Taipari Roa (Elizabeth Island) Marine Reserve
Taipari Roa (Elizabeth Island) Marine Reserve is a marine reserve covering an area of around Elizabeth Island, in the inner Doubtful Sound / Patea of Fiordland on New Zealand's South Island. It was established in 2005 and is administered by the Department of Conservation. Geography and ecology In the fiords, heavy rainfall runs off from the surrounding mountains creates a permanent freshwater layer to about to below the surface. Further down, a layer of calm, clear and warm seawater provides a habitat for a range of sponges, corals and fish to about below the surface. There is an extensive rock wall habitat on the western side of Elizabeth Island, and there are deep kelp beds on the southern side of the island. In the relatively shallow channel on eastern side, a range of suspension feeders including black corals, red corals and zoanthids. On the southern side of the reserve, Rolla Island is a habitat for the Fiordland Crested Penguin. Bottlenose dolphins often visit the reserve. There are also a range of bright yellow glass sponges that are unique to this fiord and caves in Jamaica. History The steep landscape of the fiord shaped by ice glaciers, which melted during ice