Seaweek adventures in Whanganui
Date: 04 March 2009
The Seaweek team and Wally the whale helped the local kids of Castlecliff celebrate children's day with painted faces and fun and games before the rain came down in buckets to close the day.
Around the country DOC is organising Seaweek activities to help people discover what's special about our ocean and what they can do to make a difference. Seaweek is also a chance to acknowledge community groups and volunteers who work hard to give our marine species and their habitats the chance to thrive.
Painting sea creatures onto little faces
Whanganui Regional Museum, Sargeant Gallery, Bushy Park Education Centre, Progress Castlecliff, and many others gather together every year to help DOC celebrate, educate, and raise awareness about our coastal and marine environment.
Coast care groups regularly contribute their time to our beaches, so that we can enjoy them. From planting native grasses that help with erosion to cleaning up rubbish from the beaches, these groups are hugely valuable.
The fun and learning doesn't stop there with Seaweek events on almost every day through to Sunday.
Did you know that the longfin eel starts and ends its life at Sea? The Environment Centre are showing lunch time screenings of the "Longfin", documentary on the plight of the eels, from 12pm to 1pm Monday - Friday during seaweek.
Wednesday afternoon make your way to the Duncan Pavilion for a beach sculpture competition from 4pm - 6pm. Bring $4 for Fish and Chips. Go Deep Scuba and DoC have put together prizes for the best beach sculpture.
Want to stroll along the beach and clean up the marine environment at the same time? Join the team from Go Deep Scuba for a productive walk from the pavilion on Saturday at 3pm. Imlay Meats and Go Deep Scuba will feed us later on with a free BBQ sausage.
Finally to end our Seaweek adventures DOC will be taking an estuary excursion from the Putiki Boat ramp at 1.30pm on Sunday to look at the healthy condition of the Whanganui River estuary. To book for this trip or for more information on any of the other activities, phone the DOC office 06 349 2100 or visit the Seaweek website www.seaweek.org.nz and be inspired by Whanganui's marine and coastal environment during Seaweek 2009.