Secrets of NZ's bizarre sea creatures revealed

29 June 2007

WWF-New Zealand is launching an exciting new online resource that for the first time provides a gateway to all that's known about life in New Zealand's oceans.

The Treasures of the Sea: Nga Taonga a Tangaroa is a species-group by species-group guide to New Zealand's marine life - from the bizarre feeding habits of the straptoothed whale, to the divorce rate of (usually) monogamous albatross. The leading marine scientists on New Zealand's biodiversity have pooled their knowledge to create the new online resource, which was edited by NIWA Prinicipal Scientist Dr Alison MacDiarmid.

The new microsite at www.wwf.org.nz/treasuresoftheosea will go live on Friday 29 June, after an official preview launch event at Te Papa on Thursday 28 June for the marine science community of New Zealand. At the event, WWF-New Zealand will reiterate its call fr a national
network of marine reserves, which the global conservation organisation says is vital to protecting New Zealand's unique marine biodiversity, much of which is under threat from human activity.

New Zealand's ocean is a globally significant hotspot of marine biodiversity and home to some of the world's weirdest sea creatures - from the world's largest spiny lobster to the strap-toothed whale, which is believed to catch its prey using suction. Nearly half (44 per cent) of New Zealand marine life exists nowhere else on the blue planet but here in Aotearoa - and new species are being discovered all the time. But until WWF-New Zealand commissioned NIWA to create The Treasures of the Sea, the scientific information wasn't easily accessible.

Chris Howe, Executive Director at WWF-New Zealand, commissioned the resource; he explains its significance: "The Treasures of the Sea: Ng* Taonga a Tangaroa is a summary of New Zealand's marine life - including how the creatures that live in our oceans are faring in an increasingly hostile environment. The Treasures of the Sea is a significant achievement and will be an invaluable resource for anyone interested in New Zealand's marine biodiversity. It's a celebration of the amazing life in our oceans and it means that now, anyone with internet access can instantly find out about the creatures and plants that inhabit New Zealand's seas."

He continues: "It will also play an important role in protecting New Zealand's marine biodiversity. Despite widespread recognition that New Zealand is a biodiversity hotspot of global signficance, the government's record on marine conservation is pitiful.

"Our marine species are being seriously impaired by human activity - less than one per cent of our 4.2million square km of ocean is protected in marine reserves. Scientific information is the foundation of conservation and now, this resource provides information that will assist good decisions for marine protection. It identifies in detail what wildlife is out there, what the threats are and what needs protecting. It's a huge undertaking and we believe this resource is the first of its kind in the world so we'd like to thank all the marine scientists involved in the project."

Dr Alison MacDiarmid, NIWA Principal Scientist and editor of The Treasures of the Sea:Ng* Taonga a Tangaroa comments: "A resource such as this will open up the enourmous variety of marine life to wider range of people and make them more aware of the threats and issues that face different groups of marine organisms. Quite frankly, it also places before the policy makers the unavoidable truth of New Zealands responsibilities for wise management of our own marine biodiversity. Because many of our species occur nowhere else on the planet we are the ones who need to be their guardians."

Notes

background information * Over 80 per cent of New Zealand's biodiversity is in the oceans. * Forty-four per cent of life in our oceans is endemic (unique) to New Zealand. * Endemic species you may recognised include Hector's dolphin and the yellow-eyed penguin which live here and nowhere else in the world*

* *but did you know that New Zealand also has one of the richest faunas of lace coral - or bryozoans - in the world, with some 948 species. Overall, 62% of lace corals are endemic to the New Zealand region. * This level of endemism comes from millions of years of isolation and complex seascapes created by volcanic activity give a variety of marine habitats.

* There are 65,000 known and unknown species in New Zealand's marine ecoregion. New Zealand's oceans are home to some of the world's extremes of marine life. Here are some highlights taken from The Treasures of the Sea: * New Zealand is home to the Packhorse rock lobster: the world's largest, found along the north-eastern coast of the North Island and weighing up to 20kg (regular crays weigh up to 4kg)

* Over half (54 per cent) of the world's 24 albatross species breed in New Zealand - and of the 12 species breeding in the region, half breed only in New Zealand.

* The Chatham albatross's breeding habits take this to another level - the only place in the world this species breeds is one isolated rock stack (The Pyramid) in the Chatham Islands.

* The sooty shearwater is similarly attached New Zealand. Each year these seabirds undertake an extraordinary post-breeding migration across the entire Pacific Ocean in a huge figure-eight pattern while travelling 64,037 km roundtrip. Each shearwater makes a prolonged stopover in one of three discrete regions off Japan, Alaska, or California before returning to New Zealand through a relatively narrow corridor in the central Pacific Ocean.

* Sea turtles that live in New Zealand's oceans, of the order Testudinata, are believed to have lived on the Earth for 250 million years, before the time of the dinosaurs.

* New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) boasts the second deepest part of the Earth's abyssal ocean - in the Kermadec Trench, just to the east of the Kermadec Islands northeast of mainland New Zealand. Its fauna is almost completely unknown. Overseas specialists estimate that perhaps another 250 cnidarian (coral) species remain to be discovered in New Zealand's exclusive economic zone.

* New Zealand is also one of only two places worldwide where you can find tiny white maggot like slugs of the genus Smeagal that live "Gollum like" deeply buried in the dark, damp spaces in high tide gravel beds.

* Feeding is an issue in New Zealand's bizarre strap-toothed whales. While juveniles and females are effectively toothless, in adult males, two huge lower teeth grow over the upper jaw and severely limit the mouth opening. They presumably capture most of their prey, largely squid, by suction.

* New Zealand also has the worlds only nemertean worm that lacks a proboscis or evertable feeding organ - about as outrageous as a horse with no legs.

* Our sea daisies - a sister group to the seastars - have taken things even further for they have no mouth, guts or anus. It is assumed they get their food by absorbing nutrients from decomposing logs of wood in the deep sea.

* The Department of Conservation lists the endemic subspecies of little penguin, the white-flippered penguin, Eudyptula minor albosignata, as "nationally vulnerable", because of a human-induced population decline of up to 70% between the years 1980 and 1993.

* The total world population of the eastern subspecies of the rockhopper penguin, Eudyptes chrysocome filholi, has undergone a 50% reduction since 1940 and a greater than 90% reduction has been documented at some New Zealand colonies.

* Populations of leatherback turtles have declined drastically worldwide, with an estimated 95% decline throughout its range since the 1980s. The Pacific leatherback populations appear to be crashing, where monitored populations from 1985 to 1995 have dropped between 6500 animals to less than 500. The world population of leatherback turtles is believed to be between 30,000 and 40,000 individuals.

* Maui's dolphin, the world's rarest marine dolphin lives only in New Zealand and is on the verge of extinction.

* WWF-New Zealand campaigns to protect New Zealand's marine wildlife and envisions a future where all species are abundant within their natural range. For more information, go to www.wwf.org.nz

Q&A on new WWF-New Zealand resource: The Treasures of the Sea: Ng* Taonga a Tangaroa

Q. What is The Treasures of the Sea: Ng* Taonga a Tangaroa? It's a summary of the biodiversity in the New Zealand Marine Ecoregion - an exciting new online resource from WWF-New Zealand that for the first time provides a gateway to all that's known about life in our oceans. Edited by Dr Alison MacDiarmid, Principal Scientist at NIWA, The Treasures of the Sea is a species-group based guide containing information on: ecology, special adaptations, behaviour, diet and life history, locations, threats and IUCN threat status, typical habitats, state of information, significance for Maori and key references.

The Treasures of the Sea is fully searchable and also features some of the best photography of New Zealand's marine creatures. The information is sourced from the world's leading marine scientists, and it is fully referenced and peer reviewed. The Treasures of the Sea complements the 2005 WWF-New Zealand publication Shining a Spotlight, which gives a national overview of New Zealand's marine biodiversity by priority sites. As of Friday 29 June, The Treasures of the Sea will be live at www.wwf.org.nz/treasuresofthesea.

Q. What is this the purpose of this resource? The Treasures of the Sea will play an important role in helping to protect life in New Zealand's oceans. Scientific information is the foundation of protecting wildlife effectively. WWF-New Zealand is campaigning for a national network of marine reserves - like Leigh marine reserve - which would protect New Zealand's amazing marine biodiversity. The government is at the beginning of a process to identify which areas of the ocean should be protected.

The launch of this resource provides a gateway to all that's known about the biodiversity of New Zealand's oceans. WWF-New Zealand published Shining a Spotlight in 2005, which summarises geographically New Zealand's marine biodiversity priorities from a national perspective; The Treasures of the Sea now completes this family of resources by looking at New Zealand's marine environment species group by species graup. They are fully referenced, peer-reviewed; the information is sourced from the top marine scientists and it is edited by NIWA. Together, they provide a foundation of the best scientific research available to help make decisions to protect New Zealand's amazing, unique and threatened marine life.

Q. Why does New Zealand's marine life need protecting? Many of the species in our oceans are being severely affected by human activity. A glance through Treasures of the Sea will reveal that populations of albatross, fur seals, Hector's dolphin and yellow-eyed penguins have all plummeted; it's suspected that bottom trawling wipes out seamount biodiversity before its discovered, and endemic animals such as Maui's dolphin are being pushed to the brink of extinction.

Currently just 0.27 per cent of our oceans are protected in marine reserves. WWF-commissioned research revealed that 95 per cent of New Zealanders believe that more of the country's coast and seas should be protected by marine reserves. 44 per cent of New Zealand's marine biodiversity only lives here and nowhere else in the world - and as The Treasures of the Sea shows, it's under threat. It's vital we protect New Zealand's marine taonga; it's important to our national identity and the pride we take in the amazing wildlife here - much of which is unique to New Zealand.

Q. Isn't it just fishing that's the problem? Fishing is the number one human threat to marine animals, but marine reserves, like the one at Leigh, protect areas of the ocean from all threats - so that includes mineral explorative extraction, bioprospecting and other potentially damaging activities.

Q. Can anyone access Treasures of the Sea? Yes - as of 29 June 2007, anyone around the world with access to the internet can use The Treasures of the Sea free of charge at www.wwf.org.nz/treasuresofthesea. A limited number of printed versions of the resource will also be available in New Zealand libraries and marine science departments of Universities.

Q. Will it be a live resource that will be updated with fresh scientific research as it becomes available? It would be great to have a live resource and we'd be very happy to talk to anyone interested in funding this - currently though, WWF-New Zealand doesn't have the funds or the capacity to make the Treasures of the Sea a live source of information.

Q. What are the next steps? We will be launching Shining a Spotlight as an online resource in the same style at Treasures of the Sea: we've just received funding from the Biodiversity Fund so later in the year, you'll be able to go to www.wwf.org.nz/shiningaspotlight to find out about New Zealand's geographical hotspots of marine biodiversity. Later this year, we will also produce a future scenarios report which will for the first time reveal what New Zealand oceans may look like in 50 years time, and how a network of marine protected areas could contribute to the nation's economic, social and cultural future.

Q. Who contributed to the project? Many individual scientists contributed to the initial document; WWF-New Zealand funded NIWA to review, edit and complete the research. WWF-New Zealand's supporters have made a vital contribution - their ongoing generosity makes our work possible, without them this resource would not exist. Long standing WWF-New Zealand supporters Tom and Pauline Tusher have been particularly generous in contributing to the funding of Treasures of the Sea. The Biodiversity Fund, administered by the Ministry of Fisheries funded the production of the resource; the Department of Conservation has contributed in many ways including funding the launch event.

Q. What are WWF-New Zealand's goals for marine protection? * Sufficient representative, large areas of New Zealand's marine environment is protected in marine reserves, to ensure all New Zealand's marine life can thrive and function, by 2020 * By 2012 threats to marine species are reduced to a level that allows their recovery by 2050 * Marine fisheries are conducted within environmental limits, ensuring marine habitats and species are not significantly affected, and fish stocks are at healthy levels by 2020.

Q&A on new WWF-New Zealand resource: The Treasures of the Sea: Ngā Taonga a Tangaroa

Q. What is The Treasures of the Sea: Ngā Taonga a Tangaroa? It’s a summary of the biodiversity in the New Zealand Marine Ecoregion - an exciting new online resource from WWF-New Zealand that for the first time provides a gateway to all that’s known about life in our oceans. Edited by Alison MacDiarmid, Principal Scientist at NIWA, The Treasures of the Sea is a species-group based guide containing information on: ecology, special adaptations, behaviour, diet and life history, locations, threats and IUCN threat status, typical habitats, state of information, significance for Maori and key references. The Treasures of the Sea is fully searchable and also features some of the best photography of New Zealand’s marine creatures. The information is sourced from the world’s leading marine scientists, and it is fully referenced and peer reviewed. The Treasures of the Sea complements the 2005 WWF-New Zealand publication Shining a Spotlight, which gives a national overview of New Zealand’s marine biodiversity by priority sites. As of Friday 29 June, The Treasures of the Sea will be live at www.wwf.org.nz/treasuresofthesea.

Q. What is this the purpose of this resource? The Treasures of the Sea will play an important role in helping to protect life in New Zealand’s oceans. Scientific information is the foundation of protecting wildlife effectively. WWF-New Zealand is campaigning for a national network of marine reserves – like Leigh marine reserve - which would protect New Zealand’s amazing marine biodiversity. The government is at the beginning of a process to identify which areas of the ocean should be protected. The launch of this resource provides a gateway to all that’s known about the biodiversity of New Zealand’s oceans. WWF-New Zealand published Shining a Spotlight in 2005, which summarises geographically New Zealand’s marine biodiversity priorities from a national perspective; The Treasures of the Sea now completes this family of resources by looking at New Zealand’s marine environment species group by species graup. They are fully referenced, peer-reviewed; the information is sourced from the top marine scientists and it is edited by NIWA. Together, they provide a foundation of the best scientific research available to help make decisions to protect New Zealand’s amazing, unique and threatened marine life.

Q. Why does New Zealand’s marine life need protecting? Many of the species in our oceans are being severely affected by human activity. A glance through Treasures of the Sea will reveal that populations of albatross, fur seals, Hector’s dolphin and yellow-eyed penguins have all plummeted; it’s suspected that bottom trawling wipes out seamount biodiversity before its discovered, and endemic animals such as Maui’s dolphin are being pushed to the brink of extinction. Currently just 0.27 per cent of our oceans are protected in marine reserves. WWF-commissioned research revealed that 95 per cent of New Zealanders believe that more of the country’s coast and seas should be protected by marine reserves. 44 per cent of New Zealand’s marine biodiversity only lives here and nowhere else in the world – and as The Treasures of the Sea shows, it’s under threat. It’s vital we protect New Zealand’s marine taonga; it’s important to our national identity and the pride we take in the amazing wildlife here – much of which is unique to New Zealand.

Q. Isn’t it just fishing that’s the problem? Fishing is the number one human threat to marine animals, but marine reserves, like the one at Leigh, protect areas of the ocean from all threats – so that includes mineral explorative extraction, bioprospecting and other potentially damaging activities.

Q. Can anyone access Treasures of the Sea? Yes – as of 29 June 2007, anyone around the world with access to the internet can use The Treasures of the Sea free of charge at www.wwf.org.nz/treasuresofthesea. A limited number of printed versions of the resource will also be available in New Zealand libraries and marine science departments of Universities.

Q. Will it be a live resource that will be updated with fresh scientific research as it becomes available? It would be great to have a live resource and we’d be very happy to talk to anyone interested in funding this – currently though, WWF-New Zealand doesn’t have the funds or the capacity to make the Treasures of the Sea a live source of information.

Q. What are the next steps? We will be launching Shining a Spotlight as an online resource in the same style at Treasures of the Sea: we’ve just received funding from the Biodiversity Fund so later in the year, you’ll be able to go to www.wwf.org.nz/shiningaspotlight to find out about New Zealand’s geographical hotspots of marine biodiversity. Later this year, we will also produce a future scenarios report which will for the first time reveal what New Zealand oceans may look like in 50 years time, and how a network of marine protected areas could contribute to the nation’s economic, social and cultural future.

Q. Who contributed to the project? Many individual scientists contributed to the initial document; WWF-New Zealand funded NIWA to review, edit and complete the research. WWF-New Zealand’s supporters have made a vital contribution – their ongoing generosity makes our work possible, without them this resource would not exist. Long standing WWF-New Zealand supporters Tom and Pauline Tusher have been particularly generous in contributing to the funding of Treasures of the Sea. The Biodiversity Fund, administered by the Ministry of Fisheries funded the production of the resource; the Department of Conservation has contributed in many ways including funding the launch event.

Q. What are WWF-New Zealand’s goals for marine protection? Sufficient representative, large areas of New Zealand’s marine environment is protected in marine reserves, to ensure all New Zealand’s marine life can thrive and function, by 2020 By 2012 threats to marine species are reduced to a level that allows their recovery by 2050 Marine fisheries are conducted within environmental limits, ensuring marine habitats and species are not significantly affected, and fish stocks are at healthy levels by 2020.

ENDS

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