For nearly two decades of working on and under the sea, Gareth Cooke has had a view that most New Zealanders would only catch fleeting glimpses of at best.

The former Ocean Race sailor turned professional marine photographer has seen the beauty, majesty and drama that takes place under the waterline, but he has also seen the environmental degradation.

There was a melancholy in realising the urgency of a healthier ocean environment, but also feeling that — because he wasn’t a marine biologist or a philanthropist — his ability to help was limited. Then came a “lightbulb moment” and Project Kahurangi, New Zealand’s first marine conservation digital library, was born.

“One of the problems that ocean conservation faces is that when you’re on the water, everything looks great,” he explained. “It’s beautiful sparkling water, the sun’s shining. The Hauraki Gulf is a beautiful place.

 “Sometimes it’s not until you put your face in the water that you see what the problems are, so we’re trying to show those as well.”

The library, which has over 1200 professional-quality images and videos, launched in October with the help of Live Ocean Foundation, another conservation-focused non-profit started by America’s Cup champions Peter Burling and Blair Tuke. The content is free for fellow non-profit advocacy groups, as well as iwi, governments and education institutions looking to promote ocean conservation.

Former Ocean Race sailor Gareth Cooke has launched Project Kahurangi, the nation's first marine conservation digital library. Photo / Supplied

The images have appeared recently on an increasing number of websites, billboards and pamphlets.

“I realised that the visual side of the [conservation] message was really weak,” Cooke told the Herald recently, as he prepared to head out from his Whangārei home to capture images of coastal erosion to add to the ever-expanding collection. “The message was important, but only half of it was being told because people couldn’t see — there was no visual connection.”

Visual connections often create emotional connections, helping the message to stick, he explained.

The aim is to collect images that inspire people to care more by showcasing both the beauty and the problem areas.

In the past, acquiring such photos would have been cost-prohibitive for many non-profits.

“These organisations run on the smell of an oily rag — they’re not well funded,” he said, explaining that purchasing a stock photo for a billboard might cost thousands and even then might lack authenticity because the photo likely wasn’t taken off the coast of New Zealand.

An expedition to get a specific set of images, meanwhile, could cost tens of thousands — escalating sometimes into six figures — when taking into account the costs of chartering a boat and assembling a boat crew and a diving team, he said.

“It’s not like you can just hop in your car and drive down the road and get the content,” he said. “It’s difficult to get, which makes it expensive. It starts to rack up really quick and become very, very expensive.”

On paper, it should have cost Project Kahurangi hundreds of thousands of dollars to collect the hundreds of images, which took about five months to collect and more months to assemble into an online library. But Cooke kept costs down by donating his time between paying photography jobs and using his own boat. Live Ocean Foundation, meanwhile, put him in touch with its already-established network of donors.

The project has played a major role in Cooke’s life for about a year and a half, and he envisions it remaining that way for the next decade as he continues to add content.

A kina barren in Cape Brett, Bay of Islands. Photo / Project Kahurangi

One of his favourite images so far, he admits, doesn’t stand out “from a photographer’s perspective” but instead shows the urgency of what he’s trying to achieve. It depicts a kina barren — an underwater desert, of sorts, where sea urchins have stripped the ocean floor of vitally important kelp and seaweed. They’re caused when crayfish and large snapper, which feed on the sea urchins, are overfished.

In his opinion, overfishing is one of the biggest issues currently facing the Hauraki Gulf.

“People like to point the finger at the commercial guys, and yeah, there’s an element of truth to that,” he said. “But also the recreational fishing crowd, there needs to be a culture change there as well.

 “We sort of have this culture in New Zealand where it’s our right to go and catch a fish and a feed. It’s actually not our right, it’s our privilege. And if we don’t look after it, that privilege won’t be there forever. We actually have to manage what we take.

“Hopefully this project in the long run helps make us all realise that what we do as individuals impacts the ocean. We all have a part to play in this.”