Category Archives: Fish

The amazing longfin eel

19 April 2013 – 9.28am

This week the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Environment released a report on the status and management of the longfin eel. It was entitled “On a pathway to extinction?” The report found that the management of longfin eels by New Zealand government agencies was inadequate and failing. It further recommended the cessation of commercial fishing of longfin eels.

The Commissioner’s report.

A longfin eel. This female hasn't bred yet, and she will do so only once, after swimming to somewhere between New Caledonia and Fiji. Photo (c) Alton Perrie.

A longfin eel, in a stream near Thames. This female hasn’t bred yet, and she will do so only once, after swimming to somewhere between Fiji and New Caledonia. Photo (c) Alton Perrie.

Longfin eels (Anguilla dieffenbachii; tuna is Maori for eel) are amazing animals. They breed only once and then die. The adults found in New Zealand’s waterways have yet to breed. When mature, which may take 80 years, they swim to somewhere between Fiji and New Caledonia to find a mate. The prospect of finding a mate in a far-flung ocean presumably becomes less likely as numbers decline because of human impacts. After breeding, the adults die. The young larvae then drift back to New Zealand, and make their way upriver. The amount of suitable habitat for eels in New Zealand is now much decreased.

The Commissioner highlighted this unusual lifecycle as complicating the management of eels.

The Department of Conservation rates the threat status of longfin eel as “At Risk/Declining”, while the Ministry for Primary Industries allows the annual commercial harvest of more than 100 tonnes of longfin eel. The inability to reconcile these two facts is at least partially behind the Commissioner’s call to stop the commercial fishing of longfin eels.

Earlier this year, Te Papa’s NatureSpace hosted the Travelling Tuna Tapestry project.  The aim of this project was to inspire children to be interested in the conservation of the longfin eel. The tapestry grew during its travels around New Zealand as children contributed panels; one panel came from visitors to NatureSpace.

A Department of Conservation site about the Travelling Tuna Tapestry.

Many New Zealanders will be concerned that an endemic New Zealand species is effectively being managed to extinction. According to the commissioner, “Longfin eels need urgent help from the agencies that are responsible for their management and protection.” How will those agencies respond? Will they do enough to get the longfin eel off its pathway to extinction?

By Leon Perrie | Also posted in Biodiversity | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

Three Kings Expedition collects yellow weever, a new record for the area

17 April 2013 – 6.50am

By Clive Roberts

Three Kings Expedition collects yellow weever, Parapercis gilliesi (family Pinguipedidae), a new record for the area, 13 April 2013. Te Papa

Three Kings Expedition collects yellow weever, Parapercis gilliesi (family Pinguipedidae), a new record for the area, 13 April 2013. Te Papa

The Te Papa fish team currently has two members participating in the Three Kings Islands Marine Expedition. Skilled in fieldwork techniques, collecting, photographing and preserving fishes, Vincent Zintzen and Jeremy Barker are busy underwater surveying and sampling fishes, invertebrates and algae with colleagues during the day, and are up late at night on board MV Braveheart processing the day’s catch.

Carefully preserved and frozen specimens will be brought back to Te Papa, Auckland Museum and NIWA collections, to be documented and made available for 3–4 generations of researchers to study over the next 50 years or more.

An early highlight and new record for the Three Kings fish fauna was the capture of a yellow weever, also known as the yellow cod, Parapercis gilliesi family Pinguipedidae (see photo).  Three species of weever are known in New Zealand waters. By far the most common is the ubiquitous blue cod Parapercis colias – the largest species in the weever family, which can weigh 5kg. Closely related are two poorly known, smaller, deeper water cousins – the yellow weever (or yellow cod) and the redbanded weever (or redbanded grubfish).

The yellow weever can be distinguished from its relatives by maximum size, colour and soft fin ray counts. It attains a maximum size of 32cm and has a yellow-tan body with two horizontal rows of dark brown blotches, and bright yellow fins in fresh examples (vs. max size 40cm, whitish with two longitudinal bands along the back in females, or max size 60cm, body blue to blue‑grey in males of blue cod; and a max size of 20cm and a pale pinkish-yellow body with 13-14 dark red-brown vertical bars arranged in pairs in the redbanded weever). The yellow weever has 21 dorsal fin soft rays and 18 anal fin soft rays (vs. 20 and 17 soft rays in blue cod; and 22–23 and 20 in redbanded weever).

Originally described in 1879 by Captain F. W. Hutton of the OtagoMuseum, Dunedin, the yellow weever is endemic (unique) to the New Zealand region, where it is widely distributed on the shelf and upper slope at depths of 60–350m. The present specimen, collected by rod and line from 100 m depth, is the most northerly record for the species. 

Update: the team on MV Braveheart are sheltering from 50 knot winds, driving rain and large swells. Soon the storm will pass and they will get back to collecting and survey. Watch this space.

Find out more about the Three Kings Islands Marine Expedition

By Te Papa | Also posted in Biodiversity | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

Te Papa researcher’s major contribution to NZ biodiversity inventory

22 May 2012 – 10.16am

Te Papa scientists figure prominently among the 238 researchers who have contributed to a major new publication: The Inventory of New Zealand Biodiversity.

Te Papa taxonomists whos work was instrumental in describing over 80% of the animal groups for New Zealand

Te Papa taxonomists whose work was instrumental in describing over 80% of the animal groups for New Zealand. Photo Jean-Claude Stahl. Copyright Te Papa.

 The third and final volume of this 12-year project was launched at Te Papa yesterday, and celebrated the work of scientists from 19 countries, cataloguing over 56,000 species.

Dennis Gordon with the third volume of the New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity launched in Wellington 21 May 2012

Dennis Gordon with the third volume of the New Zealand Inventory of Biodiversity launched in Wellington 21 May 2012. Photo Jean-Claude Stahl. Copyright Te Papa.

The work was brought together by Dennis Gordon from NIWA, with contributions from all major research institutions in New Zealand including Crown Research Institutes, museum researchers such as Te Papa’s Natural Environment curators, and researchers in universities and government agencies. The work is used actively by researchers nationally and globally to describe and catalogue species occurring within the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone. For example, the New Zealand Organisms Register (NZOR), the official body which lists names of species occurring in New Zealand uses the Inventory as one of its primary sources of data. Find out more about NZOR.

http://www.nzor.org.nz/

Te Papa’s team of taxonomist are a small but highly effective group, contributing around 20% of the chapters authored on the major animal groups by professional New Zealand contributors to the books. They contributed to chapters that described over 80% ofNew Zealand’s animals. Their work encompasses a very broad range of species, with expertise on animals and plants from orchids to seaweeds, insects and parasites, deep sea fishes and whales to extinct birds.

The work is a monument to the collaborative efforts of researchers across New Zealand, and will have ongoing utility in helping us to manage species and their conservation threats, long term. We appreciate the efforts of the institutions and individuals involved, in particular NIWA, Landcare Research, and Canterbury University Press. Find out more information about the publication.

http://www.cup.canterbury.ac.nz/releases/2012/120405a.shtml

By Susan Waugh | Also posted in Biodiversity, Bugs, insects and spiders, Collections Online, Fossils, Museums, Plants | Tagged , , | Comments (0)

Fish and birds in Tokyo

24 April 2012 – 9.38am

Work at the fisheries Convention on the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna meeting on bycatch and ecological effects of fishing has progressed in Tokyo in March. The group met to consider ways of reducing seabird, turtle and shark bycatch in fishing for southern bluefin tuna around the southern Ocean.

Albatross and petrel bycatch remains a tricky issue for the management of tuna fisheries, with many birds annually killed in longline fisheries due to their being captured on fishing hooks. Around 3 billion tuna hooks are set annually, and albatrosses captured may number up to 100 thousand annually. Incidental mortality in tuna fisheries affects many seabird species, many of which are threatened with extinction.

See BirdLife Internationals Save-the-Albatross website for source of these statistics

Meeting of specialist on bycatch of seabirds, sharks and turtles at the CCSBT Working Group in Tokyo on 28 - 30 March 2012, at which New Zealand scientists, including Te Papa researchers were participants. Photo: Susan Waugh

Meeting of specialist on bycatch of seabirds, sharks and turtles at the CCSBT Working Group in Tokyo on 28 - 30 March 2012, at which New Zealand scientists, including Te Papa researchers were participants. Photo: Susan Waugh

A report commissioned by the Ministry of Fisheries, and prepared by Te Papa scientists and collaborators was presented. The report discussed how data on seabird distributions, fishing data, and information about bird-catch rates could be used to identify which areas and times of fishing were most problematic for tuna fishing in the Indian and Pacific Ocean areas. The study used data and methods developed over many years with collaborating parties BirdLife International and Sextant Technology, along with inputs from the Agreement on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels (ACAP), the Ministry of Fisheries, NIWA, Centre Nationale de la Recherche Scientifique in France and a number of seabird researchers nationally and internationally.

A figure from seabird ecological risk assessment analyses indicating the density per square kilometre of species around the Southern Ocean. This shows a high density particularly in the New Zealand area. The study presented by Te Papa researchers and collaborators to the Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna working group examined which areas and species were most at risk of adverse effects of longline fishing for tuna. Image: after Waugh et al. 2012.

A figure from seabird ecological risk assessment analyses indicating the density per square kilometre of species around the Southern Ocean. This shows a high density particularly in the New Zealand area. The study presented by Te Papa researchers and collaborators to the Convention for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna working group examined which areas and species were most at risk of adverse effects of longline fishing for tuna. Image: after Waugh et al. 2012.

The CCSBT working group agreed to continue work on this project, and will seek to refine the analyses using the most recent dataset available about bird distributions and fishing activity, including important datasets held by BirdLife International derived from satellite tracking of seabirds.

Tuna for sale in Tsukiji market in Tokyo, March 2012. Photo: Susan Waugh.

Tuna for sale in Tsukiji market in Tokyo, March 2012. Photo: Susan Waugh.

By Susan Waugh, Senior Curator Natural Environment

By Te Papa | Also posted in Biodiversity | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (0)

Taningia danae – a deep sea bioluminescent squid: The Dummies Guide

2 March 2012 – 11.02am

This post is brought to you courtesy of the rivalry and camraderie between Te Papa staff who have science degrees, and those who have arts and business studies degrees!

Earlier this week I was invited over to the cold store at Te Papa’s Natural Environment research centre to document the receipt of a new squid into our collection. Now, my scientific expertise stopped at sixth form chemistry, however that being said – this trip up away from the public relations office rekindled a love for learning about the natural world (notwithstanding my skills being at a very elementary level.)

What makes the Taningia Danae (or Squddly as we affectionately called her) special in this case is that instead of the usual large feeding tentacles one would expect to find, the Taningia has light-producing organs on the end of its. Bruce, our collection manager who hosted this trip, explained that the light-organs are a sort of eye, the light from each relevant tentacle beams out ahead of the squid and it can then sense the proximity of its dinner – much like the beams that guide aircraft or missiles etc.

 

And once the dinner gets into the clutches of the tentacles – what out for those rows of sharp teeth-like hooks!

Bruce was of the opinion that the short tentacles of this particular squid, and the large body was a record for Te Papa, in that one of these relevant dimensions hadn’t been found thus far.

For more information of research done chronicling the Taningia Danae – head to the Cephalopod Page.

 And, this trip wasn’t just restricted to learning about squids – a colleague and I were also given first hand experience of the preparatory work sea-life scientists do to examine their specimens. We had a moment of down-time while Bruce gathered some colleagues to help manoeuvre the squid onto an exam-table, where his colleague Andrew was working through his consignment of new specimens – when he came across a hagfish (made more famous thanks to the work of his colleague Vincent). If you’ve seen the videos already, you’ll know that the hagfish deters its predators through the instantaneous and somewhat explosive propulsion of slime (or more affectionately referred to as snot). Well, it can be a fair assumption that as Hagfishes die through trawling, or other non-being-eaten causes that they die with a certain level of slime/snot still in their bodies.

We discovered first hand just what the snot was like when it froze on the skin of the hagfish. So, the challenge was laid down, from scientists to artsy/businessy types, come and scrape out the snot!

 

Look at that snot! – Of course, what they don’t capture is the moment in which my colleague sighed and said “actually this is quite therapeutic”. And just in case you wanted to know – yes, it felt just like human phlegm.

There’s also video footage, and as soon as I can get the video editing softwares to work, I will post the action shots of the team discussing the find, the preparation of the squid for storage – and the scraping of the snot!

By filipomcgrath | Also posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Auckland Islands survey – Day 18: trading with the winds

28 February 2012 – 3.37pm

It’s our fifth day in the Auckland Islands and so far we have been offered only one day with calm winds. We have become quite good at the game of moving the boat from one end of the island to the other, just to find some protection from the wind. Currently we are in the southern part of the island, in Carnley Harbour.

Yesterday and today, we could only deploy video and trap units in the shallow depths on the west and south coasts. They revealed an underwater world strongly dominated by crabs. We caught hundreds of them in the traps. Several specimens have been kept for the Museum, but the majority of them were released back to the sea. On the video they formed a pile above the bait bag in a matter of a few minutes.

A trap set off Auckland Island caught over 200 crabs in a few hours. A few specimens kept for further study; rest released alive. Te Papa

A trap set off Auckland Island caught over 200 crabs in a few hours. A few specimens kept for further study; rest released alive. Te Papa

Earlier in the day we transited along the west coast of the main island, in very poor visibility.  However, within a few minutes, the sky opened to let us discover the magnificent vertical cliffs of the weather-bashed coast. Some peaks towered above at more than 300m high. We all felt rather blessed working in such a dramatic place.

Cliffs at entrance of Carnley Harbour Auckland Island in the early morning. Te Papa

Cliffs at entrance of Carnley Harbour Auckland Island in the early morning. Te Papa

During an episode of particularly strong winds we were fortunate to be able to work within the confines of Port Ross, a sheltered harbour in most weather. After reconnaissance of the coastline using the zodiac, we found a suitable site to sample the fish fauna of the intertidal zone. Our findings indicate that the area is particularly rich in triplefins and clingfishes.

Recovering a video unit deployed in shallow water of Auckland Island west coast.

Recovering a video unit deployed in shallow water of Auckland Island west coast.

We are now in the last days of our journey and are hoping for some light winds to safely sample the deeper part of the south-west coast. Just a few hours please!

Speak to you again soon,

The fish team, Carl, Tom, Jesse, Jeremy and Vincent

Note: These images look a bit strange. We had to reduce their size to the maximum to be able to send them over our satellite internet connection.

By Te Papa | Also posted in Field trips | Tagged , , , | Comments (3)

Into the Southern Ocean

24 February 2012 – 3.38pm

It has been a few days since our last update. During this time, we have been island hopping on the way down to the Auckland Islands.

After refuelling and restocking the food cupboards, we departed Bluff on a lovely sunny summer’s day, hoping that the good weather will to stay with us for the next leg of the voyage. During our 27-hour journey, we stopped off at two other poorly sampled islands.

Buller’s mollymawk landing (Snares Islands). Te Papa

Buller’s mollymawk landing (Snares Islands). Te Papa

The first stop was Stewart Island, a five hour trip from Bluff, where we spent the night in a comfortable anchorage at Pegasus Inlet. We managed to deploy a few overnight fish traps which were recovered at first light and had caught red cod, hagfish, carpet sharks and conger eels.

Next stop along the way was the Snares Islands. These are a small set of remote islands that jut straight out of the ocean and are home to very large numbers of seabirds, especially the sooty shearwater or titi. These were a fantastic sight for the team.

We anchored for the evening on the east side of the Snares Islands, a great spot for collecting by rod and line. This site proved to be very interesting as we sampled eight fish species, including the girdled wrasse, trumpeter, small scaled cod, and blue cod. It was a late night completing tissue sampling and photography of the catch.

Carl Struthers preparing a girdle wrasse for photography. Te Papa

Carl Struthers preparing a girdle wrasse for photography. Te Papa

Finally, we are on the last leg of the trip to the Auckland Islands. The ocean yet again played in our favour with very mild seas. Even the skipper was amazed with how we have got this far and not seen any severe seas. At 8 pm in the evening, after a 12 hr transit, we can see the faint outline of land, arriving to a cool grey Auckland Island evening.

Thursday 23 Feb. What a welcome to the Auckland Islands! After spending the night at anchor in Terror Cove inside Port Ross on the northern side of the islands, we awoke to a great sunrise, despite being a rather fresh 10°C. The forecast was looking good, so we headed out to the north-west side of the islands. To try and see what the tides and currents were doing in the area, we deployed a relatively shallow video unit at 300m depth. No unmanageable current was encountered. This enabled us to deploy ten units from 300 to 900m. Some units took a little longer to retrieve than others due to the rough terrain, but we had success in deploying our video systems at the Auckland Islands, that is a first for the project and New Zealand.

A fantastic sunrise at Terror Cove, Auckland Islands. Te Papa

A fantastic sunrise at Terror Cove, Auckland Islands. Te Papa

Upon evening review of the videos, we can see there is an abundant life on the seabed, like sea feathers, basketwork eels, a six gill shark and even Maori chief cod.

Tomorrow the forecast is for the weather to change later in the day. At first light, we will evaluate the conditions and decide whether to head out to sea or stay in the shelter and do some coastal collecting. What will the morning bring? More later.

More about this expedition

By Te Papa | Also posted in Field trips | Tagged , , , , | Comments (1)

Fish survey off Dunedin: hagfish surprise

18 February 2012 – 3.18pm

Day 6:  last stations off the Otago Peninsula sampled. We are ready to move towards the Auckland Islands.

Remarkably calm conditions off the Otago Peninunsula allowed us to sample all the stations of our fish diversity survey in a short period of time.

We have been blessed with good weather conditions for the last six days which allowed us to complete quickly our diversity survey between 50m and 1200m depth off the Otago Peninsula. We have deployed 50 videos units, capturing over 150 hours of footage. Twenty fish traps sampled the fish fauna over the last days as well. The fish trap highlight is the capture of a hagfish specimen which is not looking like anything we have seen so far. It is hard to tell for sure at this stage if this is a new species, but it may well be. The specimen will need careful examination and DNA analysis once we are back in Wellington to identify it with confidence.

A hagfish specimen, Eptatretus cirrhatus, producing large amount of slime when manipulated on the deck.

The team welcoming a video unit hauled back up from 1200m depth.

Tomorrow, the boat will transit to Bluff where it will have to be inspected and cleared by DoC staff before continuing towards the Auckland Islands. It is very important to respect quarantine procedure associated to a voyage in the Subantarctic Islands. The preservation of  their natural state is at stake. If the weather forecast holds, we will have a window to reach the islands on Monday-Tuesday. At least 36 hours are needed to navigate between Bluff and the Auckland Islands.

I will try to continue updating you on our progress once we have reached the islands, although communication is going to be more complicated from this very remote location.

Speak to you soon,
Vincent and the team.

By Vincent Zintzen | Also posted in Field trips | Comments (6)

Fish team research expedition

14 February 2012 – 6.38pm

Day 2: sampling off Otago Peninsula.

Our survey onboard the MV Tranquil Image has started after a rough transit from Wellington to Dunedin.

After a very successful day 1 deploying camera and traps in the shallow (50 and 100 m), today we have started exploring the deep canyons of the area some 25 nautical miles from the coast. The sea wasn’t the calmest this morning, but everybody seemed to enjoy the bouncy travel towards the 1200 m depth contour line. We have managed to deploy six video systems and four fish traps at depth ranging from 300 to 1200 m. Today’s highlight was surely the presence in high numbers of Owston’s dogfish (Centroscymnus owstoni) on the videos and also on the fish traps at depth 500 to 900 m. We caught a good size range from juveniles (15 cm) to adults (1.1 m) which will be very useful for future taxonomic studies. They were observed on the video feeding by taking a mouthful of sediments to find little benthic preys, expulsing the mud and sand by their gills. An unnoticed behaviour so far.

Scientists and crew prepare the deployment a fish trap to be sent in the deep canyons off Otago Peninsula

Te Papa scientist Carl Struthers holding a large specimen of Owston's dogfish just caught in a fish trap at 700 m depth

We were expecting to catch some hagfish in the area, but could not see any on the video, and none  were attracted by  the bait of our traps. We are hoping that the next days will bring the discovery of their presence in the area.

A hermit crab caught in the trap tries to grip onto a little fragment of probable coral

I will keep you posted on what’s going on here in a few days.

Vincent, Carl, Jeremy, Tom and Jesse.

By Vincent Zintzen | Also posted in Field trips, Uncategorized | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

Fish research team en route for the cold waters of the Sub Antarctic Islands

9 February 2012 – 1.35pm

It’s only about three years I have been living in New Zealand and there is still plenty to learn about the country. But one thing I already know for sure, it’s that February is the best month in the year to enjoy good sun, low winds and warm weather. It might actually be the only one! So I am starting to think that I might be a little bit insane to plan a survey down the Sub Antarctic islands, right in the middle of February. Of course there is a very good reason to do this, but it comes at the cost of abandoning my dreams of diving warm waters this summer.

Map showing the sampling locations already achieved (green) and the two locations still to be sampled (red).

February is supposedly the best month of the year and this should also apply to the Auckland Islands where we will be studying the taxonomy, ecology and behaviour of the fish fauna in cold and deep waters. With the use of our video systems, we are going to film the never filmed before: the deep-sea fauna of those very wild and remote islands.

The Auckland Islands are located at 51°S, about 500 km south of Invercargill and are basically lost in the middle of the Ocean. The group of islands is 43 km long by 24 km wide. The first stretch of land on the West is the tip of South America, some 8000 km away. The first land on the East is actually also South America, and is not closer. This means that winds, rarely dropping under 60 km/h, and sea state can be remarkably unfriendly in the Auckland Islands, with no protection from land for thousands of kilometres. Now you start understanding why I am ready to give up on some mainland New Zealand warmth, in the hope of having acceptable conditions to deploy our video systems.

The MV Tranquil Image is being loaded with scientific gear in Tauranga

 

Working deck of the MV Tranquil Image crowded with all the scientific equipment used to study fish diversity and behaviour.

 

A video unit being hauled back after having filmed the fish fauna off the Kermadec Islands at 1200m depth (May 2011).

 

During this survey, we will also stop by around the Otago Peninsula to do similar work. We will sample the deep canyons up to 1200 m, learning more about fish diversity and behaviour in the area.

In one day, our boat the MV Tranquil Image will be in Wellington and we will be departing.

Speak to you soon,

Vincent

By Vincent Zintzen | Also posted in Field trips | Tagged , , , , , | Comments (1)
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