Maintaining the resilience of Wellington Airport’s southern seawall required a clear understanding of the seabed environment it sits within. Babbage’s Ecology Team, Bioresearches, was engaged to undertake a targeted subtidal assessment in Lyall Bay, supporting a fast-track consent application for repair works in this exposed coastal setting.
Working in the high-energy conditions of Wellington’s south coast, our team carried out diver-based transect surveys across the seawall footprint. The surveys documented seabed composition, habitat structure, and associated biological communities, carefully planned around swell and visibility to ensure data quality in a challenging field environment.
This work established a reliable ecological baseline for the site, forming a key input to the ecological impact assessment. The findings enabled a clear understanding of potential effects from the proposed works and supported the development of appropriate management and mitigation measures.
