Revamped marine lab opens doors

DELWYN DICKEY

Stage two of an ambitious building project by Auckland University overlooking the Leigh Marine Reserve officially opened last Thursday.

Rodney mayor Penny Webster cut the ribbon.

It is part of a major upgrade of the Leigh Marine Laboratory, including a public Interpretive Centre named after Edith Winston Blackwell whose trust donated $4.5 million of the $10m project cost.

An upgrade on the 30-year-old buildings was long overdue. The new building will also have modern laboratories, lecture rooms and offices.

Connecting with the 350,000 people who visit the marine reserve each year, encouraging a better understanding of the importance of the marine environment, along with having a shop front for some of the laboratory's research projects is the reason for including the Interpretive Centre, director professor John Montgomery says.

The 547-hectare reserve established in 1977 was the first of its type in the world with its first director Dr Bill Ballantyne being instrumental in the creation of the Marine Reserve Act.

Most of the research at the facility involves study of the marine environment, followed by commercial marine research.

The possible use of minute electrical fields as a deterrent for fish is being looked at by masters student Sunkita Howard.

"Commercial fishing on the Chatham Rise off the Christchurch coast – New Zealand's most productive and important fishing ground – is plagued by low commercial value spiny dogfish being caught on long lines. Using a minute electric field which acts as a deterrent to the dogfish but not the target fish may be possible."

More diverse outcomes are being sought by Japanese PhD graduate researcher Kas Yanase.

He hopes studying lateral line control on kingfish could lead to developments in sports science for competitive swimmers, better design of underwater vehicles and "understanding the mystery of why fish are able to swim effectively in an often turbulent aquatic environment".

Other studies include the effects of climate change on snapper in the Mahurangi Harbour, and why pygmy sperm whales eject an ink like squids.

International research is also undertaken here with associate professor Mark Costello, the lead author in a 10-year study involving more than 360 scientists worldwide.

The result was more than 230,000 known marine species catagorised from 25 areas around the world.

"This inventory was urgently needed for two reasons," says Dr Costello.

"First, dwindling expertise in taxonomy impairs society's ability to discover and describe new species.

"Second, marine species have suffered major declines – in some cases 90 percent losses – due to human activities and may be heading for extinction, as happened to many species on land."

Our isolation at the bottom of the Pacific has not only given us a high proportion of unique plant and animal species on land, but also around our coast, he says.

With half of our marine life unique to our seas, this puts us up with Antarctica as having the highest number of endemic marine species of any area in the world, the study says.

The Interpretive Centre will be the final stage and is expected to open by January.

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