Interview with Jeroen Jongejans, Dive! Tutukaka

Jeroen Jongejans represents the Aotearoa New Zealand marine tourism industry on the Sustainable Seas Stakeholder panel. We asked him his thoughts on the Challenge’s progress to date.

“For me, it is not hard to support the Sustainable Seas objective, it makes a lot of sense to have an ecosystem-based management approach.

“The issues we face with the state of our seas, tipping points, and consequences of everything we have been throwing at and taking from our blue space, are significant. The Challenge is a great place to start, but the problems we need to resolve are massive and complex – how can we have a sufficient impact?

“Recognising the issues is one thing, resolving them is something quite different. As stakeholders we have a very vested interest in, and responsibility for, the outcome. Can the Sustainable Seas team challenge us stakeholders enough, and can we stakeholders step out of our role enough, to reverse the tide?

“Sharing our principles, challenges and opportunities with other industries and interest groups is crucial – it gives all of us an appreciation of others’ perspectives. And putting these on the table gives the Sustainable Seas team pointed feedback from the real world in which we stakeholders operate.

“I believe it’s better to be onboard helping to steer and sail this ship than sit on the shore… as long as we navigate successfully and achieve better outcomes!”

Dive! Tutukaka runs daily dive trips to the Poor Knights Islands. It is recognised by Qualmark as ‘Enviro Award Gold’ and is an ‘Endorsed Visitor Activity’.