NIWA's research vessel Tangaroa will set sail for the Chatham Rise tonight to improve our understanding of how marine ecosystems affect commercially exploited fish, and how commercial fisheries affect the marine food-web. The Chatham Rise, a large plateau between the South Island and Chatham Islands, is our most productive fishing ground.

Happy Feet, the emperor penguin that's captured the hearts of New Zealanders and others around the world, is finally homeward bound, onboard NIWA's largest research vessel, Tangaroa.

NIWA's research vessel Tangaroa has just completed a very successful voyage of habitats of significance for marine organisms and biodiversity. "We were amazed by what we saw," says NIWA's Dr Mark Morrison, programme leader.

Over 42 days, split across two voyages, the Tangaroa worked its way down the country and back, working 24 hours a day, seven days a week. It surveyed habitat and biodiversity hotspots around New Zealand's expansive continental shelf.

NIWA’s latest voyage of discovery will examine the expansive continental shelf around New Zealand looking for our biodiversity hotspots.

On New Year's Day, NIWA's research vessel Tangaroa departs for its first voyage, since its recent $20 million dollar upgrade, making its twentieth consecutive trip to the Chatham Rise to study the abundance of important fish species.

When the research vessel Tangaroa goes to a Singaporean shipyard in July, it will carry all its own hull paint from New Zealand.

The joint Australia-New Zealand Antarctic Whale Expedition is underway on-board NIWA's research vessel Tangaroa. The Australian Antarctic Division have released this progress report.

Scientists at NIWA have identified the source of the giant plankton bloom featuring in spectacular NASA satellite images.