Voyages

NIWA leads many ocean research voyages from the tropical waters of the Pacific to Antarctica, on our world-class research vessels.

  • Chinese and New Zealand Scientists dive to one of the ocean's deepest regions

    Media release
    Scholl Deep is the deepest known point of the Kermadec Trench, which lies to the north of New Zealand.
  • NIWA-Nippon Seabed Mapping Project a “rare opportunity” to study effects of Tonga eruption

    Media release
    NIWA and The Nippon Foundation are undertaking a mission to discover the undersea impacts of the recent Tongan volcanic eruption.
  • 2021 - Macquarie Ridge

    Voyage
    RV Tangaroa has sailed to the Macquarie Ridge to under charter by Australia’s CSIRO Marine National Facility to recover ocean bottom seismometers and acquire multibeam sonar and sub‐bottom profile data in the Macquarie Island region.
  • Study discovers microplastics in New Zealand’s seabed

    Media release
    A pilot study carried out by NIWA and the University of Auckland has found microplastics in samples collected from the seafloor in the Marlborough Sounds.
  • Lost scientific buoy recovered from Kāpiti seafloor

    News article
    Researchers have recovered a scientific buoy from the Kāpiti Marine Reserve that went missing in late March.
  • 2021 - Hikurangi margin

    Voyage
    Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle helping scientists collect the latest earthquake data.
  • NIWA heads to Antarctica for critical climate, ocean research

    Media release
    NIWA’s flagship research vessel Tangaroa leaves soon on a six-week voyage to Antarctica, making it one of the few full scientific expeditions to the continent since the global outbreak of COVID-19.
  • 2020_08_HOKI EXPERIMENTAL TAN2008_mackay_DSC7563-min

    2020 - Subantarctic survey

    Voyage
    This month-long fisheries trawl survey on the RV Tangaroa, aims to estimate the relative abundance of hoki, hake, ling and other middle depth fish species in the Southland and subantarctic areas.
  • A multi-coring device used to take seabed samples in Kaikōura Canyon is brought back aboard NIWA research vessel Tangaroa. 

    2020 - Kaikōura canyons

    The 2020 voyage provided an opportunity to progress ongoing studies into the ecological and sedimentological impact and recovery following the 2016 Kaikōura Earthquake.
  • 2020 - Argo floats deployment

    Voyage
    The crew of NIWA research vessel Kaharoa spent 75 nights at sea.
  • 2020 - Snapper survey

    Voyage
    Scientists are conducting snapper research off North Island’s west coast.
  • Underwater robot getting close-up look at Kaikōura Canyon

    Media release
    A six-metre long orange underwater robot is flying through the Kaikōura Canyon for the next month collecting information on how the canyon has changed since the 2016 earthquake.