Once we had had a look at the crayfish in the pools, and asked Rob and Selwyn questions about the crayfish, we wandered around to the fishing club for lunch.
After lunch we had three different activities to head off and do. With Whaea Jenni we pretended to catch some “laminated” fish. We had to identify what fish we had caught and find our whether or not it was a legal size.
With Aunty Ali we learnt about how to get Paua correctly, and without harming them. We even had turns at shucking the paua. Aunty Ali had even cooked up some Paua for us all to sample! It was delicious.
Nanny Rae was very kindly monitoring us all on the rocks and making sure we didn’t disappear around the point. We had a lot of fun finding limpets, and crabs, as well as avoiding the incoming tide!
It was so nice for us all to get out in this beautiful spring weather and make the most of all that is around us here in beautiful Mahia! We are all very lucky that all the information we learnt, we can now put into practice when we all go to collect our own kai moana.
Whangawehi Catchment Management Group 