MONITORING TOOLS

Trialing NZL Blue Belt monitoring tools and processes.

During 2023 we will trial and finalise the generic NZL Blue Belt monitoring tools and processes that will be used at Worser Bay, and in time at other NZL Blue Belt sites around the country. We have landed on a set of generic monitoring tools that can be used at any NZL Blue Belt site. We will trial the tools with schools in the Motu Kairangi Kāhui Ako as well as Wellington High School.
 

The NZ Marine Studies Centre (NZMSC) team will create a set of simple methods that can be used with each of the tools. The goal is to trial the tools, along with the processes for adding data to the MM2 database, during 2023. Initial exploratory work in the use of the tools will take place mostly during term one spilling over to term two. We will then evaluate how this has gone through term three and retest the use of the tools in term four, before finalising them as the NZL Blue Belt tools for use across sites around Aotearoa New Zealand.

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The tools and processes we are trialing are:

• Plankton community monitoring using nets

• Water temperature monitoring locations

• Inter-tidal biodiversity monitoring using Marine Metre Squared (MM2) (including trialing substrate mapping with photogrammetry)

• Sub-tidal biodiversity monitoring using quadrats, transects, and underwater video cameras

• Sediment plate monitoring

• Baited video station monitoring