Scrutiny on the Bounty: the risks and riches of seabed mining.
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Samoa’s devastating 2009 tsunami highlighted the importance of early warning systems for the small Pacific nation. But the Samoan community is also looking for an early warning of another kind – a system to help the islands cope with the changing climate.
Billions of dollars in mineral wealth may lie untapped beneath our seabed. But how do we explore it without harming the priceless biodiversity living there? In this edition of Water & Atmosphere, our cover story looks at seabed mining. It’s an issue of national importance, and highlights the role of good science in a world of competing environmental and economic interests.
Fascinating maps of New Zealand’s seabed are now freely available on NIWA’s website.
News reporting of the natural world tends to focus on ‘charismatic megafauna’ – the big and the beautiful, the strong and the terrible – like polar bears, pandas, whales, and sharks. Far from the easy headlines, however, a fascinating array of smaller, uglier creatures are lynchpins of ecosystems. Here Water & Atmosphere profiles two of our favourites: a creature which can liquefy its body, and one which uses its sucker-like mouth to drink the blood of its prey.
New Zealand’s ocean estate spans over five million square kilometres. Research and exploration suggests that the vast seabed holds mineral resources worth many trillions of dollars. But is extraction realistic? How can the impacts be managed? And why is there an urgent need to revisit New Zealand’s oceans' policy? Jim Robinson talks to the specialists, and asks: what’s the role of science in delivering the answers?
What causes undersea quakes?
One of the world’s worst freshwater weeds was threatening lakes in Hawke’s Bay. Now, it is almost gone. Here’s a case where long-term science investment, plus inter-agency cooperation, paid big dividends for New Zealand.
The air we breathe is having a profound effect on the way many of us live and die. The statistics are sobering...
The remote, yet teeming, subantarctic Snares Islands, some 200 kilometres south of Bluff, are home to millions of petrels, shearwaters and albatrosses.
Aerial dispersal of 1080 pellets from helicopters is the most efficient and cost-effective way of deploying the pesticide in inaccessible areas, but public concerns persist. One concern is over potential contamination of water supplies following aerial drops, despite 20 years of research that shows this is very unlikely.
Seagrass meadows – vital nursery grounds for young fish – are vanishing at an alarming rate. Worldwide, seagrass is disappearing up to ten times faster than tropical rainforests.
