Voyages

Content related to the "Our Far South" voyage to Antarctica.

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Scientists have returned from a 14-day expedition to one of the most unexplored parts of the ocean.
Scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) have returned from a six-week voyage to Antarctica.
As New Zealanders search for the summer sun, 38 researchers and crew will board RV Tangaroa tomorrow for a six-week science voyage deep into the waters of Antarctica.
A New Zealand scientist and a submersible pilot from China have become the first women to dive to Scholl Deep in the Kermadec Trench, 10 km below sea level.

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Led by Ocean Census, NIWA and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, a team of scientists are spending 21 days investigating the unexplored Bounty Trough ocean system off the coast of New Zealand’s South Island.

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RV Tangaroa: New Zealand’s world-class research vessel

The ideal research platform

NIWA proudly owns and operates RV Tangaroa, a 70 m Ice Class scientific platform.
The research vessel supports oceanographic and fishery surveys throughout the South Pacific, New Zealand, the sub-Antarctic islands and the Ross Sea.

The diverse range of modern and sophisticated equipment available onboard enables sampling and measurements to be taken from the sea surface, through the water column to the seabed and below.

Tangaroa is New Zealand’s only ocean-going research vessel, equipped with dynamic positioning, allowing her to remain stationary or track a precise path over the seabed, even in the often-challenging Southern Ocean environment.

The vessel is operated by 15 full time crew employed by NIWA, highly experienced in deploying, recovering and operating a broad range of scientific equipment.

The vessel can survey the seafloor to hydrographic quality, and is able to produce high-resolution imagery of the geology up to 200m below the seabed, and even deeper using NIWA’s multichannel seismic system.
NIWA can provide or source most key equipment required for ocean science including a range of fishing nets and acoustic sounders developed for fishery and water column surveys, varying models and makes of autonomous and remotely-operated underwater vehicles, an assortment of underwater cameras, seabed landers, and moorings.

Tangaroa is an ideal vessel for ocean exploration, atmospheric, fishery and marine geology research.

Our services and expertise

NIWA has more than 40 years of experience working in New Zealand’s marine realm and has conducted 14 voyages to Antarctica and many more in sub-Antarctic waters.
We provide world-class services and expertise, and can easily adapt to support new and innovative opportunities, making every project a success.

Mapping the Tongan volcano eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai

This important scientific voyage represents a significant opportunity to map the changes in the seafloor and collect samples to understand how the geology, biogeochemistry, and ecosystem health has been impacted. Up until the eruption on 15th January, the volcano caldera sat approximately 150 m below sea level and part of the volcano connected the islands of Hunga Tonga and Hunga Ha'apai. Following the eruption, the islands are smaller and no longer joined together. The scientists are surveying thousands of square kilometres of the seafloor and collecting video images of the eruption’s impact, and using SEA-KIT International’s Uncrewed Surface Vessel (USV) Maxlimer to conduct further mapping. The NIWA-Nippon Foundation Tonga Eruption Seabed Mapping Project (TESMaP) is funded by The Nippon Foundation and also supported by The Nippon Foundation-GEBCO Seabed2030 Project which aims to map the world’s ocean floor by 2030. Follow the voyage here: https://niwa.co.nz/our-science/voyages/2022-tonga-post-eruption

Mapping the oceans through citizen science

Are you interested in helping map the seafloor? Small data loggers can be used to record information from the positioning (GPS) and echosounding (fish finder) systems of any type of vessel. The Seabed 2030 team can even send a technician to install the device correctly for you.

If you are in the Pacific and keen to be part of a growing community for the Crowdsourced Bathymetry Initiative, please contact: [email protected]

For more info, visit seabed2030.org/crowd-sourced-bathymetry.

Kaikōura Canyon's muddy secrets

Our team of researchers have recently returned from a voyage onboard RV Tangaroa to retrieve moorings deployed to collect sediment samples from the Kaikōura Canyon.

Submarine canyons are incredibly dynamic environments deep in the ocean that transport a lot of sediment and organic carbon. It’s been five years since the 2016 Kaikōura earthquake triggered widespread underwater landslides in the Kaikōura Canyon, causing a powerful ‘canyon-flushing’. Canyon flushing describes the movement of material from the canyon into the deeper ocean, causing the shape of the canyon to change. Studying the sediment samples will reveal important information about how the canyon changes the flow of sediment in the deep ocean after big events, such as the Kaikōura earthquake.

If I had to sum up our progress in a word: Life. And lots of it!
Learn more about the Bounty Trough Expedition. and voyage co-leader, Sadie Mills, Collection Manager at NIWA.
NIWA Voyage Leader, Sadie Mills on the first three days of The Ocean Census – Bounty Trough research voyage - a 21-day expedition to discover new species
Led by Ocean Census, NIWA and the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa, a team of scientists are spending 21 days investigating the unexplored Bounty Trough ocean system off the coast of New Zealand’s South Island.
The main output of this voyage is providing data and fundamental base maps for future regional prospectivity surveys, tectonic plate reconstructions, and general understanding of the architecture of the Kermadec backarc.
The aim of the voyage was to enhance our capability to acoustically detect and characterise liquid and gaseous targets in the water column.
Understanding and modelling the effects of climate variability on ecosystem function in the Sub-Antarctic region, including effects on protected species and on ecologically and economically important fisheries.
Scientists have returned from a 14-day expedition to one of the most unexplored parts of the ocean.
Scientists from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) have returned from a six-week voyage to Antarctica.
We are happily heading back from a highly successful trip to the frozen continent knowing that the data from this voyage will contribute to a broad body of science critically important to understanding the Ross Sea ecosystem and the impacts of climate change.
We have now visited 23 separate sites in these coastal areas, albeit some of them very close together. Every time we visit a new site, we first need to map the seafloor as we are working in unchartered coastal waters.
We are now halfway through our Antarctic mission and the past two and a half weeks have been marked by feelings of excitement, anticipation, and trepidation.
We are two weeks into the voyage and while we have yet to enter the Ross Sea we have already seen so much! We are onboard RV Tangaroa with a team of 20 scientists and 18 crew, including a ship doctor and ice pilot, heading for the Ross Sea to study ocean physics, food web dynamics, subseafloor fluid systems and benthic ecology.
As New Zealanders search for the summer sun, 38 researchers and crew will board RV Tangaroa tomorrow for a six-week science voyage deep into the waters of Antarctica.
A New Zealand scientist and a submersible pilot from China have become the first women to dive to Scholl Deep in the Kermadec Trench, 10 km below sea level.
In 2023, RV Tangaroa undertook a 45-day voyage to the Southern Ocean and Ross Sea (TAN2301) between January 11 and February 24, 2023.
RV Tangaroa: New Zealand’s world-class research vessel

The ideal research platform

NIWA proudly owns and operates RV Tangaroa, a 70 m Ice Class scientific platform.
The research vessel supports oceanographic and fishery surveys throughout the South Pacific, New Zealand, the sub-Antarctic islands and the Ross Sea.

The diverse range of modern and sophisticated equipment available onboard enables sampling and measurements to be taken from the sea surface, through the water column to the seabed and below.

Tangaroa is New Zealand’s only ocean-going research vessel, equipped with dynamic positioning, allowing her to remain stationary or track a precise path over the seabed, even in the often-challenging Southern Ocean environment.

The vessel is operated by 15 full time crew employed by NIWA, highly experienced in deploying, recovering and operating a broad range of scientific equipment.

The vessel can survey the seafloor to hydrographic quality, and is able to produce high-resolution imagery of the geology up to 200m below the seabed, and even deeper using NIWA’s multichannel seismic system.
NIWA can provide or source most key equipment required for ocean science including a range of fishing nets and acoustic sounders developed for fishery and water column surveys, varying models and makes of autonomous and remotely-operated underwater vehicles, an assortment of underwater cameras, seabed landers, and moorings.

Tangaroa is an ideal vessel for ocean exploration, atmospheric, fishery and marine geology research.

Our services and expertise

NIWA has more than 40 years of experience working in New Zealand’s marine realm and has conducted 14 voyages to Antarctica and many more in sub-Antarctic waters.
We provide world-class services and expertise, and can easily adapt to support new and innovative opportunities, making every project a success.

NIWA is contributing to an international effort to help developing countries reduce the impact of biofouling on aquatic-based industries and environments.
Tangaroa has sampled more clean seawater from a site not affected by the January 15th eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HT-HH).
Tangaroa is off the west coast of Tongatapu collecting seawater to analyse for trace metal.
RV Tangaroa has just completed its last full day of sampling around the waters of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai (HT-HH).
Tangaroa is now 100 km south-west of Hunga Tonga - Hunga Ha’apai volcano (HT-HH), surveying in 2,440 m of water in the Lau Trough.
Tangaroa continues to map the area while deploying instruments to collect samples and capture images of the seafloor.
We started the day by examining the seafloor towards the main island of Tongatapu. As we got closer, the images from the seafloor clearly showed a layer of ash several centimetres thick overlaying the white bedrock of the main Tongan islands.
Over the last 24 hours, we have gone from the deep seafloor at 2,300 m to the shallow slopes of the island of Tongatapu, located to the south-east of the volcano.

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