Scientific Work

On our last vessel, in conjunction with NIWA scientists we discovered new species in Fiordland that was featured on TV One News (New Zealand’s national news channel) including the Giant Seapens. These are deep-water plants that live on plankton at 120 metres depth.

Black coral

Fiordland is also unique in that species usually living at great depths are visible due to a light-absorbing fresh water layer, which allows them to become established at much shallower depths. An annual rainfall of 6500mm (in comparison, Los Angeles receives 325mm, while Auckland and Sydney get 1200mm), combined with the run-off from surrounding mountains provides a tannin-like colour to the water, creating a light barrier which encourages these plants and animals to thrive.

The water is relatively warm and remarkably clear, giving us the chance to see flora and fauna usually out of reach – for example, black coral, saucer sponge, large tube anemone, spiny sea dragons and other species usually confined to far greater depth.

The most prized of these, and normally only discovered in deep oceans, is black coral which can be viewed at shallow depths of 15-50 metres in Milford Sound because of this unique layer. The tree-like coral is said to be worth more than diamonds on a weight-for-weight basis – undoubtedly a reason why it is listed as endangered in the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species and protected by law in New Zealand.

Corals are invertebrate animals – the skeleton of the Milford Sound black coral is black, but it is covered by living tissue which is white. This makes the coral appear a brilliant white, rather than black.