The Ministerial advice for the South East Marine Protection (new marine reserves for the South-East coast of the South Island of New Zealand) was released. The Executive Summary and the full advice document (search for "Southeast Marine Protection") are available.

Our 2022 paper in Methods in Ecology and Evolution on modelling New Zealand sea lions' suitable terrestrial habitats won the 2023 Outstanding Publication on New Zealand Ecology Award from the NZ Ecological Society. Very proud of this recognition of our work, particularly Veronica's who did a brilliant MSc.

New report provided to the New Zealand Department of Conservation on the results of the analyses of tracking data of New Zealand sea lions in the Catlins. It contains analyses, results and recommendations for management and future research. This was a project part of the New Zealand Threat Management Plan.

The report from the collaborative project Enabling Integrated Marine Management is now available online. I led the Department of Conservation's use case as part of this project; it focused on developing  a methodology to map marine Key Ecological Areas using the data mesh to crate the 'KEA App' (cloud based analytical tool that uses spatial data directly from their source servers via a data mesh!).

Our paper in Methods in Ecology and Evolution on modelling New Zealand sea lions' suitable terrestrial habitats was shortlisted for the 2022 TWS (The Wildlife Society) Wildlife Publication Awards, in the student paper category. Well done Veronica!

The Enabling Integrated Marine Management project is a collaboration across New Zealand government agencies Department of Conservation, Ministry for Primary Industries, Land and Information New Zealand and Te Arawhiti. The aim is to provide a Proof of Concept for the use of a data mesh to link all marine data useful for New Zealand marine planning and management. Oceanum provides the prototype datamesh.
You can check out updates on our work on this project's YouTube page.

The consultation period on the Hākaimangō-Matiatia (Northwest Waiheke) Marine Reserve closes 20 March 2022.
Find out how to check the proposal and make a submission at https://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/have-your-say/all-consultations/2022-consultations/proposed-hakaimango-matiatia-northwest-waiheke-marine-reserve/#application-document

 

Our latest paper on New Zealand sea lions was picked up by the American media, notably by the Washington Post and the New York Times! Veronica Frans, our lead author, is now a PhD student at Michigan State University in the USA and had a great media campaign there. Some great advocacy for the New Zealand sea lions and our work!

 

Integrated SDM database: Enhancing the relevance and utility
of species distribution models in conservation management
. New paper published in Methods in Ecology and Evolution, led by an ex Masters student, Veronica Frans. Using Spatial Distribution Models (SDM) with data from an earlier paper from my own Masters thesis (On‐land habitat preferences of female New Zealand sea lions at Sandy Bay, Auckland Islands) and mapping human impacts, it identifies potential suitable sites for recolonising New Zealand to create new breeding colonies around the whole mainland New Zealand.

The newest addition to WildCoast enjoys the coast too (and apparently the taste of white sand). Here he is at Hoopers Inlet. The inlet is on the Otago Peninsula and can be reached after a nice walk along Allans Beach, around the corner at the end. There are often many New Zealand sea lions to be seen. Watching them glide passed in the water of the inlet is magical.

 

The consultation period on the South-Eastern South Island marine protected areas proposal has re-opened. Consultation closes 3 August 2020. The proposal includes the first marine reserves to be implemented along this coastline!
Find out how to check the proposal and make a submission at https://www.doc.govt.nz/get-involved/have-your-say/all-consultations/2020-consultations/consultation-on-south-eastern-south-island-marine-protected-areas/ 

 

New paper from a collaborative project in the Falkland Islands derived from needs of the marine spatial planning project.

Marengo I, Augé AA et al. (2020) Island-based Information Management System-GIS Data Centre as a key tool for spatial planning in the South Atlantic UK Overseas Territories

This was a great multi-discplinary project with a stakeholder focuss. The webGIS application and the GIS database with its interface, all using Open Access software, were particularly interesting and very welcomed by the stakeholders and the public for marine spatial planning, and the current project of fine-tuning the proposal for a set of marine reserves.

 

The young addition to the WildCoast family has already made his mind that the coast is fantastic and that watching the waves on a wild beach is the perfect Sunday afternoon (after eating some sand and crawling towards a sea lion that is!). Victory Beach is one of the jewels of the Otago Peninsula. A little stroll to get there but it is worth it (go along the inlet it's much nicer, but if you want to see the pyramids, walk from the official carpark).