Reef Engineering
INSITU-CAMERA (Mk. 1&2)
IN-SITU CAMERAS (Project Reef, Taranaki)
Engineering and innovation play a central role - the Team have collaborated with Leith at Wells Instrument and Electrical– to develop a robust insitu camera to capture video day and night at the reef. A strict maintenance program (for a wide range of equipment) is managed by Project Engineer Richie.
The first Mark I version has been updated in 2019 and the Project now has a Mark II version – named ‘Stingray’.
This survey component has been designed to monitor the diversity of fish at the reef in day and night, capture information on seasonal variations amongst the reef fish community and capture fish behaviour.
The camera is retrieved in order to download the images and recharge the battery power source.
Species observed are uploaded to I-naturalist, a publicly accessible database. Any unusual observations are shared with NIWA and Te-Papa fish scientists.
PLANKTON TOW
PLANKTON TOW (Project Reef Life)
The Project was most appreciative to have a net donated from NIWA out of old stores stock, and our Project Engineer Richie then built a metal hoop and rope pulley mechanism... creating the Project Reef Life Plankton Tow. While there is limited data on zooplankton in the South Taranaki Bight, the region is considered very productive. The Patea shoals in a NIWA survey was found to have an area with high biomass dominated by salps, juvenile euphausiids and copepods.