West Coast Kelp Adventures

Inspecting bull kelp / rimurapa (Durvillaea antarctica, Durvillaea willana) on the West Coast amid concerns about marine heatwave related die offs

Myself and Fraser lab intern Sabine managed to fit in a trip to the West Coast and Banks Peninsula (South Island, New Zealand) just before Christmas to see for ourselves the extent of bull kelp die off, thought to be related to marine heat waves, and to have a look for diseases while we were at it. We were lucky on the West Coast to have an extremely knowledgeable tour guide in Don Neale of the Department of Conservation, who has been collecting samples for our potential genetic analysis of recolonising populations. The weather was kind, allowing us to check out quite a few different sites between Haast and Charleston before heading back east to the Banks Peninsula for more disease surveys.