Knock Knock. Who's There? Shark.
By Earth Touch News July 17 2014
In a classic case of 'oh hai!', a juvenile white shark, dolphins and a mishmash of fish (fish-mash?) came in for their closeup during a National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (NIWA) research expedition in New Zealand.
Using a small beam trawler to study seafloor ecosystems, NIWA marine ecologist Dr. Meredith Lowe hopes to better understand what types of habitats are present in the area, and most importantly, what types of fish are associated with them – which will help policy makers make better fishery management decisions.
"Our knowledge of what lives in the coastal zone is scant," she says on the project website. "[These] habitats are important, but have largely been ignored in the past," she says. "There are still huge knowledge gaps but this gives us the fundamental framework to go forward."
Adding GoPros to the team's underwater arsenal revealed some surprises, like the shark bumping into the camera's bait pot. "This coastal region is one of the most species diverse nationally," Lowe says. "This work has shown that this rich diversity also extends to seafloor habitat ... and the fish species which live in them."
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