Terra Moana: A Dynamic Team
Our oceans are changing, and as part of the Moana Project, He Papa Moana team members Tony Craig, Katherine Short and their business manager Karen Lo from Terra Moana are working hard to help fisheries and marine management adapt to these changes.
Linking fishery performance and recruitment to ocean temperatures
Terra Moana’s mahi within the Moana Project is a forward-thinking approach to better understand the effects of a warming climate on the commercial fishing industry and the fisheries that underpin it. By combining knowledge and data about industry financial (ACE and Quota values) and harvest (catch) with the Moana Project’s historical climate hindcast model, Terra Moana aim to identify any potential relationships between water temperature and geographical catch profiles and or whether fish stock recruitment is affected by warming oceans and any resulting changes in current speed and direction.
Katherine says, “I’m super proud of conceiving this Moana Project work, it was a real leap of faith for everyone to combine these datasets of temperature and seafood data.”
The temperature aspect of the Moana Project is what interests Tony: “I think temperature plays a big part in fish stock production. So, finding a data series that enables you to see a picture over a long period of time that is overlaid with fish stock information is very valuable from a fisheries point of view.”
Their findings will provide valuable insight for the Moana Project, which has complimentary research with the seafood industry through the Mangōpare temperature sensor workstream - but also for wider Aotearoa as an increased understanding of marine ecosystems will assist marine management decision making.
Katherine summarises the Moana Project neatly. “The overall design of the Moana Project is a big brave kaupapa and now, more than halfway through, you can really see how it’s beginning to hum. I’m proud of the Terra Moana component and feel that the whole project culture is relentless innovation.”
The work on the Moana Project is just one example of Terra Moana’s innovative approach to guiding primary industries – particularly those involved with fisheries and marine environments - to make positive sustainable environmental and social change.
Where it all started
After continually crossing paths throughout their previous careers where Katherine was working as an NGO advocate for WWF, and Tony was a seafood business and policy analyst, Tony and Katherine started their collaboration in 2013 to work with Moana New Zealand, the largest Māori owned seafood company and the only company owned by all 58 Iwi. The initial focus was to provide support to Moana New Zealand to develop and implement a sustainability programme including beginning integrated reporting and facilitating engagement with WWF to create the Maui Dolphin conservation project - a radical outcome for conservation and the seafood sector at the time.
Terra Moana Business Manager Karen Lo, and Business Partners Tony Craig and Katherine Short.
Working with Indigenous Knowledge Systems
As sustainability change agents, they have a strong commitment to improving the well-being of both people and nature. Tony and Katherine both have long-standing experience of working in and with indigenous knowledge systems. Tony has spent much of his life and career living and working with Māori, amongst others and Katherine spent half her life in multi-cultural contexts. They believe that it is through bringing diverse world views and perspectives together that better co-designed problem solving can meet today’s complex nature-environment-people-well-being challenges.
Committed to Well-being Innovation
Their rare blend of industry knowledge, conservation science, novel ideas, multidisciplinary approaches and male and female perspectives is reflected in their innovative partnership and the Terra Moana name, which integrates land and sea. The logo deliberately combines these raranga as does the name “Terra Moana'' being both Polynesian/Māori and Latin/Western. The various worldviews Katherine and Tony bring create a unique approach at the interface of sustainable industry, policy, management and science where Terra Moana is neatly nestled.
Tony says of Katherine, “Katherine is extremely open-minded, she understands the challenges the fishing industry faces trying to meet the expectations of society and legislation. Working together, we look to persuade industry that changes don’t need to be harsh or radical – and that it is better to be part of the journey than to resist it.”
Katherine is proud of their long-standing relationship and notes that she is “consistently inspired by Tony’s ability to think through the business implications of improving the care of the environment, and I value how we co-create strategies for better environmental, social and business outcomes.”
Karen Lo, the Terra Moana Business Manager is an important asset to the team. Karen has a great ability to get onside with the diverse range of stakeholders Terra Moana works with. She can also turn her hand to whatever needs doing to enable the innovation to continue including diving in to learn software programmes when required!
And this is all evident in Terra Moana’s achievements so far, whose leadership in the ‘in-between’ space of people and the environment and on the coasts has led to many innovations, including:
The Social Accountability Models for fishing operations
Moana New Zealand’s Sustainability Strategy and Responsible Fisheries Awareness Programme
Partnering with a range of colleagues world wide to create On-Board Social Accountability Ltd to address the treatment of workers on-board fishing boats.
A significant project they are both proud of was Project Shapeshifter – the redesign of the Napier Aquarium, which was co-designed with Māori, world-leading aquarium designers , the Napier City Council and existing National Aquarium of New Zealand. The proposed upgrades include a kelp forest, a wave crash tank and proposing the aquarium be recognised as a National Ocean Centre. Situated on the foreshore of Napier, the new build is designed to withstand a rising ocean with the main floor of the aquarium being 7.3 metres above sea level – 1 metre above the expected 100-year sea level rise.
Design concepts for the new National Aquarium.
For Tony, a notable experience was working with the Torres Strait Regional Authority to share successful Māori seafood business and kaitiaki models. This involved consulting with over 15 different Island communities and assisted in sustainably developing their commercial fisheries by showcasing models of community ownership, how traditional management can be included, and the ensuing community benefit.
Tony working with Torres Strait Islanders in Torres Strait, 2018.
We can’t wait to see what’s next for this innovative company!