OY Dunedin – that’s a wrap!

Our new Ocean Youth chapter commenced over the summer school holidays in Dunedin in December 2020. The New Zealand Marine Studies Centre, located at the University of Otago, piloted the program for the first time as a summer holiday intensive.

Located at the tip of the Portobello Peninsula, with easy access to the ocean and to many different habitats, the NZ Marine Studies Centre is an amazing location to study marine life, all the elements that make an ideal delivery partner for the Ocean Youth program.

The inaugural OY Dunedin program was filled to the brim with citizen science, wildlife spotting and communication activities. Ten lucky Ocean Youth Dunedin Ambassadors got to head out on a research vessel for some shark spotting with Shark Spy, plankton & crab identification, and albatross meet and greets. They identified strange creatures from the deep sea as well as training up to become beach cleaners with local NGO Sustainable Coastlines.

The OY Ambassadors graduated from the program by hosting an outreach event at the Otago Farmers Market where they manned the centre’s ‘Aquavan’, an education tool used to engage the public of the local marine environment. They displayed ocean litter from Otago Harbour to help influence the local community on positive actions they can take to secure the health of our oceans.
On top of that, they even fundraised $232 by selling merchandise they created themselves, donating the funds to local marine conservation group Our Seas Our Future.
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You can see some of the pics and learn more about the OY Dunedin activities on the NZ Marine Studies Centre FB page.
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