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Where land meets sea, the Rena disaster – writer's ...

On 5 October 2011, the cargo vessel Rena was grounded on the Astrolabe Reef off the Tauranga coast. The ship was carrying 1,368 containers, 1,700 tonnes of heavy fuel oil and about 70 tonnes of ...

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ARTICLE

Investigating life in the sea – introduction

New Zealand is surrounded by the sea, and scientists estimate that as much as 80% of our known species are found in the seas around New Zealand. This marine environment not only provides a ...

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ARTICLE

Marine food webs

Feeding relationships are often shown as simple food chains – in reality, these relationships are much more complex, and the term ‘food web’ more accurately shows the links between producers ...

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ACTIVITY

Estuary metaphors

In this activity, students discuss how a variety of everyday objects can serve as metaphors for the important characteristics and functions of estuaries. By the end of this activity, students ...

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ACTIVITY

Finding a female

In this activity, students play a card game that models the journey of a male pea crab (a parasite of green-lipped mussels) from his mussel host and back again. Purpose This activity will help ...

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ACTIVITY

Responding to Rena

In this activity, students consider short-term and long-term responses to an environmental disaster such as the Rena. By the end of this activity, students should be able to: describe what might ...

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Explore related citizen science projects

CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECT

iNaturalist

iNaturalist logs hundreds of thousands of photos of flora, fauna and fungi. There are even sound recordings too. Each is described and geo located. iNaturalist is used by citizens and scientists ...

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CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECT

Penguin Watch – Zooniverse

Help scientists establish valuable baseline data about the numbers, locations, habits and health of penguins in a range of Southern Ocean sites. This information will enable better understanding ...

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CITIZEN SCIENCE PROJECT

Spyfish Aotearoa

Come and visit Aotearoa New Zealand’s underwater world in this online citizen science project. Discover, count and identify unique fish species that live within our marine reserves ...

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TEACHER PLD

Living World – The rocky shore

The rocky shore is a popular topic in primary school science. Below are some Science Learning Hub resources for primary teachers related to the rocky shore in the Living World strand of the New ...

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TEACHER PLD

Conserving native birds – unit plan

New Zealand is well known for its unique bird life. Our endemic birds evolved in an isolated, island environment. The arrival of people, the deliberate and accidental introduction of mammalian ...

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TEACHER PLD

Diving into inquiry with whio

In this recorded professional learning session, Shanthie Walker from DOC and Lyn Rogers explore why the whio/blue duck is so important to New Zealand. They use the Department of Conservation Whio ...

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Explore related videos

VIDEO

Finding the dog killer

Paul McNabb of the Cawthron Institute in Nelson explains how they got involved with the dog deaths on Auckland beaches. He takes us on the journey the scientists went through to identify what ...

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VIDEO

Understanding food webs

In this video, Associate Professor Stephen Wing, from the University of Otago, talks about how our understanding of food webs has changed over the years. We now have a much better understanding ...

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VIDEO

Rapid response to the Rena

Immediately following the grounding of the Rena on the Astrolabe Reef, the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic and the University of Waikato formed a marine response team. This team surveyed local marine ...

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INTERACTIVE

Marine ecosystem

Explore this interactive diagram to learn more about life in the sea. Click on the different labels to view short video clips or images about different parts of the marine ecosystem.

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INTERACTIVE

Environmental forensics

Dr Candida Savage explains the clues she collects in estuaries and fiords, to understand how changes in land use affect these environments.

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INTERACTIVE

Threats to marine habitats

Human actions at sea and on land are putting increasing pressure on the ocean and the species that live there.

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