A six-day summit full of talks, workshops and activities has passed the halfway mark with great turnout, engagement and enthusiasm from participants, organisers say.

The WAO Summit, taking place in Wānaka and Queenstown this week, is designed to inspire action towards a carbon zero future with a range of informative events hosted by environmental experts from within New Zealand and further afield. 

Wānaka-based Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) councillor Lyal Cocks attended the day-long ‘Re+Generate Tourism Hui - Tourism for a Better Future’ event on Tuesday (October 26), which brought together people from the visitor industry and community to discuss the future of tourism.

"The topic and speakers provided lots to think about, promoted some constructive proposals and facilitated productive interaction,” Lyal said. “But the highlight, for me, was chatting with the other attendees that the WAO Summit attracts. 

“I'm looking forward to participating in future WAO initiatives."

Marine scientist Veronica Rotman presented ‘Suss or Sustainable: Fisheries in Aotearoa’ at the Lake Wānaka Centre on Wednesday. PHOTO: Wānaka App

The Wānaka App attended marine scientist Veronica Rotman’s ‘Suss or Sustainable: Fisheries in Aotearoa’ talk on Wednesday (October 26). 

Veronica debunked claims in popular documentary film ‘Seaspiracy’: The documentary’s claims that the ocean will be empty by 2048 are false, and so are its claims that there’s no such thing as sustainable fishing, Veronica said. 

But accusations about fisheries producing far too much bycatch are, sadly, true (even if the film’s claim that it makes up 40 percent of the total catch are far off the real 10.8 percent figure), as well as claims that bottom trawling is destroying parts of the ocean floor. 

Veronica, who works as a tertiary educator in Northland and has a background in microplastics and aquaculture, also provided practical advice about how to shop for seafood sustainably in New Zealand.

While there’s no simple answer to the question of ‘what’s the best fish to buy?’, asking where your fish comes from and how it is caught (line-caught is best) is “a fabulous place to start,” Veronica said.

Other tips include buying from small-scale fisheries where possible, always buying fish that has been caught in New Zealand, and purchasing and cooking whole fish rather than just using fillets and discarding the rest.

This year’s WAO Summit has a special focus on food resilience, the way we move, partnerships and collaboration, and ‘de-growth’, and WAO co-founder Arna Craig told the Wānaka App she was impressed with the enthusiasm from attendees.

“Attendance has been excellent but the true measure for us is the level of engagement and positivity around making change,” she said. “We have seen a deepening understanding in our community of what impact we can have even at the simplest level but also the discussions have widened to much bigger picture thinking.”

“The drive behind our community to make climate and environmentally positive changes at all levels has accelerated.”

There’s plenty left to see: Arna particularly recommends Friday’s (October 28) events, especially the evening talks, which include ‘Food For Thought: Creating Resilient Food Systems’ for a look into the issues facing the global food system. 

She also said the Eat Wānaka event on Sunday (October 30) is “not to be missed”.

See the full Wao Summit programme here.