Rehabitat wins the NZ MOA Outstanding Initiative Award

Commercial Dive Specialists is proud to announce that Rehabitat, our contained chlorination system for treating exotic Caulerpa and pest seaweeds at scale, has won the NZMOA Outstanding Initiative Award (Associate Member) at the 2026 New Zealand Marina Operators Association Awards.

The problem we set out to solve

When exotic Caulerpa was first detected in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2021, there was no field-ready, scalable tool to treat it where it actually grows — on the seafloor, in open habitat. The pest went on to form extensive meadows across the Bay of Islands and the Hauraki Gulf, and the implications reach well beyond our own coastline: marinas and marine environments internationally face the same gap in available tools.

The development journey

Rehabitat started with chambers built and tested on the water in Omakiwi Cove, in the Bay of Islands — early, iterative prototypes designed to enclose a treatment area on the seafloor and deliver a controlled dose of chlorine. Getting there wasn't straightforward. Our team worked through real challenges around chlorine delivery and mixing, handling time on the vessel, and keeping a containment seal on uneven, mixed seafloor. That iteration led to a range of chamber sizes, from one square metre up to seventy-five, so the system can treat anything from a single discrete patch to a wider infestation — and treat it in a targeted way, rather than disturbing or removing large areas of seabed in the process.

Between October 2025 and March 2026, we ran three field trials in Northland to validate the chlorination process and assess both treatment effects and any impact on surrounding marine life.

Getting the science right

None of this happened in isolation. Cawthron Institute, contracted by MPI, independently monitored and validated our field trials — giving Rehabitat a scientific foundation alongside the practical engineering. Northland Regional Council held the consents for our chlorine applications and worked with us on the regulatory side, and Ngāti Kuta and Patukeha provided guidance and support throughout trials conducted in their waters.

The judges specifically called out this willingness to work across government, science and iwi as central to what made Rehabitat a workable solution — describing it as a strong example of practical Kiwi ingenuity applied to a problem with real relevance beyond our own coastline. We agree, and it's the reason this project has gotten as far as it has.

Alongside Rehabitat, we've also developed a complementary Rapid Data Collection (RDC) unit, which allows incursions to be surveyed and mapped efficiently before any treatment begins.

We're grateful to NZMOA for this recognition, and to every partner who's helped build this practical, New Zealand-made tool for marine biosecurity. There's more work ahead, but this is a milestone worth marking.