Ocean Survey 20/20 Moves to Bay of Islands

New Zealand’s Ocean Survey 20/20 programme is moving inshore to coastal waters with a survey of the seabed in the Bay of Islands.

The two-year $5.5 million programme has just begun, with the surveying confined to the desktop in the coming months before the field work gets underway.

Although the waters of the Bay of Islands are well known, a survey of this scope and intensity in New Zealand’s coastal waters is uncharted territory. The Ocean Survey 20/20 programme aims to provide mapping information that will enable New Zealand to more effectively develop and manage its ocean and coastal physical and biological resources sustainably.

Surveys completed to date – on the Challenger Plateau and Chatham Rise, and in the Ross Sea – have focused on deepwater environments, well offshore.

The Bay of Islands survey will be a different kettle of fish – literally. The marine environment there is under increasing pressure from competing interests, including aquaculture,fisheries, tourism and recreation, while impacts from land-based human activities are also making an impact.

Matt Grant is LINZ’s Ocean Survey 20/20 coordinator for the Bay of Islands work. He says the programme is still in its preliminary phase.

“We are currently doing scoping work and setting up the governance arrangements,” he explains. “An initial scoping group for the project has been set up involving LINZ, the Ministry of Fisheries and Department of Conservation. This will later be extended into a governance group including other central government agencies and the Northland Regional Council. There will also be a technical working group that will work with a provider to develop the survey design and oversee the survey work.”

The project has been mandated to gather a wide range of datasets that will stocktake physical and biological resources in the waters of the Bay of Islands. The survey will feature some seismic work and data gathered will include the composition of sediments and geological structures, water quality, bacteria, algae, the fauna living in and on the sediments, bottom-feeding fish and opportunistic surveys of seabirds, marine mammals and reefs.

The main area to be surveyed is contained inside a line that joins Capes Brett and Wiwiki, which flank the entrance to the Bay of Islands. An area outside this line down to 200 metres deep will also be surveyed, but not as intensively.

“The first work will probably be a bathymetric survey of the area,” Matt says. “This will provide data about the sediment layers and guide our planning for the biological work. That is likely to be a mix of seafloor sampling and underwater camera work.”

Matt says the survey will provide excellent baseline data for the future, and a snapshot of the current state of biodiversity. “Unlike the previous offshore surveys, this work will see much more involvement with local government and local interest groups. Specialist advice from the Ministry of Fisheries, Department of Conservation, the Northland Regional Council and the survey service providers will be vital to the way the programme is designed,” he concludes.