South Taranaki's Marine Frame: A celebration of Marine Life

On the land of Te Rangatapu Trust, overlooking Ōhawe beach, the mouth of the Waingongoro river and the expanse of Tasman Sea, South Taranaki's Marine Frame stands.

Back in June 2022 we began planning for an additional way we could share our offshore rocky reef survey work and the beautiful footage we gather. The result (completed December 2023) was a Marine Frame at Ōhawe.

What a heart-warming journey it has been. We greatly treasure the generous support of the Te Rangatapu Trust who enabled the Marine Frame to be located in such a special location.

The positive energy kept on growing from the start of this project - with our amazing community (through donated materials and labour) building a public parking area alongside the marine frame (see the list below acknowledging the numerous supporters of the Marine Frame build and community parking build).

We hope you’ll join us, for a casual drop in, on the first Sunday of each month, anytime between 2pm-4pm - at the Marine Frame – we’ll be sharing our marine stories, showing some of our research equipment and dive gear.

We'd love to hear your marine stories and answer any questions you might have . . .and if we can't answer them, we know plenty of people in our community & scientists around NZ, who might know!

The frame offers a vantage point for viewers to immerse themselves with the beauty of the ocean, whilst also showcasing offshore rocky reef photographs captured by divers from the South Taranaki Underwater Club (STUC).
Each image has a video so viewers can experience life in action at the rocky reef 11km offshore of Pātea from where the photographs were taken. Members from ‘Project Reef’ and the South Taranaki Underwater Club, hope the community will join them, for a casual drop in, on the first Sunday of each month, anytime between 2pm-4pm - at the Marine Frame.

They will be sharing marine stories (and encourage others to do so), show-casing research equipment and dive gear and welcoming questions.

Other equipment deployed:In May 2021 environmental DNA samples (eDNA) were taken at the Project Reef, and surface.

Plankton tow: The net is towed at 2km an hour, for 60 seconds, at a depth of 2metres. The mesh is 0.33mm. We end up with a litre of concentrated plankton which included salps Photo taken of salps from trawl water and ctenophores Photo of ctenophore captured in trawl water

Baited Underwater Video:
Footage of the BUV with plenty of blue cod Link and some footage of a seven-gill shark captured
Link

What does the equipment look like? Click here to find out.

Benthic Survey equipment:
See the video about our work which shows at 40 seconds, the divers with the Benthic Survey Frame, 44 seconds is the octopus seen on the BUV footage, Link to two minute video

Moving forward, the Project team are aiming to explore more of the rocky subtidal reefs offshore of South Taranaki, gather 360 footage.

Some of the equipment used in this project can be found on display at Puke Ariki in New Plymouth in their exhibition “Reef Alive” based on the work of Project Reef.
Visitors can see the Mark I in Puke Ariki NP diorama link

These pages have been set up to encourage community engagement and feedback.Marine Frame website:
https://www.marineframes.org/our-story
Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558495252443
Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/marineframes

Sponsors:

• Concept design and co-ordination of both the Marine Frame and the Carpark was a collaboration of the Project Reef team.
  
• Fabrication by local firm Global Stainless Industrial
  
• Picture wrapping by Zodiac Signs Ltd.
  
• Funding for the Marine Frame was by the Toi Foundation and South Taranaki District Council's Hāwera Discretionary Fund, supplemented by additional in-kind donations from the community and Project Reef Life - South Taranaki.