Spring is in the ... tidal current

This project is knocking on the door of 1300 observations, making it the largest and most successful of the New Zealand marine reserve projects to date.

With another substantial contribution of observations from Donnacha Ó Súilleabháin it is apparent that spring is on its way. Many of the male triplefins photographed in the reserve recently are in their breeding colours meaning they're likely to be courting females and guarding eggs.

Observations from last summer indicate it was a good one for the recruitment of leatherjackets and trevally on to the South Coast with large numbers of recently settled juveniles photographed in the marine reserve. Juveniles of several other species of interest were also noted in the reserve, those being magpie morwong, goatfish and red moki.

Donnacha Ó Súilleabháin has also posted several images of an undescribed species of anemone ('Undescribed species 1, pp 164-165, New Zealand Coastal Marine Invertebrates) found in the reserve (https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/15130946, https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/14879709). Although undescribed, this species is common on subtidal rocky reefs from Northland to Stewart Island. The fact that it remains undescribed highlights how little we know about even common coastal species.

Publicado el 05 de agosto de 2018 por clinton