The Ahuriri or Napier Estuary is of significant value to both tangata whenua and the Hawke’s Bay community as a whole. Historical and current environmental pressures, together with some questionable management processes over the years, had caused an almost total cultural disconnection between the tangata whenua and the estuary.

The project, led by Dr James Ataria, aimed to assess the situation by identifying the problem, effect and extent of the estuary’s contaminant levels. A key contributor is stormwater run-off into the estuary; essentially water flowing over roads and roofs collecting toxins, which then flows or is discharged, untreated into the estuary.