Coasts

NIWA aims to provide the knowledge needed for the sound environmental management of our marine resources.

  • Getting started

    Traditionally, tangata whenua have collected information about estuaries to monitor resources, such as kaimoana, and to make decisions about conservation measures, such as rähui. Increasingly, tangata whenua are using scientific tools to help monitor their natural resources and Ngä Waihotanga Iho provides a science perspective for talking about environmental issues and concerns related to estuaries.
  • ARGO - measuring salinity and temperature across the oceans 5 April 2017

    Since the early 2000s, NIWA has been part of the international Argo programme. Argo floats take the pulse of the oceans, collecting and distributing temperature and salinity observations from a global network of more than 3700 underwater robots.
  • Acoustic recordings of rare whale species in Cook Strait

  • Managing mangrove expansion

    This manual aims to provide the guidance needed to manage mangrove expansion, while maintaining the ecological integrity of estuaries and harbours.
  • Critter of the week: Hyalinoecia quill worms - Big rig truckers of the sea

    In this critter "quill" is not part of a feather but rather a unique tube built by a polychaete worm that lives in it.
  • Recording underwater biodiversity after earthquakes

  • Earthquake's unseen impact

  • Massive mudslides in Kaikōura Canyon destroy seabed life

    Media release
    Huge mudslides from November’s earthquakes have wiped out all organisms living in the seabed of the Kaikōura Canyon.
  • Earthquake’s Unseen Impact

    NIWA scientists on board RV Ikatere have been surveying the coastal area around Kaikoura for the first time since November's magnitude 7.8 earthquake.
  • Sustaining the sea

    Feature story
    We examine how the Sustainable Seas National Science Challenge plans to enhance the use of marine resources within biological constraints.
  • Muddy sinks

    Feature story
    New Zealand’s mangrove swamps and coastal marshes may be particularly adept at absorbing and storing the carbon we emit.
  • Critter of the Week: A squat lobster for a star!

    Squat lobsters are known for their lengthy eyelashes and come in many different sizes from the mighty Munidopsis aries (90mm carapace length) to some species which have bodies only a few millimetres long.