Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development
Our large team of researchers tackling the key issues facing marine environments including Professor Chris Battershill, the public face of New Zealand's worst maritime disaster and award-winning science communicator.
We have a Coastal Marine Field Station in Tauranga and Raukōkore Marine Research Centre.
Our Tauranga campus offers the only science research facility in New Zealand specifically configured to address the real issues of our engagement with the sea. The Coastal Marine Field Station and neighbouring Facility for Macroalgal Research are home to some of New Zealand’s leading scientists and innovators focused on protecting and restoring our marine environment and creating wealth from our marine resources.
Undergraduate students in Tauranga can explore life below water through an array of majors within our Bachelor of Science degree including Aquaculture, Coastal Processes, Environmental Sciences, Ecology and Biodiversity. Tauranga is also home to a thriving community of researchers
Known as the nurseries of the sea, estuaries are important and complicated environments that often slip between the gap of marine and freshwater management. In 2020 a Parliamentary Commission for the Environment released an alarming report on the state of estuaries in New Zealand highlighting the growing problems caused by nutrient-rich sediment running off the land. We are proud to have several PhD students currently carrying out important estuarine research to tackle this problem under the supervision of a world-leading team of experts including Professor Conrad Pilditch.
We are enormously proud of our state-of-the-art facility in Tauranga dedicated to macroalgal research. The team of researchers based in this facility are creating innovative ways to use the seaweed which is accumulating in our harbours, including as a human food source, and using macroalgal bioremediation to clean nutrient rich wastewater.
In 2024 we received an $11.4 million grant by Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) to work with Plant & Food Research to uncover the benefits of sugars in seaweed in protecting our horticulture industry.
In 2025, we launched a Marine Science for Conservation short programme for international study abroad students. The programme provides an exciting, hands-on opportunity to explore marine conservation in an Aotearoa New Zealand context. Students learn from expert researchers through a combination of field trips, laboratories, and seminars, examining marine conservation issues from ecological, economic and cultural perspectives.
New study sheds light on the threat of ‘marine darkwaves’ to ocean life
Study reveals marine darkwaves: sudden periods of underwater darkness caused by storms, sediment and algal blooms, cutting light to the seafloor and threatening kelp, seagrass and corals seas.
New Zealand scientists develop world-first framework to detect extreme underwater darkness events
The study shows that short-lived but intense darkness events can be highly damaging to marine ecosystems
Spiders inspired biologists to create artificial webs to capture airborne DNA for biodiversity monitoring
A bit of Halloween decoration is proving to be as effective as natural weavers at catching eDNA
Halloween cobwebs are frighteningly good DNA collectors
Polyester Halloween cobwebs can be an effective way to collect genetic material that living things shed naturally into their environments.
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