This summer, watch out when snorkelling around the New Zealand coastline, for our very own sea monster: Hippocampus abdominalis, the pot-bellied sea horse.
The decorator crabs, or camouflaged crabs, are very different creatures from the paddle crab. They’re slow movers that rely on disguise to evade predators, decorating their shells with whatever flotsam and jetsam comes to claw.
The scientific name for New Zealand’s iconic black-footed pāua captures its shape and iridescent hues perfectly: Haliotis iris means ‘ear-shell rainbow’.
Potentially lethal to swimmers, while providing a handy tow for experienced surfers, rips are a hazard on most of New Zealand’s favourite swimming and surfing beaches.
If you’re surfing the North Island beaches this summer don’t be surprised if the sleek bronze body next to you riding the waves is that of a bronze whaler shark.
For many of us, summer isn’t summer without getting some sand between our toes. But did you ever wonder what that sand is made of, and how it got there?
Think you’ve got your favourite surf beach to yourself? Think again! There’s life hidden beneath those waves.
“It may look barren, but the high-energy surf zone of exposed beaches is a very productive place, second only to coastal upwellings,” says Keith Michael, a fisheries scientist at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA). “It’s rich in phytoplankton [microscopic plants], such as diatoms, that provide a constant ‘soup’ for animals tough enough to survive the waves.”
Snapper are New Zealand’s most prized fish; they are the fish fishermen love-to-love. They live in a wide range of habitats in New Zealand’s warmer coastal waters, around the North Island and the top of the South, and prefer depths of 5–60 metres. They grow to a decent size: up to 105 cm in length.
They are tiny, burrow under the boards of your seaside bach, and make a heck of a lot of noise in the dead of night. They think night-time is the right time for … calling loudly in a raspy voice!
