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From: Mark Morrison
_: 5
Date: 04-02-10
Time: 11:59
Survey reveals Bay of Islands’ marine life
A survey of the Bay of Island’s marine life and supporting ecosystems is making good progress, Land Information New Zealand (LINZ) said today.
Since August 2009 teams from the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) have been gathering field information from the Bay as part of a two-year Ocean Survey 20/20 project coordinated by LINZ.
This work continued through January, and NIWA project leader Dr Mark Morrison says a surprising amount of high quality data has been gathered about the area’s fish, marine invertebrates, marine algae, bacteria, sediments, water quality and circulation patterns.
“One of the key observations so far is that there is a higher diversity of plants on the sediment surface than we expected, particularly in soft sediment areas,” Dr Morrison says.
Diverse and colourful communities of marine algae have been found in many soft sediment areas, while kelp forests and other seaweeds such as sea rimu inhabit shallower rocky reefs.
Dr Morrison says good numbers of juvenile snapper have been observed in the inner, more sheltered areas of the bay.
“Snapper nursery grounds occur especially over habitats such as horse mussels, and a range of other fish species exist across the wider area. Leatherjackets and red mullet (goatfish) are especially common.”
Dr Morrison thanked residents for their interest in and support for the project so far. Information about the Bay’s marine biodiversity, water quality and sediments will be made publicly available via a web portal also being developed by NIWA as part of the project.
“The aim is to make the information as widely and publicly available as possible. The huge volume of data collected will serve future research for management of the Bay of Islands, as an important coastal system with a diverse range of habitats and species, and as an iconic tourist destination.”
The Bay of Islands project began in 2008 with a comprehensive seabed mapping exercise in the Bay and the eastern Northland coast between Mimiwhangata and Spirits Bay/North Cape. This work informed the biodiversity sampling phase which began in 2009.
The project, due to be completed in June 2010, is being carried out in conjunction with the Department of Conservation <http://www.doc.govt.nz/> and Ministry of Fisheries <http://www.fish.govt.nz/> , with input from local stakeholders including the Northland Regional <http://www.nrc.govt.nz/> and Far North District <http://www.fndc.govt.nz/> councils, tangata whenua and Bay of Islands Maritime Park Inc.
ENDS
For further information about the Bay of Islands project contact:
Mark Morrison Project Leader, NIWA Auckland Ph 09 375 2063 / 0274 290 507 m.morrison@niwa.co.nz
Last changed: 23-Jul-2011