Coasts

Rhythmic bar and beach are high energy beaches that consist of a rhythmic (undulating) bar, trough and beach.

Longshore bar and trough beaches consist of a shore parallel bar separated from the beach by a deep trough.

Reflective beaches have the lowest wave energy of the wave-dominated beaches (breakers 0-1 m high).

Coast Care provides an opportunity for local communities to get involved in the management and protection of their local coastal area and address environmental issues with their beaches.

Beach profile monitoring is usually undertaken as survey transects running shore normal from the dune to the low water mark. It provides information that can be used to assess whether a shoreline is eroding or accreting.

The coastal type classification describes the coast in terms of exposure, the type of foreshore sediment, inland and coastal geography.

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. 

Understanding how material released into the ocean spreads is very important in the case of oil spills, sediment transport and the release of invasive species. 

Learn more about NZCoast and its contributors.

Moored underwater cameras have exposed the secret lives of orange roughy nearly 900 metres below the ocean surface.