Treasures of the Hauraki Gulf
Please read below for information and further reading/links regarding the three species.

Bryde's Whale

Bryde's whales ( /ˈbruːdə/ BREW-də) are baleen whales, the "great whales" or rorquals. They prefer tropical and temperate waters over the polar seas that other whales in their family frequent. They are largely coastal rather than pelagic. Bryde's whales are very similar in appearance to sei whales and almost as large.

The whales are named after Norwegian entrepreneur, Johan Bryde, who helped set up the first whaling station in Durban, South Africa in 1908[2].

They inhabit tropical and subtropical waters worldwide.

Bryde's whales are considered medium-sized for balaenopterids, dark gray in color with a white underbelly.

Links
Sub-tidal Mussel Reefs
http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/rodney-times/6731243/Study-shows-mussel-beds-can-re-establish

Bryde's Whale
http://www.doc.govt.nz/about-doc/news/media-releases/endangered-brydes-whale-dies-in-hauraki-gulf-after-apparent-ship-strike/

Black Petrel
http://www.forestandbird.org.nz/campaigns/save-our-seabirds/the-black-petrel-action-group

Black Petrel

Black Petrel (Procellaria parkinsoni), also called the Parkinson's Petrel, is a large, black petrel, the smallest of the Procellaria. The species is an endemic breeder of New Zealand, breeding only on islands off the North Island, on Great Barrier Island and Little Barrier Island. At sea it disperses as far as Australia and Ecuador.

Illustration by Joseph Smit, 1896 [edit] Description

• All black except for pale sections on bill
• Medium-sized petrel (average about 700 g)
• Wingspan averages 110 cm
• Often seen in the outer Hauraki Gulf, New Zealand from October to May
• Oldest banded bird recorded is 29 years (E. Bell, pers. comm.)

Breeding sites:

• Endemic to New Zealand - previously found throughout North Island and Northwest Nelson but predators (feral cats, pigs) caused their extinction on the mainland from about the 1950s (Medway 2002)
• Now restricted to main colony on Great Barrier Island (c. 5000 birds over summer, including approximately 1300 breeding pairs and 1000 “pre-breeders” seeking mates (Bell et al. 2011)
• Small colony present on Little Barrier Island of c. 250 birds (Imber 1987)

Sub tidal mussel reefs

Repopulating long vanished shellfish beds may be possible, research done at Leigh shows.

About 60 per cent of Whangateau Harbour cockle beds, including 85 per cent of the adults, died from disease a couple of years ago but the beds seem to be recovering.

There were concerns that with no cockle populations nearby there would be no other wild larvae being washed into the harbour to re-establish the beds if they died out.

In the Hauraki Gulf many green-lipped mussel reefs have disappeared through overfishing and smothering from sedimentation.

Extensive Firth of Thames beds were largely wiped out but even after dredging stopped nearly 50 years ago they haven't come back.

Now results from work through the University of Auckland's Leigh Marine Laboratory show that repopulating vanished beds may be possible.

"Overfishing and the overall decline in conditions of coastal waters through impacts such as sedimentation have definitely affected these bivalve populations globally," NIWA scientist Dr Darren Parson says.

But figuring out if they could be started up again took more than a year.