On 30 June 2018, NZ Underwater held its 65th Annual General Meeting, hosted in Hawera by the South Taranaki Underwater Club. Thank you to our hosts, to the Hawera Club for the venue, and to Olive's Kitchen for the catering.

The AGM was attended by the NZUA Board, admin/comms team, and Air Purity team. Also in attendance were representatives from South Taranaki Underwater Club, Ghost Fishing, SeaTech, Dolphin Underwater Club, NZ Underwater Hockey, SpearFishing NZ, Wettie, LegaSea, Canterbury Underwater, Wellington Underwater, Experiencing Marine Reserves, Mercury Bay Spearfishing, Wanganui Underwater.

Presentations

There were many interesting presentations about what is happening in the underwater space, from many groups affiliated with NZUA (names below are linked to their websites for further information:

• Project Reef Life (Joshua Richardson)
• LegaSea (Josh Barkley)
• Ghost Fishing (Serena Cox and Rob Wilson)
• Air Purity (Steve Bishop)
• Experiencing Marine Reserves (Pat Swanson and Elvisa Robb)
• NZ Underwater Hockey (Tony Colquhoun)
• SpearFishing NZ (Darren Shields)
• NZUA (Jeff Strang, via Skype).

Keith Gordon was our wonderful dinner guest speaker, regaling attendees with tales of exploration of the SS Ventnor – a wreck at 150m depth of the Hokianga Coast, known as the ‘Ship of Hungry Ghosts’.

Congratulations

Congratulations to Tristan Reynard (President), Andy Stewart and Mike Torr for securing your current roles for another year, with no challenging nominations!

And congratulations to Rob Wilson and Serena Cox of GhostFishing, who received the Leo Ducker award. Read more about it here.

‍