Welks Rock!

Cockle Bay

Two Biology classes from Aquinas College descended on the foreshore at Beach Road on Friday to sample organisms’ populations. We began the day with a korero from Tu Piahana from Huria Marae. The area is vital to local Māori, and has changed with the people’s growth in Tauranga. Matua Tu explained the impact this has had on the site. 

We also touched on the importance of the area as the landing site of Bishop Pompallier as Catholicism first arrived in Tauranga. 

We were particularly interested in the cockle and whelk populations. Students counted thousands of cockles, running transect from the high tide mark to the low tide mark (approx. 220m) and sampling every 10metres. 

The sun shone, the kids were fantastic, and the teachers particularly enjoyed comments from the students that they had never noticed any of the amazing animals they were seeing. The whelks were the winners on the day!