Thursday, May 24, 2012

Trip to Riversdale and Castle Point


A glorious day for a trip up to Riversdale and Castle Point today with Jeff Forman and Dean Stotter. They were checking on some Rock Lobster (Crayfish) traps they have there and didn’t mind me tagging along with them.
Back in February, Dean had shown me some baby lobsters (puerulus) they had collected. These little guys get around that’s for sure! Quite staggering really. They hatch from under their mother’s tail and then spend the next 18 months as larvae far out at sea. They then find their way to shore and into sheltered nooks and cracks (and lobster traps) metamorphosing into a transparent, miniature lobster (puerulus). They then grow and moult until they are mature (about 6 years old)
The purpose of having these Lobster Traps is to keep an average count of Rock Lobster at the puerulus stage so a quota can be set for fishing in 5 years time. NZ exports a lot of lobster to Japan and China.
Jeff has other people checking traps around the coast of NZ in places like Jacksons Bay, Moeraki and Kaikoura in the South Island and up north near Napier.
Jeff and Dean have been doing this once a month for the last 20 years! Certainly work well together!

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Black Coral

I had heard that corals were animals (even though they look like plants to me!). Working in the Collection Room though means I have been in contact with some amazing Black coral and have learnt a bit more about them.
Corals are animals that live in a compact colony of heaps of tiny polyps. They secrete calcium carbonate (same stuff shells are made of) to form a hard skeleton.

Black corals are branch-like and are related to sea anemones.  They uniquely have tiny spines that can be very sharp and they cover the surface of the skeleton.
Dean and Black Coral.
There are around 58 black coral species in NZ and they mainly are found in dark waters between 200 – 1000m in depth.  Because the waters are so dark in the Fiordland National Park though, they can be found as shallow as 10m depth.
Black Corals are a protected species and it is illegal to collect this unless you have a special permit. Even then, with a special permit- you can only pass it on to someone else if they have a special permit too!

oh, and an octopus today as well!

Monday, May 21, 2012

Niwa's Supercomputer!

Here at Niwa in Wellington, is one of the most powerful supercomputers in the world! It is one of its kind and has been running since 2010. This computer cost  $12.7 million and is focused on  problems of national and international significance – from climate change and natural hazards forecasting to modelling the human body.
The IBM p575 POWER6 supercomputer is one of the most powerful computers in the world for use in environmental research and forecasting and the most powerful of its kind in the southern hemisphere.


Photography credit: NIWA



The Niwa Website has a fantastic video telling you all about this powerful computer. Click here to view.

The Weather Report

Most weeks, Niwa's Stuart Moore gives a weather briefing for the following weekend. Here is an example of last weekend's forecast- it was quite accurate.

Click here for more information on reading a weather map.

Friday, May 18, 2012

Argo Floats missing in action!

I was checking on how the Argo Floats we helped get ready were down south and saw that 3 were missing! They hadn't come back up to the surface to send off data for nearly 3 weeks. Feeling a little concerned and being the responsible person that I am, I pointed this out - only to get the reply "Carol, I'm not sure whether you're familiar with the way the "ice-avoiding" floats work"
These three Floats are down around the Ross Ice Shelf.

From early autumn to late spring every year Antarctica’s sea ice almost doubles the size of the continent!
This means though that Argo Floats in this area get caught under the ice. If they hit or rub up against floating ice they can be damaged or destroyed.
 
So they avoid ice (sounds like a good plan!)
There are especially designed ice-sensing floats that check the ocean temperature each time they ascend. If the temperature gets very close to the freezing point, the float will stop heading towards the surface at 5-10 m depth and go back to its parking depth, and try again 7-10 days later.

The float stores its profile data in memory. There is enough memory in this type of float to store as many as 68 profiles (although it is usually doesn't need to store more than 40 profiles between contacts with the satellite) Data transmission through the Iridium system is quite fast and each profile can be uploaded in no more than 2 minutes.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Leadership in Action

Kousez and Posner write:
“The Leadership Challenge is about how leaders mobilize others to want to get extraordinary things done in organisations. It’s about the practices leaders use to transform values into actions, visions into realities, obstacles into innovations, separateness into solidarity, and risks into rewards. It’s about leadership that creates the climate in which people turn challenging opportunities into remarkable success.”
(From preface The Leadership Challenge Kousez and Posner, 2007 p3)
The Five Practices of LeadershipKousez and Posner identify the five practices:

Monday, May 14, 2012

Fern Spore

After the very cool visit to Nga Manu, I came across this amazing video clip of Fern Spore. Not a fern we saw, but a fascinating mechanism anyway!

A visit to Nga Manu

I had a fantastic time with two fellow Teacher Fellows, Wendy and Steve last Wednesday. Wendy showed us around Nga Manu, a Nature Reserve that she is based at. Nga Manu Nature Reserve is a 14 hectare reserve located just north of the Waikanae township on the Kapiti Coast of New Zealand. It encompasses the largest single remaining remnant of coastal lowland swamp forest on the Kapiti Coast. 


Hope I got the fern names right Wendy! Many thanks for the insightful tour!

Saturday, May 12, 2012

Ocean acidification- a purpose-built experimental facility

Graeme is at it again! ( I owe this guy a fruit cake!) Here he is explaining about a purpose-built experimental facility for testing Ocean Acidification. Increased CO2 means a lowering of the Ocean's pH. Animals at a lower pH actually loss shell weight, which means the shells are dissolving under the more acidic conditions, or they arent generating new shell as quickly as they would have under normal conditions. Apologies for the sound (again) Lots of water around! Click on the image for the link to the youtube clip

Paua Aquaculture

Graeme Moss works closely with the Paua breeding programme. You can't but help notice where his passion is! Once again, being in a watery environment the sound isn't that great- apologies for this. Click on the image for a link to the youtube clip. There is a transcript for this.

Sea Cucumbers

Graeme Moss works out at Mahanga Bay Aquaculture Base and very kindly showed Puti and myself around. Here is a small clip showing the Sea Cucumber growing there. Click on the image for the link to the youtube clip.

Sea Cucumber can grow well under Paua farms. Despite its appearance, the creature is popular in Asian cuisine and is also used medicinally.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Christchurch- a year on

We were in Christchurch last weekend for a cousin's wedding. While there, we had a chance to drive around and see the devastation from the February 2011 Earthquake. Christchurch is a special place to me. I taught here for 3 fantastic years once. You cant help but feel moved! Hardly a recognizable landmark. Inner city a sorry sight. Kia Kaha Christchurch!

Friday, May 4, 2012

Carter Observatory


As part of our Curriculum workshop days, we had a field trip in to Wellington, to New Zealand's longest-serving national observatory- the Carter Observatory 



A strong emphasis on Te Reo Maori and beautiful displays throughout. It is fantastic seeing what a contribution Kiwis have made to the Astronomic field.
 A great exhibition to learn about the science, culture and heritage of astronomy from a uniquely Kiwi perspective
  

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Primary Teacher Fellows

What a intellectual bunch!
Primary Teacher Fellows 2012

Curriculum Day- Balloon Racers!


It was terrific meeting up with the other Primary Teacher Fellows for 2 curriculum days. We are having such an amazing time! A fresh approach to BP Challenges today. We had to create a balloon racer that would go the furthest. Using a meat tray, balloon, selotape, compass, 2 straws, and 4 pins. 
 Quite a variety of different designs.

 Something new to me with BP Racers was being given time after the first competition to refine designs, looking at one variable. This was so much more satisfying! Asking "why that didnt work? " and "what next?"And by focusing on one variable we were also given extra materials to assist- eg. looking at propulsion, friction, wheel design - and therefore having a chance to succeed. Often BP Challenges leave a poor feeling for failures! I'm definitely going to follow through like this once back doing BP Challenges at school!

Wednesday, May 2, 2012

Paua Turning Over




Click on the image for a link to the youtube clip.

Mahanga Bay facility

Puti and I visited Mahanga Bay today. This is an aquaculture research facility with all sorts of different things. They are growing trout here and sea cucumbers. A main focus is on breeding Paua and Graeme Moss explained the paua programme to us - fascinating!I'm going to help Graeme measure paua at the end of the month. Mahanga Bay are also researching the effects of Ocean Acidification in a specially devised room.

More from the Collection Room

Another Teacher Fellow, Puti, visited today. We worked in the Collection Room and also visited the Aquaculture Research Facility at Mahanga Bay.
Here are some more photos from the Collection Room. (More on Mahanga Bay shortly!)

Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Preparing samples for the Collection Room


I'm helping Dean prepare sample for the Invertebrate Collection Room at the moment. The Collection Room has an estimated number of 300,000 jars of samples that have been collected over 50 years. Thousands of samples are added through ongoing collection programmes each year.







The samples I am preparing were collected late last year and have been 'fixed' in Ethanol and stored in plastic bags. It is amazing looking at the different sorts of starfish, sea urchins, and gross-looking sea cucumbers! Will get to learn the proper names soon no doubt!







A Sea Cucumber

Large Kina (Sea urchin)

Crab and home- resting on my blue glove.

Starfish

Brittle Star