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Wednesday October 2, 2013
OUT & ABOUT
Cleaning up the Capital
Heros of the Harbour: divers, headed by Shane Geange (lt), from the Coastal Ecology Laboratory in Island Bay prepare to head out into the Harbour to clean up.
Caught fresh from the sea: Steve Meads, safety officer for the event organisers, The Dive Guy (www.thediveguys.co.nz), with a new haul of Harbour rubbish.
By Rachel Binning The Educate to Eliminate Harbour Clean Up held its fifth successful event last Wednesday. The Clean-Up is an initiative organised by Steven Journee from The Dive Guys, and aims to educate the public on how to care for the sea . It is supported by the Wellington City Council, Victoria University and the Island Bay Marine Education Centre. The event demonstrates what lies beneath the surface of the sea and how much rubbish gets dumped into Wellington Harbour. A high profile area along the Harbour is chosen each year and, as usual, lots of filthy rubbish is hauled from the Harbour. The rubbish is carefully sifted through as many living organisms make their homes amongst it. The organisms included shellfish, small fish, star fish, sea worms and urchins, all of which were cleaned and put into marine touch tanks by volunteers (in many cases, people who were out for a pleasant weekend Harbour walk) under supervision from staff from the Island Bay Marine Education Centre.
Photos taken by Bella Photography
Amelia Howie, Xanthe Peacock and Harriet Guy, all 10, play their part as a human jackpot machine at St Theresa's Fair.
PETER DUNNE MP for Ohariu
Available to constituents:
Johnsonville Monday 14 October For appointments phone 478 0076 (J'ville office) 3 Frankmoore Ave, Johnsonville Ohariu.MP@parliament.govt.nz 560 4773 (Maungaraki office) 151C Dowse Drive, Maungaraki Oharium.MP@parliament.govt.nz
What you can't see you can ignore: Mayor Celia Wade-Brown shows Ilya Mowll (10) and Eva Mowll (8) of Tawa some of the filthy rubbish she retrieved during her dive in Wellington Harbour. Mayor Wade-Brown's announcement of increased funding for the Ocean Exploration Centre approved by the Wellington City Council.
Remember when you litter that your fellow Wellingtonians swim and fish in Wellington Harbour: a fraction of the rubbish retrieved from the Harbour, which was full of dirtied sealife.
Molly O'Sullivan, age 7, enjoys a pony ride at the Fair.
St Teresa's Fair "best yet" By Robert Johnson Karori’s St Teresa’s School held its annual Fair a fortnight ago and thanks to some last minute sunshine, ended up being their most successful ever. The Fair raised $41,400 for the School’s Operation Outdoors project, which aims to improve the school grounds. Fair committee member Gabrielle Ryan says they were making rain plans 24 hours out thanks to the horrific forecast but were graced with one of the sunniest days in recent memory.
“The fantastic weather obviously helped bring in the crowds but the huge help we received from Bayleys Real Estate and their marketing helped out a lot.” There were food stalls, games, artwork and other craft stalls, many of which sold out of their goods despite allowing for double the quantity of last year. Ms Ryan says the Fair carried a great vibe with all the bright colours, sunshine, music and lots of nice food smells. “It really was a great introduction to Spring.”