Happy Feet, the emperor penguin that's captured the hearts of New Zealanders and others around the world, has been released back into the Southern Ocean, off NIWA's largest research vessel, Tangaroa.
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.
Gathering and eating wild kai, like koura (crayfish), watercress, tuna (eel), and more recently trout, has long been a part of tikanga (custom) for Te Arawa people. But a recent collaborative study between NIWA and the Te Arawa Lakes Trust has found that toxicants in those traditional foods could pose a risk to people's health.
Wellington Zoo and NIWA are pleased to announce that 'Happy Feet', the emperor penguin, is set to return home to the subantartic, onboard NIWA's largest research vessel, Tangaroa.
New Zealander of the Year this year is scientist Sir Paul Callaghan, and perhaps this is what has inspired the many young entrants in this year's Wellington Science Fair.
"NIWA hopes that many of the students with projects at these fairs throughout the country will take up careers in science," says NIWA's Education Coordinator Dr Julie Hall. "These students will go onto help drive New Zealand's economy, in the future."
Exotic aquatic plants, introduced to New Zealand for the aquarium and ornamental pond trade, are silently invading our waterways, but new research by NIWA scientists is helping to lower this risk by finding native alternatives for the trade.
New Zealanders love their wood burners and keeping warm in winter, but wood burners and how they are being used are the major contributors to winter urban air pollution. NIWA scientists are assessing the emissions from wood burners, and learning more about how users' behaviour may affect emissions.
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 scientists are investigating traffic-related air pollution and ultra-fine particles at Auckland schools, inside and outside classrooms, to help understand the long-term health effects on children.
Scientists completed a successful three-week field tagging trip in April 2011, where they tagged a record 27 great white sharks around the Titi (Muttonbird) Islands off the northeast coast of Stewart Island.
NIWA Chairman Chris Mace says New Zealand urgently needs a National Oceans Strategy, to sustainably manage and use its extensive marine resources to boost the economy.
"There is huge untapped potential in our oceans and coastal waters, and the Government has clearly indicated their intention to increase the use of these resources. Under the current global economic environment, I think that is prudent. But without an integrated oceans strategy, our ability to sustainably manage those resources will clearly be compromised."
NIWA scientists have been at work all weekend measuring the height of the volcanic ash clouds as they approached and passed over Lauder, in Central Otago. This work has been done to support predictions about the ash cloud and its effects.
A team of international scientists, led by NIWA Oceanographer Dr Philip Boyd, departs from Auckland on 6 June and sails towards the waters South of New Caledonia this week. They are onboard Research Vessel Tangaroa, for the second leg of the GEOTRACES programme: a ten-year international study of trace elements in the marine environment.
New Zealand is bang in the middle of the biggest and wildest waters on the planet: the Southern Ocean. Many of New Zealand’s coasts and coastal communities are already facing the impact of rising sea levels. Will the future see even bigger storms and waves, putting our increasingly intensive development of coastal areas dramatically at risk?
Ground-breaking research by NIWA and The University of Auckland, investigating the annual movements of New Zealand seabirds migrating within the Pacific Ocean, has revealed that populations are genetically distinct, and have been for centuries as a result of their differing migration behavior.
