Island Bay Marine Education Centre

Island Bay Marine Education Centre We invite you to join us to begin your own journey of discovery into New Zealand's largest, most important, and least known habitat - our ocean.
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The Island Bay Marine Education Centre's "Bait House Aquarium" and "Octopus Headquarters" are located on Wellington's South Coast in Island Bay right in the middle of Taputeranga Marine Reserve. The Bait House is nestled right amongst the rocks on the shore and waves lap against the side of the building.

Look what just happened everyone………….We’d just paid $3,631.70 for new pumps @ the Bait House to make sure all our marine...
08/08/2026

Look what just happened everyone………….

We’d just paid $3,631.70 for new pumps @ the Bait House to make sure all our marine life has a safe continuous supply of sea water and $602.85 to Contact Energy to keep everything @ the Bait House running for the month. So, we were feeling a bit gloomy.

Then this email arrived and everything seems a whole lot better.

Message: I would like a receipt for the $1000.00 I have just made please. We have 12 grandchildren and we bring them in pairs to have a Wellington adventure and apart from the first 2, everyone has been to your centre and had a wonderful experience. We will be down again in November with the last 2 of the 12 grandies so we would like to thank you all for your passion and commitment to make the sea animals so available to the children. We hope you can continue to do the great work you do. Thanks

It’s a beautiful day in Paradise Island Bay. About time you got your weekly dose of Vitamin Sea at our Island Bay Marine...
02/08/2026

It’s a beautiful day in Paradise Island Bay.

About time you got your weekly dose of Vitamin Sea at our Island Bay Marine Education Centre @ the Bait House.

So, hop on your skate board, bike, roller skates, scooter - or you could even try walking – and head down to the Bait House.

Myrtle the Turtle, Henrietta our Octopus, Boris the Big Bad Blue Cod and thousands of other fascinating creatures will be waiting for YOU.

We’re open every Sunday from 10am to 3pm.

While you’re in Island Bay, it might be fun to check out one of the fantastic coffee shops and restaurants or get a bit of retail therapy at the lovely little shops. Island Bay is a village worth visiting

Boris here.Something awful’s happened.I’VE GOT CRABS!!!Hermit Crabs!! Lots of other types of Crabs too. But today I’m g...
01/08/2026

Boris here.

Something awful’s happened.

I’VE GOT CRABS!!!

Hermit Crabs!! Lots of other types of Crabs too. But today I’m going to tell you all about Hermit Crabs.

They’re a bit different from other Crabs. Mostly because they’re badly designed and forgot to grow a hard shell of their own So, they have to borrow someone else’s shell.

Crabs are called decapods because they’ve got ten legs. The ancient Greeks named them. The deca part of their name means ten and the pod bit means foot.

Hermit Crabs are a bit spesh because they have a front pair of claws, two legs on each side for walking around and two at the back which they use to hold onto a spare mollusc shell.

Their eyes are on stalks. I know they can see behind themselves because I’ve tried to sneak up on them. I was trying to see if they tasted any good. For scientific purposes of course.

They’ve also got two sticky out antennae which are special receivers for keeping in touch with what’s going on around them. Some Hermit Crabs have hairy legs which looks rather unfortunate but the hairs are sensors for smell and taste. It seems like their mouth is made up of three parts – that’s good because it makes it easier for them to eat up all the fall-out w**d on the floor of my house. I’ve heard that they’ll even eat dead animals. Eeeew!

Some of my Hermit Crabs have got w**d (NOT MY W**D CRAB!!) and sponges growing on their shells. One’s even got a Sea Anemone on its back. That’s called a symbiotic relationship. Forget I said that. I was just showing off. Symbiotic is an unnecessarily long word that means that they work well together. The Sea Anemone helps out the Hermit Crab by stinging things that are trying to eat it and the Hermit Crab shares its food with the Sea Anemone and provides transport to new feeding areas. Sort of like meals on wheels. Often the Hermit Crab becomes so fond of his Sea Anemone friend that he’ll take it along when he moves into a new shell.

Have you ever wondered why a Hermit Crab lives inside an empty sea snail shell? Thought not.

Well. I’m going to tell you anyway.

Like a lot of humans, they have soft abs. They live inside the shell for protection. When a Hermit Crab finds a shell of the right size, it pulls itself inside, leaving several legs and its head outside the shell.

When it outgrows its shell, it switches to a bigger one.

The front pair of legs end in claws, or pinchers. The left front leg has a large pincher, which the crab uses for moving around and defending itself. When its hiding inside its shell, it uses this pincher to seal off the shell’s opening. Like a trapdoor. The right front leg has a smaller pincher, which the crab uses to eat with.

Well, that’s enough about Crabs for today.

Come and see them for yourselves. I’ll be on my w**d. Avoiding Humans.

The Bait House opens at 10am and closes at 3pm. Then you pesky Humans have to go away.

Your Sir David Attenborough Wannabe Fishy Reporter @ the Bait House, Boris

The weather’s a bit crabby in Paradise Island Bay – nippy and crappy. But it looks like it’s brightening up just in time...
26/07/2026

The weather’s a bit crabby in Paradise Island Bay – nippy and crappy. But it looks like it’s brightening up just in time for you to visit the Bait House.

It’s welcoming and snug inside the Bait House. But very crabby. Paddle Crabs for Henrietta the Octopuses lunch, Decorator Crabs, Hermit Crabs, Purple Shore Crabs and lots of other weird and wonderful creatures.

Our Red Crab welcome mat is waiting for YOU.

Better hurry. The Bait House closes at 3pm.

Boris here.Come and visit me tomorrow P L E A S E……..I’ve had a traumatic week.My horrific train wreck of a neighbour, H...
25/07/2026

Boris here.

Come and visit me tomorrow P L E A S E……..

I’ve had a traumatic week.

My horrific train wreck of a neighbour, Harry the Horrible Hag Fish, has been staring at me for days. Well, not actually staring. Hag Fish don’t have eyes. But his horrible body’s been aimed my way and I KNOW he’s plotting SOMETHING.

The Hag Fish’s party trick is that when these ghastly things are upset, they can put out BUCKETS of SLIME. All over EVERYTHING. THAT’S why I’m staying on my w**d. Well away from Harry the Horrible Hag Fish.

Their other names are Snot Eel, Slime Fish and Blind Eel. Fishermen have lots of other names for them when they catch them and the snot gets all over their fishing boat.

The worst part is that Hag Fish use their slime to clog up fish gills when a fish is trying to eat them. What d***y fish would try to eat a Hag Fish? Ummmm…..wonder what they taste like? (Asking for a friend).

Instead of having scales like a normal fish, they’re like an overweight snake with purple skin. It fits them like a sort of loose onsie. They can absorb nutrients through their skin and their gills. This must come in quite handy because they don’t have teeth. They have very bad eyesight (thank goodness). But they have sort of feelers surrounding their mouth and they use these to sense where food is.

I hope you’re sitting down because I’m going to tell you all about their eating habits.

They mostly eat DEAD and DYING creatures they find on the sea floor – even whales. And…GULP…. they bury themselves face first into a rotting carcass, bore a tunnel deep into the decaying flesh and eat their meal from the inside of the carcass out. They’re sometimes called vultures of the sea.

Awesome.

The upside to all this grossness is that at least they do an important cleaning service for the sea floor. Otherwise, we’d be knee deep in rotting carcasses. Except Blue Cod don’t have knees.

Lucky for us, they can go for months without eating because they have a slow metabolism.

Someone found a fossil of a Hag Fish that was living around 300 million years ago. It looks VERY much like the modern Hag Fish. I guess they figured if you’re onto a good body plan, why bother changing the design.

But there’s always something good in everything – if you look hard enough.

Scientists have found out that Hag Fish SLIME may have many uses.

It’s made of thousands of protein threads 100 times thinner than a Human hair. The threads are very strong and when they’re stretched and dried they’re a bit like the webs that spiders make. Scientists think the threads could be woven together to make super strong fabrics that are a hundred times stronger than nylon or plastic. They could make things like bullet proof vests, clothing, food packaging, bungee cords, bandages or even artificial tissues to mend Humans.

Evidently the slime is also edible. Eeeeeew!

I feel a new marketing opportunity coming on.

Anyway, you’d better get down here on Sunday. The Hag Fish may not be around much longer………….

We open up the big doors at 10 o’clock and shut them again at 3 o’clock. Entry costs $5 for Sprats and $10 for Maxi Humans. Gosh – what a bargain to see MEMEME.

Big Bad Boris the Bilious Blue Cod @ The Bait House

Did you read this drivel all the way to the end? Gosh – you should get out more. Start by coming to the Bait House tomorrow.

Be here or be square.

This is Aria’s Story…….A few weeks ago, Aria’s mum, Erin, contacted us. She said:"Hey Team,We live near Palmerston North...
24/07/2026

This is Aria’s Story…….

A few weeks ago, Aria’s mum, Erin, contacted us.
She said:

"Hey Team,

We live near Palmerston North and I have an 11 year old daughter who is obsessed with the ocean. She's been snorkeling on the Great Barrier Reef but never in the cold. She will spend days looking in rock pools. I would love to come down (maybe October School Holidays?) and stay near and come and see you guys. If you have any particular adventures over this period we can book onto we would love to. Thank you!!! Erin”

We replied:

“Dear Erin.

What a lovely mum you are. And it's wonderful to hear your daughter is a potential Marine Biologist by the sound of things.

We're open every Sunday to the general public from 10am to 3pm, so you'd both be very welcome to visit us then.

I don't know if you've heard, but in February there was a catastrophic sewage malfunction at the Moa Point Sewage works on our beautiful coast. Sewage is STILL being pumped out close to the shore in heavy rain events and is STILL being pumped only 600 metres off shore the rest of the time. So, we've put all our Snorkelling Adventures on hold until this terrible situation is resolved. The last estimate was that it wouldn't be fixed this year!! So, I'm terribly sorry but we can't offer your daughter a Snorkelling Adventure.

If there hasn't been any heavy rainfall the rockpools are safe to explore and our school groups are able to continue with this when they visit during he week for our booked Marine Education Programmes. Perhaps you could encourage your daughter's school to make a booking. We host lots of schools from Palmerston North and further away.

Sorry I can't be more helpful.”

Nek minnit……. Aria’s on her way from Palmerston North (150km two hours drive) to the Bait House to visit last Sunday.

We knew that our absolutely amazingly awesome Volunteers would try their hardest to make sure Aria and her family had the best possible time and sure enough, this is what Erin said after their visit:

“Aria 100% had a day for the record books on Sunday. She saw so many species that she's been holding out to see, particularly the beautiful octopus Henrietta, the hagfish and the snake brittle star. She gave me a letter after school and she asked me to post it to you, can I send it to the center? Or please let me know the best mailing address.

Henrietta was quite shy through the day but she came out in full force about 3:00 p.m. We loved exploring the rock pools and when the snorkel tours are back on I would love to bring her down, we could possibly bring the Scouts down as well. I'm a Scouts leader and all three kids are involved in scouting.
Thank you ❤️
Erin”

So - big thanks to Sean, Luca, Kris, Briony, Macy, Ez, Evie and Henrietta the Octopus who were there to welcome Aria, Erin and their family and who always try their hardest every Sunday to make our visitors feel welcome.

Wakey wakey.Come and visit the Bait House.Our awesome Volunteers are waiting to help you have the best possible experien...
18/07/2026

Wakey wakey.
Come and visit the Bait House.

Our awesome Volunteers are waiting to help you have the best possible experience.

Better hurry - the Bait House closes at 3 o'clock.

It’s a stunning day in Paradise Island Bay and Bait House Sunday is predicted to be just as stunning.So bring all your f...
18/07/2026

It’s a stunning day in Paradise Island Bay and Bait House Sunday is predicted to be just as stunning.

So bring all your friends and family to meet Boris the Big Bad Blue Cod and Spike his Scorpion Fish Security Guard. Any time between 10am and 3pm any Sunday.

Everyone’s very welcome.

Shelley found this on Waikanae Beach and wants to know what it is please.
16/07/2026

Shelley found this on Waikanae Beach and wants to know what it is please.

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P. O. Box1 Wellington South
Auckland
2000

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