Coasts

The Invertebrate Collection, housed at Greta Point in Wellington, comprises about 300,000 jars or specimens but only about 100,000 are officially registered. With new specimens being discovered all the time, there is a lot of work to do.

This week’s critter is an unknown species of an unusual order of sea urchins – the Holasteroida.

Looking for something tasty on your beach for holiday dinner this summer? NIWA scientists have the lowdown on some of the most mouth-watering fish and seafood that are yours for the taking.

It was only about a year and a half ago that NIWA staff came back from a research voyage to the Kermadec Trench led by their colleagues from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute.

The mud shrimp species Upogebia hirtifrons (White, 1847) is a member of the large and widespread Upogebiidae family.

The squid genus Histioteuthis is commonly known as the violet or cock-eyed squid.

This week’s critter is a living deep sea treasure, in a group commonly known as the golden corals.

Sponges are amongst the most common marine invertebrates that inhabit the New Zealand coastline, from the intertidal zone down to the continental shelf, to abyssal plains and deep ocean trenches.

On 29 September 2015 the Prime Minister of New Zealand, Rt Hon John Key, announced a new Kermadec Ocean Sanctuary stretching from Raoul Island in the north to L’Esperance Rock in the south – covering an area of 620,000 square kilometres of ocean.

Although it boasts a pretty nice pair of antlers, you won’t be seeing today’s critter pulling Santa’s sled anytime soon, being a small crab that lives at great depths.

The NIWA Biodiversity Memoir series comprises comprehensive, definitive, illustrated reference works that capture the rigorous, peer-reviewed scientific study of New Zealand’s distinctive marine fauna and flora.