Westhaven Marina Secures Blue Flag Endorsement

Westhaven Marina for its 14th year has qualified and received a Blue Flag endorsement thanks to the hard work of the Westhaven Marina Team.

For those not familiar, Blue Flag is a trusted certification set by the Foundation for Environmental Education (FEE), which is globally recognised and has been awarded to qualifying beaches, marinas and marine tourism operators across 60 countries. 

Westhaven Marina is one of only three marinas in New Zealand to have received this endorsement and was first awarded a Blue Flag back in 2005. Since then, due to the ongoing high standards kept and improvements made, Westhaven Marina has received this endorsement consecutively to date.

To qualify for a Blue Flag accreditation an annual application must be made to the FEE, followed by a site visit. The application must highlight and explain the work being done to adhere to the Blue Flag standards of environmental, educational, safety-related and access-related criteria.

This year, Westhaven Marina was awarded full compliance and met all criteria standards. Stand out areas of best practice noted in the feedback were the large number of bins positioned throughout the marina which are all segmented by recycling, compost and general waste, along with a good selection of educational activities provided across the marina.

Heidi Clarke who managed the application process on behalf of Westhaven Marina, said “This year it was really exciting to host the site visit representatives, and show them around the Marina and talk through the changes happening. Next year will be a big year for our application showing off the finished projects and I’m really look forward to it. We’ll have a lot of good news stories to share!”.

Written By Anna Porter, Westhaven Marina