Coastal projects

Iongairo is a collaborative project to deepen our understanding of coastal marine ecosystems around Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū/Banks Peninsula. Interactive maps provide new insights into what lies beneath the waves.

Iongairo is a partnership between papatipu rūnanga of Te Pātaka o Rākaihautū, the Department of Conservation, and Environment Canterbury, with the University of Otago serving as the project’s science partner. ‘Iongairo’ represents the relationship between Papatūānuku and Tangaroa in Te Ao Māori — signifying the special relationship between the whenua/land and the moana/ocean.

After several years exploring marine habitats in this culturally, ecologically and economically important area, the Iongairo partners have delivered the most comprehensive seafloor and habitat maps in Waitaha/Canterbury to-date.

Find out more about the Iongario project

Every year, we undertake marine biosecurity surveillance at four ports and harbours across the region. A team of divers search for Meditteranean fanworm (Sabella spallanzanii ) and eight other marine invasive species that have been identified as being damaging to Aotearoa/New Zealand’s marine biodiversity economy.

In January 2024, the team dived at Te Ana Marina in the inner harbour of Lyttelton Port. 592 specimens were removed from three pontoon structures and five vessel hulls. We have been busy diving on structures and vessels in Lyttelton Port and beyond searching and removing Sabella and other pest species. For structures that can’t be manually searched by divers we partnering with NIWA and are trialling new technology and using cameras and AI to investigate if those areas are a risk to marine biosecurity. So far, we have removed a significant number of species from the inner harbour. A previous harbour-wide survey commissioned by us in 2023, showed that there is less spread outside of the inner harbour which gives us hope that, through effective management, we can minimise the impact Sabella has on our wider marine environment.

We are working with Ngāti Wheke, the Ministry for Primary Industries, Lyttelton Port Company and other partners to develop management programmes.

For this to work, we need the help of boaties. Keep your hull clean (level of fouling 0-1) to make sure Sabella can’t hitch a ride on your vessel to other areas of the harbour, region or country, where it could establish and become problematic.

Find out more about our marine biosecurity work.

After the 2011 earthquakes, Lyttelton Port’s ability to host cruise ships became severely limited, so most cruise ship traffic went to Akaroa Harbour instead. The new Lyttelton cruise berth was completed in November 2020, allowing cruise ships to resume pre-quake berthing at Lyttelton Port. Cruise ships continue to visit Akaroa, but in reduced numbers.

Akaroa locals had raised concerns about the impact that high numbers of cruise ships entering the area in peak season may have on the marine environment.

Information from a risk assessment in 2019 (PDF file, 18.5MB) led us to limit ship thruster use at anchor to limit seabed disturbance. A bathymetric survey of the Harbour in 2021 led us to close some anchorages and limit the size of ships coming into the Harbour to 200m in length. Larger ships require resource consent to enter.

A repeat survey of the open and closed anchorages in Akaroa was undertaken by Southern Hydrographic in 2023. An additional survey is planned for 2024 may be added in the future, and this will help us determine the rate of physical recovery of the closed anchorages and inform future operational decisions.