This project is a joint effort between the Voyagers’ Club, the Department of Conservation and Auckland University. The Voyagers’ Club videos fish at a variety of locations around the country using an underwater camera, and the footage is analysed by DoC and Auckland University. The project hopes to be regularly collecting data from Whangerai, Auckland, Christchurch and Dunedin allowing changes in fish numbers to be monitored.

The stand, codenamed "Eric", was specially developed for the Voyagers’ Club by DoC, and is designed to be light and easily portable for transport around the country. The camera, codenamed "Erica", was kindly donated in full by Sony New Zealand. Erica is placed inside a waterproof housing and attached to Eric. A number of wide angle lenses are attached and then Eric is lowered into the water for an half hour of filming. From each half hour drop one frame is selected that has the largest number and variety of fish from the duration of the drop. Each fish species is identified and has its length measured, providing an indication of the diversity and health of the species present.

The project is managed Nationally by the Video Monitoring Project Liaison, Sam Gordon. He is responsible for arranging the dates for filming in each location, the transport of the camera from location to location, and liaising with DoC and Auckland University. In each region there is a Regional Liaison who is responsible for organising the filming in that region. This involves finding a boat, skipper and Voyagers to assist, liaising with DoC to find suitable locations for filming, and then organising a date for the filming to take place. Once filming has occurred, the tapes are sent to the National Librarian Emma Morgan. She keeps all of the original footage and sends a copy to DoC for analysis.

If you are interested in helping out with this project, either by going out on the water for a day or by assisting with the film analysis, then get in touch with Sam.

It is hoped that in the near future we will be able to put up the results of our filming. Watch this space!