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Lost your password? Create an account * * * * * * Home * Stories * Video * VR * Photography * Audio * Store https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-stuff-of-life/?source=homepage https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/annihilation/?source=homepage https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/a-kind-of-magic/?source=homepage https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/ba-gerk/?source=homepage https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/ba-gerk/?source=homepage Read more Living World THE LIFE AND TIMES OF SHAG 224796 Kawau tikitiki, spotted shags, are a little bit special. In the Hauraki Gulf, they’re genetically unique and highly endangered. Auckland Museum senior researcher Matt Rayner has spent the last few years trying to figure out how to stop them disappearing entirely. MAGAZINE ISSUE 186 Blue carbon Chickens Cyclone recovery HoneyComb hill e-DNA Subscribe Read more Editorial GONE FISHING Mum and Dad’s first date was in a dinghy. As soon as my brothers and I could hold a handline they had us dangling for spotties off the Picton wharf. We adored it. The jostle for the best spot. The smell of sunscreen and squid bait. Tug. “A monster!” Mum and Dad would exclaim, as we pulled up fish no longer than a finger. Fishing brought its own list of firsts, little markers of independence: the first time you baited up a hook by yourself. The first time you grabbed hold of a flipping, spiky body, held it still, eased the hook out. First time you hooked yourself. As we got older, we hauled up blue cod and flouncing, barking gurnard from Wellington’s Red Rocks. We helped grind pāua for fritters. We trawled for trout on Lake Taupō, wandered up ice-clear streams and learned to cast a fly. As teenagers we built hīnaki, baiting the traps with dog bones before dropping them into the stream over the road. My last fishing trip was also my Dad’s last one: as the dementia set in, we chartered a boat and he pulled in a decent snapper, managing to keep his feet at sea even though he staggered on land. Lately, my four-year-old has been begging us to take her fishing. She’d love it just as much as I do. I want to watch her face when she feels that first bite, when she sees her fish skitter to the surface, furious. I keep saying no. Recreational fishing, I’m told, is the third rail. You don’t touch it unless you want to hack off a large and vocal demographic: the people who, like me, grew up catching anything and everything. They will fight to maintain the status quo. But in the Hauraki Gulf, my home patch of sea, the status quo is dead penguins and snapper with weird, milky flesh—a sign of starvation. It’s kina barrens and the ghosts of scallop beds and crays; it’s the age of that destructive, smothering new seaweed, Caulerpa. And yet still, we hammer this ecosystem: it endures one million recreational fishing trips every year, according to the Ministry for Primary Industries’ national survey of recreational fishers. In August, if scientific agencies tick the box they’re widely tipped to, we’ll officially enter a new epoch: the Anthropocene, an age defined by the impact of humans on the Earth. Translation: it’s all about us. Our systems and choices and activities—our weekend fishing trips—aggregated. Many of the choices we’re faced with now cut close to the bone. Fishing is a literal line between a person and the vast natural world beneath the sea. For many it’s a rope, woven generations strong. But the graphic on page 18 shows the way we’re fishing now—at scale. Everywhere. Notably, it doesn’t provide the whole picture, missing vessels that stick close to shore, and those smaller than about 15 metres. That is, it’s missing most recreational fishers. But they’re there. For me, it’s time to find new ways of engaging with the sea. I’ve been tossing up buying a little dinghy. We could potter from beach to beach, swim, explore rock pools. And I’ve been thinking about the very best day of my blessed, fishy childhood. Because it was not spent pulling fish out of water. Instead, we went to them: snorkelling, on the Great Barrier Reef. I remember the shock when I put my face in—the colour, the coral. I felt like I’d swum into my favourite jigsaw puzzle, a place of swarming life and diversity and abundance, and I never wanted it to end. Read more Viewfinder A MEDITATION Our trees, through the steady lens of German photographer Dirk Nayhauss. Read more Geo News DEATH OF A TITAN This summer, New Zealand photographer Rob Suisted was working as a polar guide on a trip to Antarctica. Off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula the ship approached A23a—the largest iceberg in the world (for now). “You look at this thing and you can only see a fraction of it, both in its vastness and its depth. It just defies comprehension,” Suisted says. A23a is 280 metres thick, weighs a trillion tonnes, and sprawls across 3900 square kilometres—three-quarters the size of the entire Auckland region. When giants like this throw their weight around, they transform the surrounding seas: they generate currents, change the water’s salinity, smash up icy coastlines, gouge the seabed, and even fertilise the ocean with iron from the rock dust they carry. This particular berg began its journey in 1986, splitting from the Antarctic continent then quickly running adrift in the Weddell Sea. Forty years of melting shrunk it enough to wriggle free, and it’s now drifting north into the comparatively warmer waters of the Southern Ocean—where “it’s in its death throes”, says Suisted. Strange arches and caves are forming as it decays at the mercy of the currents and the sun, fated to dwindle away from behemoth to nothing. Read more Geo News EYES IN THE SKY Modern vessels bristle with advanced navigation and communication equipment, and yet human activity in our seas is not well quantified, largely because the location data is shared privately rather than publicly, or not broadcast at all. This makes it hard to understand the impact of fishing, transport and energy sectors on the environment, and indeed on the expansion of the two trillion-dollar blue economy. To understand the movements of these “dark vessels”, researchers from Global Fishing Watch analysed two million gigabytes of satellite data using three deep-learning models to recognise fishing vessels and compared it with the GPS positions from 53 billion public AIS messages. The NGO discovered that three-quarters of the world’s fishing vessels were not being publicly tracked, including in New Zealand waters. The data shows the true distribution of fishing effort in our oceans for the first time—critical information as the world increasingly relies on the ocean for food, trade and energy. “Transparency is essential for the sustainability of fisheries. Making information about the ocean and vessel activity available to those it affects can help bolster management,” says Fernando Paolo, lead author of the study. Fishing vessels that are not publicly tracked are not necessarily fishing illegally, and industrial fishing vessels may have good, yet private, monitoring systems in place, says Paolo, “but the ocean is a shared resource, and the knowledge around it needs to be shared as well” TRENDING History ANNIHILATION Geography MANAPOURI DAMNING THE DAM Science & Environment GLOW IT UP Society A SOVEREIGN ACT Science & Environment EYES IN THE SKY Society THE MEANING OF MANA Living World THE SONAR TRAP Science & Environment THE BLACK AND THE GREEN Geography HUIA, THE SACRED BIRD Geography THE ROCKS OF CASTLE HILL Read more HOW AN OLD BRITISH LAW MAY HOLD NEW ZEALAND'S BIGGEST POLLUTERS TO ACCOUNT Seven companies representing a third of New Zealand’s carbon emissions will defend their impact on the environment, in a case brought by Māori activist Mike Smith—with help from a 19th-century ruling on Birmingham sewage. Read more Profile EATING UP To help her people thrive, health scientist Amy Maslen-Miller first wants to give them a seat at the table. ARCHIVE Issue Issue 185 Jan - Feb 2024 Issue 184 Nov - Dec 2023 Issue 183 Sep-Oct 2023 Issue 182 Jul - Aug 2023 Issue 181 May - Jun 2023 Issue 180 Mar - Apr 2023 Issue 179 Jan - Feb 2023 Issue 178 Nov - Dec 2022 Issue 177 Sep - Oct 2022 Issue 176 Jul - Aug 2022 Issue 175 May - Jun 2022 Issue 174 Mar - Apr 2022 Issue 173 Jan - Feb 2022 Issue 172 Nov - Dec 2021 Issue 171 Sep - Oct 2021 Issue 170 Jul - Aug 2021 Issue 169 May - Jun 2021 Issue 168 Mar - Apr 2021 Issue 167 Jan - Feb 2021 Issue 166 Nov - Dec 2020 Issue 165 Sep - Oct 2020 Issue 164 Jul - Aug 2020 Issue 163 May - Jun 2020 Issue 162 Mar - Apr 2020 Issue 161 Jan - Feb 2020 Issue 160 Nov - Dec 2019 Issue 159 Sep - Oct 2019 Issue 158 Jul - Aug 2019 Issue 157 May - Jun 2019 Issue 156 Mar - Apr 2019 Issue 155 Jan - Feb 2019 Issue 154 Nov - Dec 2018 Issue 153 Sep - Oct 2018 Issue 152 Jul - Aug 2018 Issue 151 May - Jun 2018 Issue 150 Mar - Apr 2018 Issue 149 Jan - Feb 2018 Issue 148 Nov - Dec 2017 Issue 147 Sep - Oct 2017 Issue 146 Jul - Aug 2017 Issue 145 May - Jun 2017 Issue 144 Mar - Apr 2017 Issue 143 Jan - Feb 2017 Issue 142 Nov – Dec 2016 Issue 141 Sep - Oct 2016 Issue 140 Jul-Aug 2016 Issue 139 May - June 2016 Issue 138 Mar - Apr 2016 Issue 137 Jan - Feb 2016 Issue 136 Nov - Dec 2015 Issue 135 Sep - Oct 2015 Issue 134 Jul - Aug 2015 Issue 133 May - Jun 2015 Issue 132 Mar - Apr 2015 Issue 131 Jan - Feb 2015 Issue 130 Nov - Dec 2014 Issue 129 Sep - Oct 2014 Issue 128 Jul - Aug 2014 Issue 127 May - Jun 2014 Issue 126 Mar - Apr 2014 Issue 125 Jan - Feb 2014 Issue 124 Nov - Dec 2014 Issue 123 Sep - Oct 2013 Issue 122 Jul - Aug 2013 Issue 121 May - Jun 2013 Issue 120 Mar - Apr 2013 Issue 119 Jan - Feb 2013 Issue 118 Nov - Dec 2012 Issue 117 Sep - Oct 2012 Issue 116 Jul - Aug 2012 Issue 115 May - Jun 2012 Issue 114 Mar - Apr 2012 Issue 113 Jan - Feb 2012 Issue 112 Nov - Dec 2011 Issue 111 Sept - Oct 2011 Issue 110 July - Aug 2011 Issue 109 May - June 2011 Issue 108 Mar - Apr 2011 Issue 107 Jan - Feb 2011 Issue 106 Nov - Dec 2010 Issue 105 Sep - Oct 2010 Issue 104 July - Aug 2010 Issue 103 May - June 2010 Issue 102 Mar - Apr 2010 Issue 101 Jan - Feb 2010 Issue 100 Nov - Dec 2009 Issue 99 Sep - Oct 2009 Issue 98 July - Aug 2009 Issue 97 May - June 2009 Issue 96 Mar - Apr 2009 Issue 95 Jan - Feb 2009 Issue 94 Nov - Dec 2008 Issue 93 Sep - Oct 2008 Issue 92 July - Aug 2008 Issue 91 May - Jun 2008 Issue 90 Mar - Apr 2008 Issue 89 Jan - Feb 2008 Issue 88 Nov - Dec 2007 Issue 87 Sep - Oct 2007 Issue 86 July - Aug 2007 Issue 85 May - June 2007 Issue 84 Mar - Apr 2007 Issue 83 Jan - Feb 2007 Issue 82 Nov - Dec 2006 Issue 81 Sep - Oct 2006 Issue 80 July - Aug 2006 Issue 79 May - June 2006 Issue 78 Mar - Apr 2006 Issue 77 Jan - Feb 2006 Issue 76 Nov - Dec 2005 Issue 75 Sep - Oct 2005 Issue 74 Jul - Aug 2005 Issue 73 May - June 2005 Issue 72 Mar - Apr 2005 Issue 71 Jan - Feb 2005 Issue 70 Nov - Dec 2004 Issue 69 Sep - Oct 2004 Issue 68 July - Aug 2004 Issue 67 Jan - Feb 2004 Issue 66 Nov - Dec 2003 Issue 65 Sep - Oct 2003 Issue 64 July - Aug 2003 Issue 63 May - June 2003 Issue 62 Mar - Apr 2003 Issue 61 Jan - Feb 2003 Issue 60 Nov - Dec 2002 Issue 59 Sep - Oct 2002 Issue 58 Jul - Aug 2002 Issue 57 May - Jun 2002 Issue 56 Mar - Apr 2002 Issue 55 Jan - Feb 2002 Issue 54 Nov - Dec 2001 Issue 53 Sept - Oct 2001 Issue 52 Jul - Aug 2001 Issue 51 May - Jun 2001 Issue 50 Mar - Apr 2001 Issue 49 Jan - Feb 2001 Issue 48 Oct - Dec 2000 Issue 47 Jul - Sep 2000 Issue 46 Apr - Jun 2000 Issue 45 Jan - Mar 2000 Issue 44 Oct - Dec 1999 Issue 43 Jul - Sep 1999 Issue 42 Apr - Jun 1999 Issue 41 Jan - Mar 1999 Issue 40 Oct - Dec 1998 Issue 39 Jul - Sep 1998 Issue 38 Apr - Jun 1998 Issue 37 Jan - Mar 1998 Issue 36 Oct - Dec 1997 Issue 35 Jul - Sep 1997 Issue 34 Apr - Jun 1997 Issue 33 Jan - Mar 1997 Issue 32 Oct - Dec 1996 Issue 31 Jul - Sep 1996 Issue 30 Apr - Jun 1996 Issue 29 Jan - March 1996 Issue 28 Oct - Dec 1995 Issue 27 Jul - Sep 1995 Issue 26 Apr - Jun 1995 Issue 25 Jan - Mar 1995 Issue 24 Oct - Dec 1994 Issue 23 Jul - Sep 1994 Issue 22 Apr - Jun 1994 Issue 21 Jan - Mar 1994 Issue 20 Oct - Dec 1993 Issue 19 Jul - Sep 1993 Issue 18 Apr - Jun 1993 Issue 17 Jan - Mar 1993 Issue 16 Sep - Dec 1992 Issue 15 Jul - Sep 1992 Issue 14 Apr - Jun 1992 Issue 13 Jan - Mar 1992 Issue 12 Oct - Dec 1991 Issue 11 Jul - Sep 1991 Issue 10 Apr - Jun 1991 Issue 9 Jan - Mar 1991 Issue 8 Oct - Dec 1990 Issue 7 Jul - Sep 1990 Issue 6 Apr - Jun 1990 Issue 5 Jan - Mar 1990 Issue 4 Oct - Dec 1989 Issue 3 Jul - Sep 1989 Issue 2 Apr - Jun 1989 Issue 1 Jan - Mar 1989 Read more Science & Environment THE STUFF OF LIFE There are places in our seas where the great, whirring cogs of the world hold still. Where the process of decay pauses—for your lifetime, for your children’s, longer—and carbon sleeps, tucked safely away in the sludge. In New Zealand these places are the fiords, the ocean deeps, and the spongy, muddy fringes of our coastlines. And we’re only just beginning to understand them. Read more Geo News GOBBLEDY-CHOOK What does a happy chicken sound like? How about a hangry one? Researchers in Australia have found that most humans are actually pretty good at clocking the mood a chicken is in—simply by listening. “We believe this demonstrates some intuitive ability in humans to recognise the emotional state of another species based on the sound they make. It’s something inherent,” says veterinary epidemiologist Joerg Henning, of the University of Queensland. “This was the biggest surprise.” (For more on chickens and their people, see feature page 50.) The study involved recruiting around 170 people online, then sending them recordings of four different types of call. Some were made by excited chickens that knew they were about to get yummy mealworms or a dust bath. Other chickens weren’t getting any treat-incoming signals—it’s fair to say they were feeling a bit flat. Around two-thirds of the time, the humans gauged the chickens’ moods correctly. Henning hopes the research might be applicable to industrial chicken farming: that one day, AI systems might be able to monitor the birds’ welfare via their vocalisations. Henning keeps chickens in his own backyard. He swears he doesn’t talk to them. But he does understand them. “I know when a goanna is near because [the chickens] make distress sounds. I try to rush there and get the eggs before the goanna eats them.” Read more History ANNIHILATION Fifty years ago, the government was burning swathes of native forest, using napalm as an accelerant. But under one particular forest was a hill, and under that hill was a system of caves filled with the bones of the dead: moa, giant eagles, tiny songbirds. If the forest went, the fossils would go, too. Read more Geo News THE SONAR TRAP Every time there’s a stranding—especially when dozens of whales or dolphins run aground, such as in Mahia last month—we mourn, and wonder what drives the phenomenon. Scientists can’t answer that with certainty yet: strandings are ethically, logistically and financially tricky to study. But in general, there are a few key theories. Cetaceans can get into trouble while fleeing predators, or hunting in the shallows. Rough seas, dirty water, and loud noises can interfere with their hearing and vision. Sometimes, sick or dying whales are drawn to calm coastlines, and in groups with strong social bonds, entire pods may stick by the sick animals, even at the cost of their own lives. In a few locations (although not Mahia) it’s thought to be simply the shape of the sea floor that’s the problem. Along with their other senses, toothed whales and dolphins use echolocation to navigate. Bays with long, shallow, gradually falling sandy bottoms (like Farewell Spit in Golden Bay/Mohua, or Mason Bay in Stewart Island/Rakiura) are thought to be so featureless that the animals’ sonar signals resonate unchecked into the distance, as they would in open water. “They’re not getting the information they would get in a rocky or steep-slope environment,” says Auckland University marine biologist Rochelle Constantine. “They don’t realise they’re getting into shallow water.” Then, when the tide turns, it turns fast—and the group get stuck. Read more Living World BA-GERK! Driven partly by egg prices but also, surely, by the sheer joy of keeping chickens, Gallus gallus domesticus is really having a moment. Read more Geo News A TUNE-UP Noise has a “tangible impact” on soil, improving decomposition and helping fungi grow faster, new research finds. Jake Robinson, a microbial ecologist from Flinders University in South Australia, buried dry teabags in pots of compost, then put the pots in soundproof, temperature-controlled rooms. Every day for two weeks, he played an eight-hour track; designed to muffle tinnitus, it sounds like a cicada stuck on “rasp”, with no variation. But it worked. In the pots exposed to the noise, the teabags bulged with fungal growth. More precise measures showed the same result: sound made for healthier soil. In a similar experiment, sound also boosted Trichoderma harzianum, a fungus that helps improve plant growth. The mechanism is not yet clear, but Robinson writes that the finding “paves the way” to using sound as a tool to help restore ecosystems, as well as in agriculture. Read more Just so GLOW IT UP Plants can do it. Fish can do it. Worms can do it. Even single-celled plankton can do it. Why does so much of the natural world get to glow in the dark? Read more Science & Environment A KIND OF MAGIC Bacterium or blue whale, every living thing leaves a trace. Now we have a tool that can find that trace, in soil, in water—even in the air—and it’s changing the way we do science. Read more Partner Content OUR THREE-DIMENSIONAL CLIMATE CHALLENGE To fix the climate problem, New Zealand needs to remove the equivalent of 43.5 megatonnes of carbon dioxide between 2026 and 2030. It will require both reducing emissions and offsetting the balance with permanent forests says Ekos founder Sean Weaver. Read more Geography AFTER GABRIELLE, VOLUNTEERS ARE SALVAGING HOMES AND LIVES Twelve months on from Cyclone Gabrielle, many people are still fighting to return home. On February 14, 2023, floodwaters filled their houses with mud and destroyed possessions, memories, and livelihoods. Survivors were left virtually on their own to tackle the massive clean-up job—until a network of volunteers began digging out houses and supporting them through the trauma, forging unexpected connections along the way. Read more Books SIX-LEGGED GHOSTS: THE INSECTS OF AOTEAROA Lily Duval, Canterbury University Press, $55 Read more Books FEIJOA: A STORY OF OBSESSION AND BELONGING Kate Evans, Moa Press, $39.99 Read more History PIPE DREAMS The fetid origin story of Wellington’s struggling sewerage system. Read more In the field HOME FIRES In the early 1980s, officials were deliberately burning native forest on the West Coast—clearing the way for pine. Plenty of people saw sense in that: jobs for their kids, when the pine matured. Others were horrified. Presumably hoping to generate terrific images of the fires, the Buller Conservation Group announced a photography competition. Dana Bradley, then around 25, pricked his ears up. He wasn’t exactly a greenie, but processing massive old-man rimu at the Karamea Sawmill made him feel “like a right piece of shit”. He remembers the taste of the sap that sprayed his face; the sting in his eyes; the planks as wide as his wingspan. There was a burnoff booked for a forest near Seddonville, a patch he knew well. “Police closed the road off,” he says. “They didn’t want us near it.” But Bradley snuck in along an overgrown mining road, shooting the smouldering frame on page 87. Images from the competition were eventually gifted, apparently with few details attached, to the National Library; we’ve published some of them in our feature on page 84. We weren’t able to track down the photographers, who were not named. If you recognise an image, please get in touch. Read more In the field OH, THE PLACES YOU’LL GO Two pieces in this magazine were put together on Te Araroa, the walking track that stretches the length of New Zealand. German photographer Dirk Nayhauss hit the trail in 2022 and into 2023, documenting trees for the photo essay on page 10. And this summer, for the blue carbon feature on page 32, journalist Naomi Arnold wrote about seagrass regeneration, popping into public libraries to work as she walked from Bluff to Arrowtown. “It was the windiest month in Southland since 1970,” she says. “A lot of Oreti Beach sand ended up embedded in my face.” Read more In the field MUCKRAKING Writer and editor Rachel Morris grew up in Hawke’s Bay, and with photographer Lottie Hedley spent two months reporting the feature on the cyclone clean-up (page 64). A lot of that time was spent alongside the volunteers she writes about, helping to clear the endless silt. The work was dirty, dusty, strenuous—and deeply rewarding. Being able to help the owners finally move forward with their lives was “a huge antidote to the heaviness”. NEWS Geography DEATH OF A TITAN Science & Environment EYES IN THE SKY Living World GOBBLEDY-CHOOK Living World THE SONAR TRAP Living World A TUNE-UP More News stories OPINION Editorial GONE FISHING Editorial FORWARD MARCH Editorial INTO THE BLUE Editorial THERE IS ONLY ONE STORY Viewpoint A TOE ON THE START LINE More Opinion stories OUTDOORS Great Walks IVORY LAKE HUT Partner Content SHUTES HUT Great Walks TUNNEL CREEK HUT Outdoors THE SWIM OF HER LIFE Cycle Trails LAKE DUNSTAN TRAIL More Outdoors stories * * * * * * Advertise * Your Account * Terms * Contact Us × 3 FREE ARTICLES LEFT Subscribe for $1 | Sign in 3 FREE ARTICLES LEFT THIS MONTH -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- KEEP READING FOR JUST $1 Unlimited access to every NZGeo story ever written and hundreds of hours of natural history documentaries on all your devices. $1 trial for two weeks, thereafter $8.50 every two months, cancel any time Already a subscriber? 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