This interactive demonstrates bioaccumulation of marine toxins. It shows how toxins move through a marine food web. You will need the Adobe Flash Player to view this.
Toxicity can be measured by the effect the substance has on an organism, a tissue or a cell. We know that individuals will respond differently to the same dose of a substance because of a number ...
Mussels (including green-lipped mussels) are filter feeders – they process large volumes of the water they live in to obtain food. Filter feeding is a method of eating that is used by diverse ...
Mussels are filter feeders. They draw in seawater and filter out phytoplankton and sediments, cleaning the water as they go. This 25-second video is a before and after display of murky seawater ...
Cockles are classified as bivalves within the phylum Mollusca. (Almost all shelled marine animals, as well as octopus and squid, are molluscs.) The New Zealand cockle, also known as tuaki or ...
Green-lipped mussels are endemic to New Zealand. They make their home on rocks and solid surfaces around New Zealand’s coastline. Mussel life cycle During its life cycle, the green-lipped mussel ...
Mussels are bivalve molluscs. New Zealand has 22 species of mussel including the blue mussel (kuku), little black mussel (hauea) and the ribbed mussel (pukanikani). Depending on the species ...
In this activity, students model bioaccumulation of toxins in marine animals. They participate in a food web game where feeding decisions determine their survival. By the end of this activity ...
Use this animated video to see 3 things needed for sound to be heard. We’re heading under water to see how the sound of a kina travels.
The New Zealand pea crab (Nepinnotheres novaezelandiae) is a parasite that spends its adult life within a mussel shell. However, the larval stages of its life cycle take place in the open ocean ...
On 5 October 2011, Maritime New Zealand was called to respond to an ‘incident’ in the early hours of the morning. The 236 m cargo vessel Rena had struck the Astrolabe Reef about 12 nautical miles ...
Green-lipped mussels are New Zealand’s major aquaculture species. Explore how green-lipped mussels are farmed in New Zealand, the way that the industry has developed and the challenges that ...
Wayfinding is about all of the ways in which people and animals orient themselves in physical space and navigate from place to place. Traditionally, wayfinding referred to the navigation of ocean ...
In this activity, students work in small groups and come up with their own classification system for a number of marine organisms. By the end of this activity, students should be able to: explain ...
The sea is our taonga. Our connections to it are strong. More than 75% of New Zealanders live within 10 km of the coast, and the sea is an important part of our Kiwi lifestyle – whether we use it ...
If someone dropped you off several kilometres from your house, how would you know where you are and how would you find your way home? Chances are you would use visual clues – streets, buildings ...
NIWA's Maori development officer, Apanui Skipper and Weno Iti, the Te Kūwaha manager (NIWA Māori Development Centre), describe what kaitiakitanga means to them.
Green-lipped mussels are New Zealand’s major aquaculture species. In this interactive, Professor Andrew Jeffs (Leigh Marine Laboratory) describes the key stages in farming green-lipped mussels.
Scientists and hapū are investigating whether kina (a New Zealand sea urchin) can become our next high-value nutraceutical, functional food product. A nutraceutical is a food or part of a food ...
In 2009, some grey side-gilled sea slugs (Pleurobranchaea maculata) were found to be toxic following the deaths of several dogs on Auckland beaches. It was not previously known that these slugs ...
Hearing is the ability to detect sound. Human hearing The most obvious part of the human auditory system is the ear. This large protuberance on the outside of the head is just one part of a ...
Kina are a particular species of sea urchin endemic to New Zealand. Most of us can identify a kina shell found on a beach as a mottled green globe (sometimes intact) with a hole in the base. When ...
In this activity, students explore Māori perspectives concerning estuaries. By the end of this activity, students should be able to: explain how a Māori legend can show aspects of Māori thinking ...
Biodiversity is short for biological diversity. It refers to the number and variety of living things (animals, plants or microorganisms) found within a particular area. There are complex ...
