Oceans

NIWA has transformed 1.5 million square kilometres of data into the most accurate and detailed map yet of the land underneath the sea around New Zealand.

New Zealand’s coast is sculpted by ocean waves. Some wave conditions bring joy to surfers and beachgoers, but, at other times, waves can cause major hazards at sea or along the shore.

An interactive guide to the sponges of New Zealand.

An interactive guide to the intertidal sponges of New Zealand.

NIWA puts a lot of things in the ocean—instruments tied to moorings, floats that dive up and down measuring what’s going on in the water, and video cameras that monitor fish.

Pollen from New Zealand pine forests has been shown to travel more than 1500km through wind and ocean currents, and sink thousands of metres into the ocean to reach some of the world’s deepest ecosystems.

The sounds of whales and dolphins rarely seen in New Zealand waters have been recorded by a NIWA scientist in a pioneering underwater sound project.

This week we feature a community of critters living on the Chatham Rise sea floor.

In this critter "quill" is not part of a feather but rather a unique tube built by a polychaete worm that lives in it.

Huge mudslides from November’s earthquakes have wiped out all organisms living in the seabed of the Kaikōura Canyon.