Science Centres: Aquatic Biodiversity and Biosecurity

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. Some of the species collected, which include tubeworms and clams, are likely to be new to science.

The 21–member voyage onboard RV Tangaroa was led by scientists from NIWA and three American institutions as part of a larger study of marine ‘chemosynthetic’ ecosystems.

Chemosynthetic ecosystems are fuelled by chemicals, such as methane gas, rather than sunlight. They occur at cold seeps, hydrothermal vents, sunken whale carcasses and bones, and sunken wood.

New Zealand is one of the few places in the world where several chemosynthetic habitats occur in close proximity, allowing scientists to address key questions about their unique ecology & biodiversity.

The voyage was funded by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and NIWA.