No.01 2004

Monitoring Auckland's intertidal zones

NIWA has been designing and analysing long-term monitoring programmes for the Auckland Regional Council (ARC) to check whether the ecology of some of the region’s harbours is changing.
It can be difficult to measure the impact of human-induced changes on the animals which live in the sandflats, mudflats, rock, beaches, and other terrain between the high and low tide marks. The creatures are generally small, hidden, and tend to cluster together in small patches.

Ocean colour helps fishers

By the end of this year, commercial fishers and other users will be able to get satellite data on ocean colour in near-real-time via the NIWA website.
When the sea is deep, the colour of the ocean is largely determined by the abundance of phytoplankton in the water.

The right time to focus on coasts & oceans

Glance at any map of New Zealand and you’ll see a long, thin country – less than 270 000 square kilometres in size, perched precariously on the ‘Ring of Fire’ – ranging from subtropical waters in the north to subantarctic waters in the south.

A research vessel for all seasons

New Zealand’s only ice-strengthened research vessel is nothing if not versatile.

Tangaroa in Antarctica’s Western Ross Sea. NIWA Vessel Management’s purpose-built hydrographic survey launch, Pelorus, in the foreground, can be carried and launched from Tangaroa.

The 70-metre long Tangaroa, which is owned and operated by NIWA Vessel Management Ltd, spent much of October undertaking resource mapping along the Kermadec Arc as a joint scientific study with the Institute of Geological & Nuclear Sciences.

NIWA

No.01 2004

Monitoring Auckland's intertidal zones

Ocean colour helps fishers

The right time to focus on coasts & oceans

A research vessel for all seasons

Archived

National science centres

Useful Links

Contact