This is an early evening event in which three highly qualified speakers address the challenges in improving the water quality of our important Bay of Plenty waterways, including our watershed streams, rivers, lakes and estuaries. Anyone who has a close interest in these will gain new insights and hear interesting discussion on the important issues surrounding this topic.
Our three speakers for the evening are:
Key note speaker Dr Mike Joy is a prominent freshwater ecologist and science communicator currently at the Institute for Governance and Policy Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. He has been publicly outspoken about the decline in freshwater quality and ecosystems, especially the impact of nutrient pollution from intensive dairying. This has led to awards from scientific organisations, as well as criticism from the dairy industry.
Professor Chris Battershill leads Coastal Science at the University of Waikato. His main interests include coastal marine ecology and aquaculture. He leads a major research program examining the effects of land runoff on coastal reef systems, on food webs linking land and sea productivity and on resilience in a changing climate.
John Burke is an adviser for two major catchment environmental restoration projects. Project Parore covers seven catchments at the northern Tauranga Moana. The large WaiKōkopu catchment is near Pukehina. He has an agri-business background and owns the environmental award-winning Pukekauri Farm, near Katikati.