Mon, 02 Mar 2009 11:11 am – Posted by Kirstie_Knowles | 3 Comments
Sea pens reach a height of about 20 centimetres and can be found around Fiordland. Photo: Malcolm Francis.
When we think of life in the ocean we often think of our whales, our dolphins, fish and crayfish – things we can see and things that can see us. But actually the building blocks of life in our sea – that provide us with the oxygen we breathe, absorbs the carbon dioxide we pump into the air and regulates the weather and ocean cycling – is actually invisible to the human eye. They are microscopic. They are our plankton, diatoms and foraminifera. Our what?
Exactly. Seldom do we celebrate the very morsels that the rest of our marine wildlife could not do without. Well here’s our chance.
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Published in: General
Tags: carbon dioxide, jellyfish, marine, seaweek
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Tue, 03 Feb 2009 1:50 pm – Posted by Kirstie_Knowles | 2 Comments
Google has just announced a new tool that allows viewers to take a glimpse under the sea, which goes a long way to addressing our “out of sight – out of mind mentality” currently plaguing marine conservation efforts.
Having just rolled out google sky following the ever-popular google earth, google is now giving us a chance to dive into an area that occupies 2/3 of earth’s surface.
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Published in: General, Marine and Coastal
Tags: Climate Change, marine
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Wed, 05 Nov 2008 2:34 pm – Posted by Mark Hanger | 2 Comments
Guest Blogger: Mark Hanger – sustainable fish-supporter & secretary of the Dunedin Branch
Fishing has come a long way.
It’s easy to lapse into sepia-tinged visions of the last of the hunter-gathers pitting themselves against the elements, rod in hand, waiting patiently for a tug from the inky depths, however the reality lies light-years from this romantic image.
Fast-forward to 2008, and you’ll find sophisticated technology pin-pointing shoals of fish, long-lines baited with thousands of hooks flung into our seas and big sock-like nets being pulled through our waters collecting up everything from sea-lions to sharks.
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Published in: General
Tags: best fish guide, marine
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Fri, 24 Oct 2008 12:44 pm – Posted by Kirstie_Knowles | 4 Comments
Why is it that a picture of a cute and cuddly kiwi or a doe-eyed dolphin gets a response, yet animals pre-dating our most ancient of species – the tuatara – get completely ignored?
Sharks are the living dinosaurs of our seas. Originating long before dinosaurs arrived, sharks are among our top predators and act as key regulators of life in our seas. They are incredibly shy and have developed as slow growing species, living long lives and producing few young – all traits that make them highly vulnerable to overfishing and habitat loss.
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Published in: Marine and Coastal
Tags: ban, finning, marine, sharks, sharks fin soup
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