Building capability for ocean regeneration.
ABOUT BLUE NATURE
Blue Nature Aotearoa is a registered charitable trust founded in 2022 to teach young people to understand real marine challenges and build the multidisciplinary skills, relationships and confidence to turn innovative ideas into action.
We want more young people to be able to turn their passion for the ocean into meaningful opportunities, contributing to healthier marine ecosystems, a thriving blue economy and the communities around them.
Our ocean needs people ready to respond.
Aotearoa is deeply connected to the ocean, culturally, environmentally and economically, yet our marine ecosystems face complex and interconnected pressures.
Responding to them will take more than marine science alone. We need people who can work across disciplines, understand complex systems, collaborate with others and turn ideas into practical action.
Blue Nature exists to help young people start building those capabilities now.
OUR MISSION
Restore ecosystems and create new biomass in oceans and coastal waterways through education, supporting and scaling social enterprises, new industries, and blue technology solutions.
WHERE BLUE NATURE BEGAN: A shared belief in young people and the ocean.
Blue Nature Aotearoa was founded in 2022 by the late Hon Nikki Kaye and Dr Nigel Bradly.
Their conversations brought together two perspectives: education, and the capabilities young people would need to respond to the environmental challenges of the future.
They saw an opportunity to connect young people with one of Aotearoa’s greatest assets, our ocean, and give them the chance to work on real challenges before they left school.
Rather than learning about environmental problems only in theory, students could work alongside people already tackling them, develop their own ideas and learn what it takes to turn those ideas into action.
OUR MODEL
Built for real-world problems.
Education
Students build their understanding of the ocean and the environmental, social and economic systems connected to it.
Action
Students apply their learning through multidisciplinary Impact Projects, combining marine conservation with science, technology, enterprise, policy, design and communication to respond to real-world challenges.
Design thinking
Our approach draws on the Stanford d.school Design Thinking framework: Empathise, Define, Ideate, Prototype and Test.
Mentorship
Students engage with a project mentor, building stakeholder engagement skills while gaining technical advice and real-world insight.
Mentors help strengthen projects and support the next generation to build the skills their fields will need.
Continuity
Promising ideas do not have to disappear at the end of the school year.
Research, prototypes and learning can be carried forward by future students, allowing each cohort to build on what came before.
THE FEEDBACK LOOP
Blue Leaders
Oceans
Ecosystems regenerated through innovation and stewardship
Alumni to give back
Blue Economy jobs
New roles and enterprises
Students
Future- ready, multidisciplinary skills and preactical experience
Mentors
Align with real-world needs