Coasts and Estuaries news

News and media releases related to the our coasts and estuaries-related work.

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This week, New Zealand's leading coastal scientists, engineers and planners are attending the New Zealand Coastal Society 20th Annual Conference in Auckland. At the conference, NIWA's Dr Philip Barnes will explore the question of how well do we know New Zealand's submarine earthquake hazards.

It may be nori, but not as we knew it. Scientists have changed the taxonomy of one of the most well-known red seaweeds in the world – known as nori in Japanese and karengo in Maori.

An international team of scientists has been studying bacteria that live in Arctic and Antarctica waters.

New Zealand scientists are investigating active undersea volcanos, north of New Zealand. New images reveal the impacts of a significant eruption on the seafloor.

NIWA research vessel Kaharoa will depart Wellington on Friday 12 October to deploy 120 Argo robotic instruments across the Pacific Ocean.

Recently, Australian and New Caledonian shark scientists downloaded data from acoustic receivers deployed off the east coast of Australia and in the Coral Sea and discovered that great white sharks acoustically tagged in New Zealand had been visiting.

NIWA's has mapped the seabed off the coast of Otago, revealing the structure of nine canyons in the Great South Basin. This survey is providing new information about geological processes in the region as well as clues to what types of life might exist on the seafloor. 

NIWA's research vessel Tangaroa will set sail from Wellington on 21 August to map the seabed in the mid-to-outer Greater Hauraki Gulf, including the coast off Coromandel.

Scientists have discovered that our big birds take long winter holidays overseas. The native Campbell Albatross take off to South Australia, and the Grey-headed Albatross goes further afield to an area 7,000 km from Campbell Island, in the Indian Ocean to the west of Australia.

Scientists are poised to solve a mystery. Where do rockhopper penguins breeding in New Zealand's sub-Antarctic go during the winter? Right now, nobody knows.

Scientists have been working on ways to find out about earthquakes that occurred before oral and written records
began in New Zealand.

NIWA's research vessel Tangaroa recently returned from a 3-week voyage, with pictures (see gallery at bottom of article), film footage and samples of new discoveries from the deep-sea floor, including footage of a new hydrothermal vent on an undersea volcano.

NIWA's research vessel Tangaroa will set sail this week to explore the biodiversity of deep-sea habitats in the outer Bay of Plenty and southern Kermadec Ridge, starting 80 kilometres off Tauranga.

Flying above the New Zealand coastline on cloudless days, you can sometimes see plumes of material-laden river water, much of it containing sediment from land runoff. Understanding where this material ends up will help assess the land use impacts on our vulnerable coastal ecosystems, and guide mitigation measures to reduce those impacts.

Fifty intrepid travellers set off from Bluff tomorrow, onboard the Spirit of Enderby, a Russian ice-strengthened ship, destined for Antarctica and the sub-Antarctica. Organised by Dr Gareth Morgan, the Our Far South voyage aims to raise New Zealanders' awareness of this unique area.

Next week, NIWA's research vessel Tangaroa will set sail for the Chatham Rise, for an international study of how microscopic organisms in the surface waters may affect the creation of clouds.

Boaties, beware this summer of a weird hitch-hiker waving at you in the water, as a peculiar marine amphipod crustacean, Caprella mutica, may be freeloading on your boat hull.

When you are at the beach this summer, don't be surprised if you're swimming next to a sea snake with a paddle for a tail, a big-headed-turtle, or a magnificently coloured flat-faced fish. New Zealand's got its share of weird and wonderful marine visitors. Several species of sea snake and turtle regularly reach our waters.

A team of scientists from NIWA and the University of Otago has won the top 2011 Prime Minister's Science Prize for their research into guiding the world's response to climate change.

NIWA's Dr Michelle Kelly and a visiting scientist, Professor Jean Vacelet from Centre d'Oceanologie de Marseille, have recently discovered and described three "previously unknown species" of carnivorous sponges from the family Cladorhizidae.

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