Today it was the turn of MANA COLLEGE students to go out to Whitireia Park and search for kelp pua atua (spores).

We found a promising Common kelp (Ecklonia radiata) so we took the sample back to the school lab and, with the help of Roberta D'Archino (NIWA), prepared the sample and put it in the fridge to stress it overnight (hopefully encouraging it to release it's spores).

Tomorrow the students will be checking if our sample contained healthy spores that can be nursed to adult seaweeds in the classroom.

We also found a non-fertile Giant kelp that measured more than 30m long! We could not finish a #LoveRimurimu fieldtrip without having a taste of the local seaweeds, so we took a handfull of Sea Grapes (Caulerpa geminata) and turned it into vegetarian caviar!