With 52 volunteers and 4.135 kina collected we broke all records to start the year. We also had the most scuba divers (25!) and a great crew on the water supporting getting the kina bags from the divers to shore or our support boat! Most of the kina were distributed to the volunteers and the rest were well received by Hongoeka Marae.

Our effort is making a real difference. We have removed more than 12,000 kina from Kau Point. The majority of the area around the point is now cleared (around 8,300 square metres) and our monitoring team has captured regrowing seaweed in the area of the first removal event! 

We will continue to monitor the removal sites and start clearing other sites in the project area reducing the kina density to 0.5 kina per square metre to allow seaweed to regenerate. There is a lot more work to be done and if you are interested in getting involved then get in touch and keep an eye out for the next removal and monitoring events coming up!

Thanks to all iwi, hapū and community members who joined as volunteers, to Wellington Underwater Club for marking the removal areas and preparing the site, and to Dive HQ and Dive Wellington for getting their divers involved. To Ocean Hunter Wellington for donating kina sacks and to Deep Blue Seafoods for providing fish bins for the events.

If you want to find out more about the project read the FAQ section on the About us page. To get involved get in touch!

Kina removal event – 23 January 2023