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: 

Register your interest here

Alternatively, please contact one of our coordinators below:

Andrea Booth - Northland Regional Coordinator
Phone: 027 704 5728
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Rosie Palmer - Mid North WBC Coordinator
Phone: 022 012 3027
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Ray Downing - Mid North WBC Coordinator
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A full list of Far and Mid North Schools is below. Schools we have worked with are in blue. Some schools have links to stories discussing their previous programmes.  

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

Coordinators:

Andrea Booth - Northland Regional Coordinator
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Tracey Phillip - Northland Programme Coordinator
Phone: 027 823 0299
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Jordan MacDonald - He Kakano Nursery Manager
Phone: 027 354 8745
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Our team deliver the Whitebait Connection and Drains to Harbour stormwater programme in Whangarei throughout the year as well as run our community plant nursery and community stream planting events.  

A full list of schools in the Whangarei District can be found below - the ones we have worked with are in blue.

Students from Maungaturoto Primary School

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'. 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 and school programme delivery

Kaipara - WBC contact

Andrea Booth - Northland Regional Coordinator
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Greer Morgan - Kaipara Coordinator
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A full list of schools in the Kaipara District can be found below.  The ones we have worked with are in blue. Some schools have links to stories discussing their previous programmes.  

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 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 .

Coordinators:

Briar Broad (Regional Coordinator)

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Sarah Dimitrijevic (North Auckland based) 

Phone: 021 029 86880
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Aileen Sweeney 

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Kate McKessar

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Mountains to Sea Conservation Trust (MTSCT)  Poutokomanawa/Co-Director Kim Jones reinvigorated WBC delivery in the Auckland region in 2015. A list of some of the schools that we have worked with can be found below.

WBC Auckland have been working with Auckland Council and Wai Care to locate and enhance Inanga spawning habitat on the Hoteo River. We have also started collaborating with many other stakeholders in the Mahurangi River catchment including Mahurangi Action Group, New Zealand Premium Whitebait, Wai Care and Ngati Manuhiri on various projects including Native Fish Discovery Nights and regional hui and wananga.

See the 2016 Auckland Freshwater Hui minutes here

Schools/centres we have worked with:

Warkworth Primary School

Mahurangi College

Pinehurst School 

Snells Beach School

Stanmore Bay School

Orewa School

Rutherford College

Drury Primary School 

Maraetai Beach School

Bayview Early Learning Centre

Snells Beach Kindy

Totara Hill Montessori

Wellsford Primary School

Long Bay Primary School

Verran School

Henderson Primary School

Torbay Primary School

Kristin School

Papatoetoe West School 

Whangaparaoa College 

Meadowbank School

Western Springs College

New provider organisation coming soon 

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. Their ultimate goal is to encourage and inspire schools and community groups to become kaitiakitanga/guardians of our local streams to restore, maintain or improve these sites.

Coordinators:
Amy Hardy (Regional WBC Manager)
Phone: 027 713 9152
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Website: www.nmtt.co.nz

Hana Hardy (Programme Coordinator)
Phone: 022 459 7305
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Website: www.nmtt.co.nz

Murray Palmer (Ambassador)

Murray and Amy have coordinated & delivered the WBC programme to many local schools including; Gisborne Central School, Wainui School, Mangapapa School, Manutuke School, Te Wharau School, TKKM o Nga Uri a Maui, TKKM o Mangatuna, Lytton High School, Stand for Children’s Services, Gisborne Girls High School and many more within the region.

Some feedback from students and teachers below:

Alice Houkamau, Gisborne Girls High School: “Some positive aspects of this programme that we encountered were students working co-operatively and sharing ideas to achieve their goal in their group e.g. identifying the most abundant species they have collected from the awa. Students were learning hands-on biology and applying it to their NCEA Level 2 internal standard which has given us a new programme for future students to follow”.

Ben Tamatea, Stand for Children’s Services: “Presentation of the programme delivered was excellent. Every student involved loved the presenters and felt comfortable around them which is a major barrier for our kids learning but they soaked up every bit of information and gained a lot of new skills and knowledge for our freshwater monitoring mahi”

Michelle Barker, Awapuni School: “Lessons were student centred and interactive. They were informative and linked to our ongoing class inquiry ‘Kaitiakitanga’. Whanau also enjoyed being part of the day and learnt many things also. We love the passion that Amy has which is then passed on to the tamariki, the ability to foster what the tamariki were thinking/sharing made it very interactive mahi for the kids”

Awapuni School Students:

“I’m going to ask my nan to buy me some containers and nets so I can try and catch these animals at a stream by my house and see if it’s healthy. We swim in it all the time so I hope it is.”

“My favourite part was the clarity tube when we saw it go from 100cm at Waihirere to 10cm at Waikanae which shows how polluted our town stream is and all the dirt in it. We are fencing and planting this area to try and improve it”

“I really enjoyed looking through the microscope and seeing the tiny animals crawling out of their shell. It didn’t even look like anything until we saw it moving under the microscope.”

Highlights

• The development and delivery of two new NCEA achievement standards (Biology 2.1 and 2.3) integrated into Gisborne Girls High School curriculum so students can participate in these programmes while achieving their NCEA achievement standards. This is an ongoing monitoring programme which will be completed every year in Term 1 with new year 12 students.
• A collaboration and strong partnership with Enviro Schools and Women’s Native Tree Project Trust where students are gaining a wider programme by participating in a range of different courses including water monitoring and fish species identification, fencing, and native planting and restoration of the site while gaining NCEA credits through all organisations.
• The development of a curriculum resource for teachers wanting to participate in the full WBC programme. This resource is focused on the inanga species and covers level 3 and 4 teaching and learning objectives for all science components, social science and personal health and physical education. We worked with Gisborne District Council to deliver and monitor the success of this resource and the restoration components that were a result of this was fantastic. This resource was also translated into Te Reo and therefore, can be implemented into Kura Kaupapa which was trialled on TKKM o Nga Uri a Maui.
• Extensive ongoing water monitoring programmes focused on gaining consistent and appropriate data of specific freshwater sites to engage and advocate to the wider community and support/implement restoration decisions for the ongoing future. Te Kura o Hiruharama Primary School, TKKM o Whatatutu School, Makarika School and Motu School are some schools that have participated in a more extensive programme where we have conducted a number of site visits and recorded data over a number of months or years. Some of these schools have used biological indicators to assess stream health that has close links with Tangata Whenua indicators (fish, birds, invertebrates) and undertaken wider catchment mapping and evaluation.

WBC Gisborne Regional Coordinator, Amy Hardy, briefing students by the river before they sample for invertebrates.

Wellington became a WBC region in 2013. Liz Gibson 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. 

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

Wellington Regional Coordinator:

Liz Gibson

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Wellington's experienced coordinators work across the greater Wellington region delivering Mountains to Sea education programmes – just add water! Creating inspiring and hands-on experiences for students in their local environment and will support your classroom programme, manage equipment and all health and safety planning.

The programmes lead to a greater connection to nature and a meaningful understanding of conservation issues; fostering kaitiakitanga and action for the environment.

WBC Wellington students taking water samples

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.

Regional Coordinator: Jessica Halsey (based at EOS Ecology)
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WBC Canterbury was re-invigorated in 2016 with coordinators Kirsty and Shelley, providing opportunities for schools and community groups to be involved in real science projects. Nick joined the WBC team in 2017 and added to the team’s heap of practical experience and knowledge of all things aquatic!

The first half of 2016 saw 16 schools participating in a Pest Monitoring programme that was connected with the Whaka Inaka science programme. Information was collected by the students about pest activity along the river and recorded on an online database. Results from their monitoring have been collated in a “Pest and Poop Report Card”. In the second half of 2016 WBC Canterbury implemented the first Environment Investigators programme at 16 schools, including three pre-schools. Over 1,200 students grew their knowledge and awareness about inanga and their local waterways, with hands-on field sessions undertaking inanga spawning habitat assessments, as well as looking after inanga in classroom tanks for a term. The end of the programme saw the kids releasing their inanga as part of an inanga celebration day. They also took action for their rivers including producing fliers about rubbish, leaf litter and dog poo, door knocking and interviewing residents, and presenting their findings on poor inanga spawning habitat to the city and regional councils.
The team are excited to be starting another Environment Investigators in 2017 with more kids engaging with inanga. The WBC Canterbury team are always interested to hear about anyone wanting to investigate their waterways, so get in touch!

“We have had many comments from parents and the children were certainly more aware of their local stream environment and their knowledge about whitebait, an animal they knew little about, grew greatly as did their knowledge of environmental factors. Many children indicate it as a highlight of learning this year.”- St Martin’s School
“Our community has a greater awareness of our local environment as well as seeing their children as competent learners who are growing an awareness of water protection. “ – Kidsfirst Kindergarten Opawa
“…the head of our Board of Trustees is very pleased with how engaged the students have been with this topic, and has been asking me about ways to continue using the river as a resource for further learning. The value of this project has been well-noted around [the community], which is especially great because these kids truly fit the mould of "hard to teach,".Bamford School

Kids from Waitākiri school learning how to be pest monitors with Kirsty.

Shelley measuring the angle of the bank within the “love zone” with Waitākiri School

Seeing the inanga in their new home at Kindercare Ferry Rd

Ōpāwa School presenting to the Mayor and Councillors of the Christchurch City Council about what they want to see for their river.