Seapods have been installed as part of a renewed seawall on Tauranga's waterfront aimed at providing habitat for marine life.
Seapods have been installed as part of a renewed seawall on Tauranga's waterfront aimed at providing habitat for marine life.
A new marine ecosystem is expected to be established on Tauranga’s CBD waterfront as the city council works on a living seawall which is believed to be the first of its kind in New Zealand.
Tauranga City Council has installed about 100 “seapods” at the waterfront at the northern end of The Strand. It was hoped the seapods would, in time, attract marine plants and marine life to the area as part of a $3.9 million “living seawall”.
Artist impression of how the 'living seawall' will look at the northern end of the Tauranga waterfront reserve. Photo / Tauranga City Council
Seapods are designed to resemble a rocky tidal pool, filling with water when the tide is in. When the tide retreats, the water remains. They have been placed within the seawall and are expected to provide space otherwise not present for algae and invertebrates to colonise, creating complex mini ecosystems of marine life. It is hoped some creatures will begin establishing themselves in the seapods within a few months.
The seapods, weighing 1.2 tonnes, were placed among the 5000 tonnes of rocks which make up the 175-metre seawall. The first 50 were installed in early April, the remainder were installed on May 8. They were part of a wider $84m plan to rejuvenate the city’s waterfront area, with some costs covered by the Port of Tauranga.
Council senior programme manager Malcolm Smith said the seapods were gaining popularity internationally because of their improvements to marine biodiversity. Tauranga’s seapods were the “first of their kind in New Zealand”, Smith said.
The council’s project team, along with the contractor constructing the seawall, was working with Waikato University and Toi Ohomai Institute of Technology to enable “early access” to the seawall “for ongoing research purposes, with a specific interest in the habitation of marine species into these pods”, Smith said.
Council city development and partnerships general manager Gareth Wallis said projects were “ramping up” and plans that celebrated the connection between community and Tauranga Harbour were “coming to life at Tauranga waterfront”.
“The seawall is just one of a fantastic range of projects happening across the city centre and waterfront, all crucial in our journey to transforming the city centre into a great destination for our community and visitors.”
In 2022, an economic report stated developments in the CBD were expected to pump at least $1.5 billion into the area by 2030.
Tauranga City Council's Gareth Wallis pictured with some of the city's waterfront, pre-seapods, in the background. Photo / Alex Cairns
Bay of Plenty Regional Council Toi Moana environmental scientist Dr Josie Crawshaw said seawalls were primarily built for coastal protection and often used flat walls or large, smooth rocks which typically did not attract native marine life.
“Living sea walls are designed to mimic the cracks, crevices and tidal pools typically found on natural intertidal rocky reefs and create microhabitats,” Dr Crawshaw said.
“Monitoring of such installations internationally has highlighted that they provide additional complex habitat and recruit more species than unmodified seawalls.”
Seapods have been installed as part of a renewed seawall on Tauranga's waterfront, aimed at providing habitat for marine line.
Dr Crawshaw said the seapods would help to provide habitats for marine life and opportunities for people to engage with the rock pool environments “of which we don’t have many in the local Tauranga area”.
“Rocky shore marine life requires complex structure to live on, and the installation of specifically designed sea pods can create rougher surfaces, crevices and holes that retain water, more similar to that of a natural rocky shoreline. This allows for places to hide from predation and provide shade from the sun when the tide is out (to help limit desiccation and heat stress).”
The seawall project will include step ledges for viewing and the area would be made safer for people of all ages to explore and interact with tidal plant and marine life.
Dr Crawshaw said they hoped the seapods would encourage growth of native species such as chitons, barnacles, limpets, snails and seaweeds.
“Based on studies overseas we would expect to see some species moving in within a few months of the installation and a more complex mini ecosystem develop after one to two years.”
Tauranga-based marine researcher and professor Chris Battershill previously said the living seawall boulders offered a sustainable solution for coastal defence.
Tauranga's waterfront, as seen by air, in 2017. Before waterfront development. Photo / Sonya Bateson
“They mimic natural habitats, encouraging the growth of marine organisms, restoring coastal ecosystems, and providing protection against erosion and storms.”
The council’s wider waterfront project includes the creation of a new green reserve, a state-of-the-art playground, shared pathway upgrades and a new boardwalk that would connect people with the recently installed railway underpass along The Strand Extension.
It comes after the controversial removal of 147 waterfront car parks, with nearby business owners opposing the plans.
The council said at the time that redeveloping this “prime waterfront location” was important for Tauranga CBD’s revitalisation and would be a “drawcard” for locals and visitors.
Kiri Gillespie is an assistant news director and a senior journalist for the Bay of Plenty Times and Rotorua Daily Post, specialising in local politics and city issues. She was a finalist for the Voyager Media Awards Regional Journalist of the Year in 2021.
