A NEW Northland-based charity has been gifted a yacht to aid with marine conservation and humanitarian projects in coastal communities.
OceansWatch, founded by Matapouri's Chris Bone, received charity status at the end of last year and its aim is to create a global yachting community offering practical solutions to problems experienced
by coastal communities and their associated marine environments.
Members all over the world will allow their yachts to be used in marine conservation expeditions but the team now have fulltime use of the Magic Roundabout.
The yacht was gifted to the trust by Alice Sowerby who inherited it from her brother Tom who died aged 23.
He was en route to New Zealand to live and work, when he was killed in a free-diving accident in Bora Bora, near Tahiti.
OceansWatch spokeswoman Jane Pares said everyone was thrilled to have the yacht and it would be used for important projects.
She said it was Tom's love of the ocean and growing concern about the marine environment that led Alice to donate the long-term use of his yacht to OceansWatch.
The yacht is docked in the Whangarei Town Basin but will shortly travel around the Pacific, participating in marine conservation projects.
Mr Bone is planning a project for the Magic Roundabout focusing on Vanuatu, Tonga and Papa New Guinea.
OceansWatch will work on marine conservation and education projects in conjunction with organisations such as Reef Check and Project Marc (Medical Assistance to Remote Communities).
In Vanuatu, for example, OceansWatch will set up new Reef Check transects in a marine protected area established by the local chief and help the Fisheries Department mark out the areas.
On nearby Karkar Island, OceansWatch is helping an area where raw sewerage from the local high school is discharged straight on to a reef. OceansWatch members yachts will also distribute resources to local schools under the guidance of the local Red Cross.
