Surfer, diver, conservationist, civil servant: Kirsty Prior wears many hats. We caught up with her ahead of Conservation Week to chat about how surfers can contribute to a healthy ocean.
One day, out at Jailbreaks in the Maldives a young woman was settled on her board between sets, when she came across another surfer with goggles hanging around his neck. Puzzled she asked him what they were for.
“Look beneath,” he said, handing them over. Under her board was an extensive reef thriving with blacktip reef sharks – they were absolutely everywhere. It was a moment of clarity that struck with her.
“I was so focused on the surf, I had no idea what was going on right beneath me.”
That young woman was Kirsty Prior, a surfer, a diver and an Operations Manager at the Department of Conservation (DOC). The team she leads is DOC’s first marine-only operations team, meaning their work is not focused on public conservation land, huts, tracks and species, but the marine protection areas spread across the Hauraki Gulf/Tīkapa Moana. The rangers in this team skipper boats, undertake dive surveys, and patrol six marine reserves and 12 new high-protection areas.
Kirsty’s journey to conservation developed out of a career in the tourism industry where customers were getting involved in volunteering alongside travel – giving back to the countries they were visiting. There’s an echo in how she now sees our enjoyment of the ocean.
“We love the ocean. We’re harnessing this beautiful energy from it to surf. We’re taking from it, but what are we giving back?”
Growing up on the Gold Coast in the late ’80s and ’90s as a budding teen, Kirsty was looking for where she fit in.
“Dad was a big fisherman and I was pretty sporty, so when I got out surfing it just felt like home.”
Kirsty lived 40 minutes’ drive inland in Tamborine Mountain and caught a lift with her parents out to Burleigh Heads each weekend, where she’d spend the day waiting until the ride home after work. Surfing was all about the community and it became a big part of her life – first with mates, then she tried competitions, then coaching and then she found a way to surf during her travels.
“The first time I left Australia, I went to France,” Kirsty explains. “I headed out to Biarritz and met an American woman who offered for me to camp in her backyard. She dropped me at Hossegor and said it was famous for surf. Down on the beach there were naked grannies everywhere. I spotted some guys lying on the beach with surfboards and I gave my terrible french a go – ‘Je m’appelle Kirsty. Je suis australienne. Je veux faire du surf…’”
It worked. The men let her borrow the board. This encapsulated the vibe of the surf community – she managed to find a board and a wetsuit wherever she was traveling.
These days she’s thinking about how the surf community can spread that spirit of giving – that aroha – out to the wider environment.
“Now I’m looking wider than just the break,” she admits. “I would rather surf an area where I can look out into healthy native forest and a clean beach. Just being aware of that land-sea connection.”
“One spot close to me these days is Tāwharanui. The water is beautiful and I love that it’s a marine reserve connected to the land which is a predator-free regional park. It’s the first place in NZ that I ever planted a tree. It’s more special knowing we’re enjoying an area that we’ve also given back to and protected.”
Another spot she loves is Whangapaoa on the North-East side of Aotea/Great Barrier Island.
“In 30 years surfing I’d probably seen five sharks,” Kirsty offers. “Out on the Barrier, I must have seen at least 50. I’ve even turned around and seen a dorsal fin beside my foot – the shark was directly underneath my board.”
Sharks – which sometimes get a bad rap – are a good sign of an ecosystem in balance. A top predator, they need a lot of fish and marine species to sustain them, so they’re a sign the ocean is healthy.
Giving back to the ocean through conservation actions is a great way for surfers to acknowledge the environment that gives them so much. Kirsty reckons caring for your local spot is an easy thing that every surfer can do to show some love for the ocean.
“It could be part of your surf,” Kirsty suggests. “It’s as easy as picking up a bit of rubbish on your way up the beach, so it doesn’t get pulled back into the water by the wind or tide.”
Learning about nearby marine protected areas, sharing that with people and advocating for them is another way to support the ocean.
“The ocean is so connected,” Kirsty adds. “The benefits that marine protected areas offer, like healthy fish productivity, spills over into the water outside the protected area. From an ocean perspective of space, everything is so close. What you do in one area impacts on all the waters around.”
Coming into winter, conservation groups need helpers to plant natives. Healthy planting along waterways filters out sediment, chemicals and nutrients that runoff from the land. This helps clean the water which eventually flows into the ocean. Groups often run short planting days – and weeding days to protect last Winter’s seedlings and often for just a few hours on weekends.
“You can easily fit in some surf in the morning, then head out to do some planting. Plus there’s sometimes a BBQ or coffee at the end,” she adds with a cheeky grin.