NASA snaps Chathams algal bloom

NASA

RING OF PLANKTON: This satellite image taken by NASA shows an algal bloom surrounding the Chatham Islands.

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A satellite has captured a dramatic plankton bloom that is surrounding the Chatham Islands, New Zealand's most productive fishing ground.

US space agency NASA released the image today.

It said it was taken last Saturday from its Aqua satellite which is part of Nasa's Earth Observing System. Aqua and sister satellite Terra orbit the Earth from pole to pole, seeing most of the globe each day.

The bloom of plant-like organisms known as phytoplankton is a natural phenomena.

Like plants, these organisms contain chlorophyll and other light-harvesting pigments for photosynthesis.

The pigments change the way the surface of the ocean reflects and absorbs sunlight, creating colourful swirls that trace the location of the bloom.

The Chatham Islands are at the eastern end of a feature called the Chatham Rise — an underwater plateau that stretches eastward from the South Island for about a thousand kilometres.

The relatively shallow depth of the water over the rise, combined with its location at a subtropical front (a boundary where warm waters in the north mix with cold, sub-Antarctic waters to the south), make the area especially hospitable to phytoplankton blooms.

The plankton support productive fisheries.

- © Fairfax NZ News