Mazda NZ Foundation helps blue penguins

Students showed Dr Riley Elliott to show him a Blue Penguin House at Wainui Beach. Photo: Mazda

Wainui Beach School in Gisborne is embarking on The Penguin Project: Little Blues, an initiative first started in 2018 when locals discovered Little Blue Penguins nesting under their houses.

As part of the 2021 TREEmendous Education Programme, an initiative from the Mazda Foundation, Wainui Beach School can further develop its work on creating a safe environment for Blue Penguins in the area. 

The Penguin Project aims to further the students' understanding of how they share the environment with other species. The goal is also to increase their knowledge on how the Little Blue Penguin is suited to its habitat and its response to environmental changes.

Ruud Kleinpaste, the Bugman, and Dr Riley Elliott, Shark Scientist, visited the school to talk to students and teachers about how they can learn from nature and the important role that living organisms play in our ecosystem and their impact on our environment.

Some of the students took Riley across the road to Wainui Beach to show him a Blue Penguin House they found and pointed out Shark Bay along the way.

Jodie Saunders from Wainui Beach School said, “Having the team from the TREEmendous Education Programme at Wainui Beach School has been an invaluable addition to our school-wide inquiry on the Little Blue Penguin this term and to our Enviroschools programme overall.”