The Love Rimurimu Project is piloting the regeneration of seaweed forests in Te Upoko o te Ika a Maui.

We’re growing up!

Welcome to the Love Rimurimu project. We’re a dedicated group that have been working together on regenerating Wellington’s seaweed forests since 2021.

The 2023 winter saw us secure a 5 year resource consent for our restoration and over 380 rocks seeded with giant kelp went out into sites around Te Motu Kairangi. Two years later, we still have some survivors now over 6m in length.

2024 plantouts finished with a whopping 1287 seaweeds planted out into 2 new restoration sites, alongside our already existing site. Initial survival rates were higher than the previous year and some of our intrepid kelplings are still going strong.

The 2025 season was one of innovation. We have planted out 549 new baby seaweeds and trialled some new methodologies for restoration. We set-up three new suspended substrate arrays to keep our baby seaweeds away from anything wanting to make them a tasty snack, and have experimented with intermediary nursery spaces in shallower water. The initial results are promising, and we are excited to see what we can make happen with these new techniques in the coming autumn.

With so much happening It’s easy to lose track of where we are at in our restoration journey - and sometimes the website takes a while to catch up. Sign up to the newsletter and we’ll keep you up to date with the latest from this ground breaking restoration project in the heart of Te Whanganui-a-Tara.

It’s an ocean of potential

Seaweed, known as rimurimu, is some bad-ass stuff! When it’s in healthy abundance it absorbs carbons, improves water quality, protects our coastlines, provides a home and food source for thousands of sea creatures - and can even be turned into some delicious kai!

Love Rimurimu

What’s not to love?

Helping to restore seaweed forests will create ecosystem health and build our knowledge. We’ll be sharing what we’re learning and collaborating widely throughout the life of the project.

In 2024 some of the project team were interviewed by seven sharp. It’s a great little introduction to what we’re all about!

Seaweed Superpowers

Our healthy seas

We don’t often think of seaweeds like our forests on land- but they’re just the same- actually we think they’re a little bit better!
Seaweed forests improve coastal waters by absorbing excess carbon and nutrients. Algae are also the powerhouse behind many marine ecosystems - providing habitat, food and shelter. This is vital for us humans too.
Knowledge we can share

We will learn as we go. The data we collect as we get our feet wet will help us build an open-source restoration toolkit and provide data for scientific research, the community and for schools.
Alongside our restoration work you will find us in the classroom and in your community, spreading our love of rimurimu to you.
Opportunities for a better future

Our project will create a space for innovation. We want to explore how our big slippery friends can provide employment, research opportunities and new ecological enterprises.
We want to work collaboratively with mana whenua, industries, universities and councils to see how seaweed can provide better solutions to big problems- like carbon offsetting and food security.

Our Funders

The Love Rimurimu restoration project was initiated by Mountains To Sea Wellington in 2021 was been made possible with seed funding from the Wellington Community Fund. Since then other supporters have joined us to help continue the work.