Crowd learns all about harbour management

Chris Battershill addresses the crowd at the Te Awanui Tauranga Harbour Catchment Catch-up. Photo / George Novak

The state of Tauranga Harbour was discussed in detail by experts at yesterday's Te Awanui Tauranga Harbour Catchment Catch-up.

The forum, held at the Tauranga Yacht Club, addressed all aspects of harbour management and included speakers from the Bay of Plenty Regional Council, Te Runanga o Ngai Te Rangi iwi Trust, Waikato University, Tauranga City Council and Manaaki Taha Moana.

Chris Battershill, who heads Tauranga's Coastal Marine Field Centre, said the forum was held once every two years.

Yesterday's event was well attended, with about 100 people turning up.

"It was a chance for everybody to effectively share what they are doing, all the different research programmes and clean-up programmes right across the board and share news. More important at this forum was the chance for concerns to be raised, areas of more work to be identified to address some of the issues."

Professor Battershill said he gave a brief about what the University of Waikato was doing with research and graduate studies. The Mobil oil spill was also discussed, with regional on-scene commander Adrian Heays sharing a review of the response. Harbour sea-lettuce blooms and mangroves were also discussed.