Tag Archives: earthquake’
New Zealand: Underwater life in Kaikoura Canyon marine nature reserve entirely wiped out after earthquake
A 7.8 magnitude earthquake in November at Kaikōura, on New Zealand’s South Island, has destroyed all creatures living on the seabed in the Kaikōura Canyon marine nature reserve. On land the earthquake killed two people and caused massive damage to properties, roads and railways. It caused the sea-floor to leap up by two metres in some locations, exposing stretches of sea snails known as paua along the coast. Further out at sea, it caused a mudslide that destroyed a whole ecosystem. “While fish were still found in the area, this time didn’t record evidence of a single organism living on or in the seabed over a stretch of nearly six kilometres. Nothing. It was quite sobering, and a catastrophic event for the ecology of the canyon,” said Dave Bowden, who led a second exploration of the area. Continue reading the story here 10:49
Lobster industry supports emergency closures along Kaikoura coastline
The NZ Rock Lobster Industry Council and the Canterbury Marlborough Rock Lobster Industry Association have added support to the declaration of an emergency temporary closure to lobster fishing along the South Island coast from Cape Campbell to the Conway River. ‘Fine scale data collection over the next few weeks should provide an assurance that the lobster fishery will be resilient to the after effects of the earthquake’, said NZ RLIC Chief Executive Officer, Daryl Sykes. ‘There is an extensive inventory and long time series of rock lobster fisheries data collected by industry participants and independent observers, and it should not take too long to reference current lobster abundance and distribution against the historical record. The fleet of vessels still has approximately 70 tonnes of catch to land in the current season which ends in March 2017. Read the rest here 13:23
