On 1 July 2025, NIWA merged with GNS Science to become Earth Sciences New Zealand.

Coasts

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

  • Critter of the Week: Amphinome rostrata - marine bristle worm

    Amphinome rostrata (Pallas, 1766), in the polychaete family Amphinomidae, can be found living amongst goose barnacles (species of Lepas) on drift objects in tropical oceans worldwide.
  • Scientists get boost to combat invasive marine pests

    News article
    Work to protect New Zealand waters from an increasing number of invasive biological pests has received a funding boost to fight their spread.
  • Mapping the ecosystem service potential of our coasts

    Research Project
    Estuaries and coasts provide a wide range of benefits to New Zealanders – “ecosystem services”. However, we still don’t know enough about these ecosystem services – a challenge NIWA and other scientists are tackling with a new technique.
  • Critter of the Week: Tokoprymno and Thouarella

    Despite our growing understanding of the role of Antarctica in driving global climate regimes and regional patterns of marine diversity, the distribution and connectivity among deep-sea species across the Southern Ocean remain poorly known.
  • Researching NIWA’s Antarctic sea ice

  • Critter of the Week: A rare find - Anuropus sp.

    This rare isopod genus Anuropus, Beddard, 1886 was collected in a mesopelagic trawl from the Chatham Rise.
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    Summer Series Week 5: The library with no books – inside NIWA’s Invertebrate Collection

    News article
    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.
  • Critter of the Week: Unknown echinoid – deep-sea holasteroid

    This week’s critter is an unknown species of an unusual order of sea urchins – the Holasteroida.
  • Summer Series Week 3: Sea creatures

    News article
    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.
  • Critter of the Week: More surprising finds from the Kermadecs

    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.
  • Critter of the Week: Upogebia hirtifrons - the mud shrimp

    The mud shrimp species Upogebia hirtifrons (White, 1847) is a member of the large and widespread Upogebiidae family.
  • Critter of the Week: Histioteuthis – the cock-eyed squid

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