The current focus in this region is on monitoring and raising awareness of local freshwater issues, supporting local government initiatives and local community groups in North and West Auckland.

Key waterways of current projects include the Mahurangi River (Rodney – Hauraki Gulf), Kaipara – Hoteo River sub-catchment, Henderson Creek, Snells Beach, Long Bay and Kaipatiki Creek .

Gisborne's goal is to deliver schools and their communities practical, holistic and inspiring information and education about local freshwater environments and to promote positive changes in attitudes and behaviour towards them.

They've ventured into a range of new and innovative projects. These include mapping the ecology of all the waterways in the Gisborne region - in partnership with schools and community groups - and developing relative restoration plans with students, whanau and the Gisborne DC and Wairoa DC.

Wellington became a WBC region in 2013. Zoe Studd and her team are delivering the programme to local schools under the umbrella of the Mountains to Sea Wellington Trust. They have been delivering WBC's sister marine programme EMR since 2010.

The 2014 MTSCT National Marine and Freshwater Wananga Conference was held in Wellington in partnership with Zoe's team.

The team hosted a regional freshwater hui in 2016.  See the proceedings here..

Presentations from the hui below:

Nicola Toki - Protecting our freshwater biodiversity

Leana Barriball and Raewyn Klenner. Freshwater Values and Iwi Perspectives

Zoe Studd. Whitebait Connection. Opportunities for education and community engagement Whitebait Connection.

Mark Taylor. Inanga spawning site identification and restoration Inanga spawning site identification and restoration

Aslan Wright-Stow. Citizen Science - developing a monitoring programme for your stream

The WBC Canterbury coordinators are all based within a Christchurch ecology and engagement company, EOS Ecology, who also have a specialist graphic designer, Bronwyn, who designed the newly created National Inanga Spawning Programme (NISP) resources and produces wonderfully engaging documents for the team.

The Whitebait Connection (WBC) has visited schools and marae in the Far and Mid North since 2002. The area contains many unique and significant wetlands and freshwater environments, such as the Aupouri Wetlands and Lake Ohia.  If you are interested in having the WBC programme delivered in your area, please register your interest here:

Register your interest

Alternatively, please contact one of our coordinators below:

Isabel Krauss - Northland Regional Coordinator

Phone: 022 321 2818
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Nina Pivac - Far North WBC Coordinator
Phone: 021 061 4725
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Palmer - Mid North WBC Coordinator
Phone 022 012 3027
Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

A full list of Far and Mid North Schools is below. Schools we have worked with are in blue.

The Whitebait Connection is very much alive and wriggling in the Whangarei area! 

WBC has worked with many schools in the Kaipara district since 2002 and also helped the Department of Conservation to pilot their 'Pouto Dune Lakes and Dwarf Inanga Community Education Programme' in Term One, 2010 with Pouto and Te Kopuru Schools. 

We also run community events in the Kaipara such as the Kai Iwi lakes Open Day.

Most recently we've been working on finding Inanga Spawning areas in the Kaipara area alongside WBC community engagement programmes.

Tasman Bay Guardians (TBG) are the Nelson/Tasman regional providers for the Whitebait Connection.  TBG are passionate about the importance of connecting our young people to their local environment through education and experience. We know that children who are more connected to their environment have a greater likelihood of looking after it in the future. Our goal is that every school in Te Tau Ihu (Nelson/Tasman) has the opportunity to participate in the Experiencing Marine Reserves and/or Whitebait Connection programmes. 

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The Friends of Te Whanganui-A-Hei Marine Reserve Trust are the Waikato - Coromandel/Hauraki providers for Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust where they deliver both the Whitebait Connection and Experiencing Marine Reserves programmes.