Te Mana o Te Moana Fleet ready to sail

Tuesday 12th April, 2011

A Polynesian fleet hopes to leave Auckland tomorrow to sail to Hawaii and back.

Hoturoa Kerr, the kaihautu for the Aotearoa waka Haunui, says the five canoes will be joined along the route by vaka from the Cook Islands and Tahiti.

He says Te Mana o Te Moana voyage aims to raise awareness in communities around the Pacific about rising sea levels, noisy oceans and the damage human activity is causing the environment.

“It's like the living pulse of the earth is tied in to the oceans. Run off from fertilisers and all these other things that go into the ocean, these directly impact our whanaunga from the motu because it affects their fishing grounds, their ability to feed their iwi and all those kind of things,” Mr Kerr says.

The fleet aims to get to Hawai'i by the first week of July in time for the Kava Bowl Ocean Summit.

 

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