The Auckland Council has launched a community initiative designed to capture the naturally occuring phenomenon known as “King Tides”, an annual occurence which results in seas levels rising to their highest point.

Spring Tides become King Tides when the moon is in its perigee, due to the stronger gravitational force of the moon on the earth’s oceans. 

A more scientific term for these naturally occurring King Tides is perigean spring tides.

This Sunday is the big day, and on it, the Council wants you to get involved.

KingTidesAKL is a community initiative that encourages people from around the Auckland region to visit and photograph the highest tides that naturally occur along our coastline each year.
 
These photographs will help us visualise what our coasts may look like in the future as global sea levels continue to rise. The images provide the community with an opportunity to capture a living record of our changing coastlines and provide us with a glimpse into the future of what our normal daily high tides may look like in 30 to 50 years’ time with projected global sea level rise.

The council wants to improve our understanding of the implications of sea level rise for our region and need your help to do this. Become a coastal time traveller and take a trip to the coast during these king tide events and capture your local spot with photographs during at high tide. Upload your photographs to their Instagram site and share your observations with others.

Take some time to explore this website and learn more about global sea level rise and its implications for future generations.The council will try and update content regularly as it becomes available, including providing links to other resources and your most recent photographs. You can also follow the programme on Facebook and Twitter.

King Tides Auckland is part of the Global King Tides initiative working together to collect and share information on sea level change and its potential impacts. You can find out more about the global initiative at kingtides.net.