Keep your eyes on the waters off the Hibiscus Coast as a brand new research marine vessel will be working to help conserve our marine life.

The multi-million dollar boat from the University of Auckland is named Te Kaihopara which means The Explorer. 

It was launched at Auckland’s Maritime Museum last week and replaces the smaller and aged Hawere. 

The 15.9m catamaran will be in the waters off the Hibiscus Coast shortly on a mission to help revive a troubled and fast-changing marine life.

According to Professor Simon Thrush, the director of the University Institute of Marine Science, our marine environment is in need of restoration, especially in the Hauraki Gulf.

The mission, called ‘Revive Our Gulf’, is a collaboration between the University of Auckland, The Nature Conservancy, and the Mussel Reef Restoration Trust. 

One of their aims is to re-establish mussel beds wiped out by overfishing last century. 

Simon said the gulf has become less hospitable for sea creatures because of overfishing and sedimentation. 

Warming water is leading species to shift locations, disrupting long-established food webs, and encouraging destructive newcomers such as long-spined sea urchins.

“Te Kaihōpara will enhance our teaching and research, and support the wider push to find solutions to our environmental challenges,” he said.

The University’s marine research spans climate change, conservation and restoration, whales and dolphins, microplastics, noise pollution, sea birds, seafloor ecology, aquaculture, kelp and kina.

Te Kaihōpara will support projects such as researching the resilience of kelp and the effectiveness of large-scale kina removals for restoring kelp forests; how boat noise stresses snapper and, more widely, the role of sound in the Gulf; effects of climate change, such as the invasive sea urchins, and new methods for checking the health of the marine environment at scale; feeding groups of whales, dolphins, seabirds and rays; habitat use and interactions of large marine animals; and potential for carbon storage in coastal ecosystems.

The marine vessel will have the capacity to sample the seafloor and deploy increasingly sophisticated equipment and analytical instruments. 

It will also carry up to 25 students and passengers to help train and to experience our marine environment. 

There will be two big television screens on the boat to aid teaching and research, relaying underwater images captured by video cameras or remotely operated underwater vehicles.