Water & Atmosphere 5, August 2012

One by one, supermarket and wholesale chains across western markets have renounced sales of "unsustainable" fish, as they respond to a sea change in consumer demand.

When local authorities look to develop or upgrade urban infrastructure, they have to weigh up a raft of weather-related risks: how much rain might it have to cope with? Or gale-force winds? Could it be inundated by surging seas? Or undermined by slipping land?

In places, the Kermadec Ridge can be a hellish, sulphurous scene of broiling vents and superheated steam, lightless and squeezed by monumental pressure. But NIWA scientists discovered in May that life has found plenty of ways to make itself at home there.

1992: the year Charles and Diana split, Bill Clinton became US president, Hurricane Andrew belted Florida, world leaders gathered in Rio for the first Earth Summit and the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research was born a Crown Research Institute (CRI).

Recent surveying by NIWA's research vessel Tangaroa has revealed new undersea features off the Otago coast, along with potential oil and gas resources.

Every April, 100,000 rockhopper penguins simply disappear. Nobody knows where they go, but NIWA means to find out. Dr David Thompson will lead a trip to subantarctic Campbell Island in April next year to fit miniature geolocating data loggers to around 80 of the penguins before they vanish for the winter.

Anyone old enough probably remembers Pacman as a not-very-sophisticated eighties arcade game.

Every last centimetre of the planet's surface has been measured, mapped and – thanks to Google Earth – made public. But what about our watery underworld? That map, finds Marieke Hilhorst, still has plenty of blanks on it...

Some of New Zealand's most lucrative export fisheries have been certified as sustainably managed. So why have they been blacklisted from critical overseas markets? And, asks Dave Hansford, what's to be done about it?

The collapse of the Southland Stadium in 2010 highlighted how little we know about snow-loading hazards. Can New Zealand buildings stand up to a heavy dump? Greta Shirley finds out...

In mid-September, Christchurch hosts the NZ IceFest, a celebration of our relationship with Antarctica. In this issue, we salute that relationship with a portfolio of images portraying the frozen continent, and NIWA's work to better understand and protect it.

Watching TV as a kid was time well spent for Rosemary Hurst, she tells Dave Hansford.

NIWA provides research and advice to enable the sustainable management of New Zealand's commercial and recreational fisheries. It does so in two ways: by monitoring and assessing key fish stocks, and by monitoring the effects of fishing on the aquatic environment.