Seas celebrated in WWF campaign

The competition aims to get New Zealanders thinking of the reasons they love the water. Photo / Brett Phibbs

For Anna Paquin, it is her connection to home. For Lloyd Jones, it is a grand schemer and connector. And for Hollie Smith, a friend and enemy.

The ocean is the subject for a creative competition which already features contributions by prominent New Zealand figures.

World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) is drawing on their words, images and lyrics to spell out one of New Zealand's great conservation problems - despite our love of the sea, less than 1 per cent of it is protected by law. This contrasts with 20 per cent of the country's land that is part of the conservation estate.

New Zealand's waters, 15 times larger than its landmass, are home to 80 per cent of its biodiversity, including unique species such as Hector's and Maui dolphins. Yet government allocation of marine reserves continually falls behind goals set by the United Nations.

The competition will address this problem by pulling on New Zealanders' heartstrings, instead of lamenting the lack of protection measures.

WWF New Zealand executive director Chris Howe said: "Our seas are in the safest hands when New Zealanders feel an increased sense of ownership. The best means of achieving this is to focus not on what we've lost but by celebrating what we have."

The first contributions to the competition capture every thread of New Zealanders' obsession with the sea - from a bridge to faraway shores, to an infant's playground.

Lloyd Jones, author of Booker Prize-nominated novel Mister Pip, portrays the nostalgia of perching at the sea's edge in his youth.

"I remember crouching above a rock pool crammed with layers of life - a tiny fish worked its way into a finger groove of rock, a crab sank into the mud and waited - while I pondered whether I would be a wrecker or custodian of that world."

Artist Otis Frizzell expresses the sigh of a homesick traveller: "No matter where I went and how amazing or beautiful it was, I never once thought I'd like to stay away from Aotearoa for good. The one thing above all others (besides the family, of course) that brought me back was the Tasman and the Pacific."

WWF is calling on the public to submit pieces - written, musical, in film, or in visual art - to the Ocean:Views competition as part of its drive to protect the marine environment.

There are some significant barriers to this goal, in particular the Government's moratorium on establishing new reserves within New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone until 2013.

In the short-term, conservationists are concerned about the possibility of expanded finfish farms, and proposed oil exploration near the east coast of the North Island.

At a UN biodiversity summit in 2002 New Zealand representatives committed to protecting 10 per cent of its marine environment by 2011. Now the deadline has arrived, only 0.3 per cent of our 480 million hectares of ocean is fully protected.

WWF welcomed a new 435,000ha reserve around Antipodes Island, the Bounty Islands and Campbell Island. But Mr Howe said many more marine areas hosted special and unique species.

Competition entries close on April 15, and winning works will be exhibited on June 8, which is World Oceans Day.

IN OTHER WORDS

Lloyd Jones (novelist):Of all worldly substance, the sea is the binding one. It is the grand schemer and connector. Whenever we look for a metaphor that speaks of the soul we turn to the sea. We marvel at it. We play in it. We eat from it. As much as it sustains us, we need to sustain it.

Hollie Smith (musician):In the ocean is somewhere I am free, free from weight and time, free from burden, free from obligation.It separates me from the world I know and cleanses me of complacency. It's always moving and changing, around me, around this land, around the nations - it marries us together. It holds life, it was where life began yet with a single breath will destroy and rage. It is my friend yet my most respected enemy.

Otis Frizzell (artist):The ocean is my favourite part of life in New Zealand. Whether it's getting pummelled by the surf on the West Coast, or just grooving in a summer-warmed, still and idyllic bay on the east coast, I reckon swimming in the ocean is good for what ails ya.

ON THE WEB

wwf.org.nz/oceans