An A to Z of sea treasures
A little shag (kawau paka) in Wellington Harbour. (Photo: Wendy St George, NIWA)
From albatrosses to zooplankton – the new Treasures of the Sea (Ngā Taonga a Tangaroa) website – www.treasuresofthesea.org.nz – provides a superb introduction to New Zealand’s 15,000 known marine species.
The WWF-funded website, and accompanying book, was created by NIWA scientists and others. Along with basic scientific information, each species group is described in terms of its significance to Māori, thanks to input from Taoho Patuawa, a member of Te Kuwaha, NIWA’s Māori Research and Development group.
"Certain characteristics of marine species were adopted by Māori as symbolic references to describe people," says Taoho. "My personal favourite refers to the kawau (cormorants or shags), which are renowned for their strong unswerving style of flying, and because of this, a long-distance traveller who would not be distracted from his purpose was likened to the bird."