Arquivos de periódicos de setembro 2016

02 de setembro de 2016

Exploring the Moana After a Tsunami Warning Cancelled

Disclaimer: I do not recommend disregarding Tsunami Warnings and Advisory Notices

Ruaumoko threw a tantrum on 2 September 2016 off the coast of Te Araroa resulting in a 7.1 magnitude earthquake and Civil Defence issued a tsunami warning, - which included Otaipango - that later they cancelled although they did advise "Expect unusually strong currents and unpredictable water flows near the shore. Say out of the water and off beaches and shore areas."

Now I had already planned the day before to go and wander around in the moana this day and even through CD had issued the warnings and advisory notice, the day was fine and the tides were good so off we went. One of the first things I do every time going into the moana, regardless of warnings, is from the cliffs looking down to check the currents, wind, waves, birds, clouds, smells, surf sound and rocks. All of these are tools that when used correctly will let you know what is happening and what will happen in a few hours at the beach and if you know how to read and interpret them correctly then it is easy to work out if it is safe to go in and where to go. So after assessing the main Otaipango and deciding it was not safe there we went and checked out Kauere which passed the safety test and in we went.

As usual we had a wonderful time, seeing the usual suspects as well as discovering beautiful and new creatures we had not seen before and of course, no wandering around would be complete without spotting at least one wheke (octopus) and this one was a cheeky little poser! Check out the full post to see what this one did LOL

Disclaimer: I do not recommend disregarding Tsunami Warnings and Advisory Notices

Posted on 02 de setembro de 2016, 10:24 PM by tangatawhenua tangatawhenua | 11 observações | 1 comentário | Deixar um comentário

16 de setembro de 2016

Collecting Seaweed Samples

Today was the first day that @rongoa and I went collecting seaweed samples for DNA sampling and also to add to collections at various places. We had planned on getting a sample or certain target species that had been requested, photographing them, then removing them, bagging them in numbered bags and filling the bags with sea water then taking a photograph of the bag and the number. Well that was the plan.

It worked well for the first three then we found an area that had 4 of our target species in one place, so I photographed all of them, removed them and gave them to @rongoa who bagged them then photographed them. Then we moved on and found others in different areas.

We then discovered when it came time to carry all of the bags up the cliff how heavy they were! Will have to use a back pack the next time we do this!

Then when I got home and trying to match the photos with the bags for the ones that were not done in sequence was a mission!

We are now going to re-think our collection method so we don't have heavy bags to carry up a cliff and I can easily match all of the seris of photos :)

Here they all are :D

Posted on 16 de setembro de 2016, 11:00 AM by tangatawhenua tangatawhenua | 14 observações | 0 comentários | Deixar um comentário

28 de setembro de 2016

Wandering My Ancestral Lands

I am very priviledged to have over a thousand years of whakapapa coming from the North Cape area, starting from the various pa around there, meandering through the centuries and down to me. So when I was given the opportunity to go on a field trip to North Cape I jumped at the chance. However the first trip there clashed with me wandering around overseas but Tawhirimatea, who is a great friend of mine, made sure that the work was not finished so another trip was arranged and this time those dates were when I was in Aotearoa, so naturally they worked :)

Being a part of Nature Watch this past year has opened my eyes to all of the things that I have not seen and having my own personal plant guides at home was an added bonus as they made sure that I saw the rarer plants that have made the North Cape their final stronghold.

Here is a small selection of some of the obs from there, and probably plants that you may never see in situ.

Posted on 28 de setembro de 2016, 07:33 PM by tangatawhenua tangatawhenua | 10 observações | 2 comentários | Deixar um comentário