Revolutionising ocean forecasting.

Marine Heatwaves | Temperature Sensors
Kaimoana Connectivity| Cross Cultural Ocean Knowledge

Bringing together 54 experts from across 14 national & international organisations, the Moana project is changing the way we see our seas.

 

While the oceans around New Zealand have been mapped, knowledge of local ocean dynamics is extremely sparse, and not readily available to the people who need it.

Access to good information and tailored-to-purpose products is becoming more important as our oceans are changing and marine heatwaves are impacting NZ waters and our ocean industries. The Moana Project is an $11 million ocean project funded by the NZ Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment. The project aims to vastly improve understanding of coastal ocean circulation, connectivity and marine heatwaves to provide information that supports sustainable growth of the seafood industry, science research efforts, iwi initiatives and how we manage our marine environments.

Interested in learning more?

  • Focus on marine heatwaves – PhD student Youstina Elzahaby

    A PhD student on the Moana Project, Youstina Elzahaby’s love of maths has led her on a journey from assessing economic risk towards deciphering marine heatwaves.

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  • Research into pāua movement and their genetics supports Kaikoura’s fisheries

    Moana Project genetics and ocean circulation research is helping to piece together what has happened to the pāua populations in Kaikoura following the 2016 earthquake which greatly disrupted their habitat.

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  • Where was the warmest water? Marine heatwave records this summer

    If you think the ocean has been unusually warm this summer, you are right – MetOcean Solutions ocean models and satellite data show that coastal waters in Aotearoa New Zealand reached up to 4 degrees warmer than usual and that marine heatwaves persisted for more than 100 days in places.

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  • 28 Year Bay of Plenty Hindcast completed

    Moana Project PhD student Mireya Montaño has successfully completed a 28 year hydrodynamic hindcast model (1993-2020) of the Bay of Plenty, Te Moana-a-Toi. This is a regional zoom-in model providing a higher resolution view (one kilometer square) for the Bay of Plenty

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  • Severe marine heatwave off west coast North Island – Saturday’s outlook

    Tomorrow and Saturday, the western coastline of the North Island is due to experience water temperatures up to a whopping 4 degrees warmer than normal for this time of year, reports MetOcean Solutions, the oceanographic division of the NZ MetService.

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  • Mangōpare temperature sensor stars in Greenland citizen science video

    The Mangōpare sensor has been used by the Uummannaq Polar Institute in Greenland to support their monitoring of ocean temperatures. Follow fishers Simmi Løvstrøm and Hans-kr Korneliussen as they deploy the sensor among the Ummannaq Fjords.

    Watch here

  • Moana Project data available in new SwellMap website

    As part of the new SwellMap website release, Moana Project data have been made available, allowing users to access sea temperature and current velocity (speed) forecasts.

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  • Understanding Ocean Modelling

    When visiting the beach you can stand on the shore and observe the waves, you can swim to feel the currents and watch the tide as it rolls in and out. But ultimately you cannot determine what is happening at depth, what happened yesterday or what will happen tomorrow.

    But with ocean modelling we can predict and look back on ocean conditions over time.

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  • Moana Backbone model supports unique Islands in the Hauraki Gulf

    The Moana Backbone model, developed as part of the Moana Project’s Ngā Ripo o te Moana workstream, helps management of the waters around The Noises, a chain of predator free islands in the Hauraki Gulf Marine Park.

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  • Winter marine heatwaves could impact NZ fisheries and herald summer storms

    Research from the Moana Project featured on The Conversation.

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The Moana Project aims to develop New Zealand's first Ocean-Atmosphere Knowledge Infrastructure.

Using state-of-the-art science, we will establish a suite of high-resolution open-access models detailing atmospheric conditions, sea level, ocean temperatures and ocean currents. The data and model results will be made openly available, directly and through a series of data access tools. This will facilitate world-leading science on the ocean circulation dynamics in NZ's economic exclusion zone, leading to improved understanding and the growth of the blue economy.

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