What's new in didymo research?
Styela clava gets a hold in Lyttelton
Estuaries as fish nurseries
Gas-fuelled ecosystems unveiled
Klingons on the starboard bow!
A non-toxic dye is used to determine the best method for distributing GemexTM quickly and evenly in streams prior to GemexTM field trials.
New Zealand scientists continue to lead the world in didymo research.
NIWA’s DTIS (Deep Towed Imaging System) camera captures large marine tubeworms, clams, and an orange roughy gathered around a methane seep.
An international team of scientists has observed, for the first time, the unusual creatures living around methane seeps off the North Island’s east coast. This is the first record of cold seep communities in the entire southwest Pacific.
A Marlborough Sounds sample comprising yellow-eyed mullet, spotties, sand flounder, and triplefins. (Photo: Cameron Walsh, NIWA)
NIWA scientists are nearing completion of a major study of juvenile fish species diversity in New Zealand estuaries. Since 2001, they have sampled more than 50 estuaries, from the far north to Stewart Island. They will sample the last remaining region, the lower North Island, over the next two months.
Estuaries are known to be important nursery grounds for many juvenile finfish species, some of which support significant commercial or recreational fisheries.
NIWA’s Dr Nick Gust (standing) and Lindsay Hawke search Lyttelton Port for Styela clava. (Photo: Chris Woods, NIWA)
A biosecurity survey team from NIWA and the Cawthron Institute has found large increases in populations of the invasive sea squirt Styela clava in Lyttelton Harbour in the past year.
Surveys conducted in November and December found that numbers of S. clava had increased considerably in Lyttelton Port and Magazine Bay Marina since they were first surveyed in November 2005.
(Photo: Chris Woods, NIWA)
NIWA has recently completed an evaluation of five commercial hull-cleaning facilities for Biosecurity New Zealand. We assessed their effectiveness at killing and containing marine hull-fouling organisms in both summer and winter. We also identified the critical requirements to minimise the risk of introducing and spreading nonindigenous marine organisms through waste material from the cleaning operations.
The efficacy of hull cleaning was found to vary with cleaning method, type and size of waste treatment systems, and, to a lesser degree, season.
