Carino Marine Explorers Trust

Foundered in October 2021, the Carino Marine Explorers Trust grew out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The trust is a way for us to make a real difference in our own community while maintaining our priorities for the environment. We are very aware that much wildlife is on the brink of extinction in Aotearoa and worldwide and that COVID-19 had created high stress and anxiety in our community.

We identified that in our community:

• a need for local children, who lived by the ocean, to experience what it was like to sail on the ocean and walk on the islands and provide a chance to watch marine mammals.
• the pandemic’s impact on children’s mental health and wellbeing is one of the biggest issues.

We saw a way to promote mental wellbeing in our tamariki and community though outdoor and hands on learning, thought shared experiences on the ocean, and to engage them on the challenges faced by their local wildlife.

Our Carino Marine Explorer Activity was created by us, in collaboration with local community to develop an activity that focuses on connecting tamariki with others, having fun and responsible marine wildlife watching.

 Our Carino Marine Explorer Activity is for tamariki to consider the marine environment around them, how whanau, community and businesses are all related. To provide a safe place for kids to go sailing, get outdoors, be active and to used kid’s genuine wonder about dolphins and wildlife to inspire them to protect and look at a career on the ocean.

We want this experience to be no cost to the children,  

“We believe that every local child should have the opportunity to experience the stunning Bay of Islands and be awed by its marine mammals”.