Te Papa is a collaborative partner with Auckland Museum in this important expedition to intensively sample and survey the fishes of the remote Kermadec Islands. The Te Papa fish team is participating because of their unique specialised skills in collecting and identifying fishes underwater on scuba in the wild, as well as their ship-based photographic and curatorial skills in working up the collections, preparatory to transport back to Wellington and registration into the National Fish Collection at Te Papa Tory Street. We cannot wait to get our hands on them to discover what hidden gems this fish fauna contains!
Our collection of fishes from remote location around the NZ EEZ, such as the Kermadec Islands, is relatively poor with only about 2000 specimens in 500 registered lots from that area. It is expected that this fieldwork will at least double the size of our registered holdings, and so greatly increase the scientific value of our Kermadec collection.
Zebra lionfish Dendrochirus zebra photo. Photograph by M. Francis, reproduced courtesy of Auckland Museum
The new material will include many rare fishes, some collected for the first time from our EEZ as well as specimens of fish species new to science. Once preserved and accurately identified, this collection will underpin the species inventory being compiled for the area, and all specimens will be available for examination by fish researchers to support biosystematic projects for many decades to come. This includes an identification guidebook to all New Zealand fishes, currently in preparation by the fish team and over 30 authors from around the world and will be published in 2013 in full colour by Te Papa Press.
See Te Papa’s Carl Struthers photograph a Zebra Lionfish for the catalogue:
Our video deployments are revealing day after day a bit more of the particular fish fauna of the Raoul Island. The most remarkable feature we observe is the large amount of sharks. And to be honest, I would not like them to come to close during a dive. Bronze whalers and galapagos sharks are here very common. It is not surprising to find them in high abundance since the area is protected and have consequently not been fished.
Deployment of a video unit
The survey is progressing well and we hope having completed our deployments in about 2-3 days. The weather is decent, without being exceptional. We had to work every day in 2-3m swells which did not cause us too much problems.
Our Fish team will join a team of 15 researchers travelling to the Kermadec Islands (around 1000km north east of NZ) for three weeks to collect new specimens, hopefully identify new species and learn about one of the most pristine (and isolated) marine environments in the world.
Also on the expedition is a team from Auckland Museum (including expedition lead Dr Tom Trnski) and researchers from the Department of Conservation, the Australian Museum and NIWA. You can find out more about the trip and join in on the voyage of discovery by following the daily blog at http://kermadec.aucklandmuseum.com
The team includes a photographer and writer and they will be keeping you up to date with what happens on the ship each day and what the researchers are finding. You can leave a comment or question on the Kermadec Expedition blog and a shore-based team will answer them if they know the answer or pass them on to the Kermadecs team aboard the RV Braveheart – to answer when they find a moment between dives!
We finally arrived at Raoul Island in the morning after a very rough night due to nasty weather. We basically jumped from our bed, every 30 seconds following a big swell, discovering the joy of gravity at the same time. It can be funny, for a moment, and if you do not touch too much the ceiling…. The weather stayed bad until we arrived at Raoul where everyone was happy to find shelter and finally get some food in our disturbed stomach.
Luckily after that, the sky opened and let us discover the beauty of Raoul Island. We found the time to make two video and two trap samples. The clarity of the water is amazing, with a depth of field of more than 15m at 100m depth.
Beautiful sunlight on the south-western Denham Bay.
Tomorrow, we will have a full day working. We will be able to study the deep-sea fish fauna of the Kermadec Islands.
A Te Papa expedition, in collaboration with Massey University, is going to study the fish fauna of the Kermadec Islands, some 1000km North of mainland New Zealand.
We left Tauranga aboard the MV Tranquil Image yesterday. Loading all the gear on the deck was a bit more of a challenge than usual because of the extra fuel that we had to take for this long trip going far offshore. It is now just over 24 hours that we are steaming non-stop to the North. We will need another 36 hours at least to reach our destination, Raoul Island.
Loading up the Tranquil Image with gear. More than 10km of rope for deployments of video units and fish traps are necessary.
The night was, let’s say interesting, since the sea became a little bit rougher when it was time to get a rest. I think that like everybody else aboard, I only half-slept.
But in two days, we will be able to start our sampling campaign in one of the most amazing place on earth. It is enough to keep us awake. My shipmates Charlie, Carl, Adam and Tom are all looking forward to discover this untouched ground.
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