A new three year project will soon be underway to start to rebuild and buffer valuable kelp-forest habitat along the Otago coastline using climate resilient strains of Macrocystis pyrifera. The project titled Cultivating resilient marine forests to rebuild productive coastal ecosystems received funding through the 2019 Ministry of Business Innovation & Employment’s Endeavour Fund (Smart Ideas) to the value of $1,000,000. This project aims to safeguard and stimulate fisheries value in a changing ocean and deliver economic, cultural and environmental benefits to the communities that rely on them through bottom up restoration. The team working on this project will involve current TMK members (Hepburn, Desmond, Pritchard and Scott), University of Otago researchers (Michael Knapp) and students, industry representatives (Pāua and Rock Lobster), national (Wendy Nelson) and international experts from Chile (Alejandro Buschmann, Carolina Camus) and Tasmania (Catriona Hurd). 

Gaya Gnanalingam amongst a Macrocystis pyrifera kelp bed off the coast of Otago