Death to rats, possums and stoats!

Today I got to experience some more of the field work that DOC is involved in around Mt Taranaki. Ranger Dean Caskey has a number of responsibilities, and I had already spent a day working with Blue Ducks (Whio) with him. Today we were doing maintenance on a trap line, fixing the traps to pegs hammered in the ground so that they were less likely to be accidentally (or deliberately) tripped by a stray boot. We covered about 5km of trap lines, so more than 10 km including getting in there and the return journey. Dean was like a mountain goat, whereas I was more like a stranded seal! Out of the 50 traps we only found one dead rat, an encouraging sign after the recent 1080 drop. We did find some possum sign, including bark stripped off the lower trunk of a tree. We also found the remains of a recent plane crash on the track! Spending a day with Dean was exhausting, but it was also great to hear him talk about the amazing biodiversity on the mountain, and to see his commitment to this environment.

Experiencing Marine Reserves

This last week I got a chance to talk to teachers at Mercury Bay Area School about their involvement in the Experiencing Marine Reserves programme.

Paul Cook, a teacher in the secondary side of the school, runs the Marine Academy. This is a part of the school where students learn to dive (through the local dive shop), and also learn about the marine environment and the way people use it, through recreation and employment. The academy makes good use of the local Te Whanganui-a-hei marine reserve.

Year 8 students at the school all take part in Experiencing Marine Reserves, a programme that teaches snorkeling skills and awareness of the marine environment. They use an inquiry approach to learning. They are able to talk about and share their learning.

Of course, I had to check out their playground too, and went for a snorkel at Gemstone Bay in the Te Whanganui-a-hei reserve. The water was beautiful, warm and clear. I was immediately struck by the contrast between here, and places I had dived outside of the reserve. There were far more fish and crayfish inside the reserve, but most noticeable was the amount of seaweed. Outside of the reserve there are numerous “kina barrens”, areas where the kina have removed all the seaweed, and there is only bare rock, because the snapper and crayfish in particular have been overfished. They are the main predators of kina. There were rock faces covered in beautiful anemones, and jellyfish of all different shapes and sizes – not a bad classroom for the students at Mercury Bay Area School!

Diving at the Sugar Loaf Islands Marine Park

The problem with Marine Reserves is the average person only sees the surface of the sea, they don't have the privilege of seeing just what is underneath. The west coast doesn't have the visibility of the east coast most of the time, but on a good day such as we had recently, the diving was fantastic. Callum Lilley took these great shots at Saddleback Island off New Plymouth during exceptional conditions last month. We could see each other from more than 15 metres away. The shell is the operculum (or door, like a catseye) to a cook's turban shell. The spotted animal is called a clown nudibranch, a type of sea slug. Nudibranch means 'naked gills' and you can see the gills on its back. Next time you look at the sea, just think for a moment about what might be beneath.

School Holidays

Well, like all teachers and students, the last 2 weeks have been the holidays. While it was time for me to get some University assignments done, there was also time for my son, two friends and I to head down to the Mackenzie country in the South Island, and do some rabbit and hare hunting, as well as just enjoy the magnificent scenery.

One thing the Fellowship has provided me with is an appreciation of the value of observation in our daily lives, which also extends into science. This little gecko I found hiding under a rock, after watching a quick little skink dash under the same rock. It was interesting to see just how placid the gecko was, probably because it was early morning and the temperature was still fairly low. It wriggled away happily after a quick photo. Use the opportunities you have each day to observe and question!