Community News - Chatham Islands, New Zealand

The Governor-General of New Zealand, Hon Anand Satyanand, and Mrs Susan Satyanand, will visit the most eastern part of New Zealand when they travel to the Chatham Islands today (17 December 2008).

During their visit to the Chatham Islands, they will travel by boat to Pitt Island and visit Pitt Island School. They will also visit Kopinga Marae, view the Tommy Solomon Statue and visit the Haupupu National Scenic Reserve and its famous Moriori dendroglyphs cut into living kopi trees.

As a part of the visit to the Chatham Islands, on Friday evening the Governor-General will formally launch the Chatham Heritage and Restoration Trust (CHART) at a function at Waitangi. The Trust has been established to protect and restore the natural and historic heritage of the Chatham Islands.

The Governor-General said he was looking forward to visiting the Chatham Islands.

“The Chatham Islands were described by the late Dr Michael King as a ‘land apart’. Having never visited the Islands before, some 800km distant from the South Island, we are looking forward to meeting the people of the Islands and learning more of their distinctive heritage, landscapes and environment.”

The Governor-General and Mrs Satyanand will return to Wellington on Monday 22 December.

For further enquiries contact: Antony Paltridge, Government House on 04-382-0827 or 021 470 583

NASA snaps plankton bloom surrounding Chatham Islands

Nov 20, 2008 at 05:27 PM

On November 15, 2008, NASA's Aqua satellite captured this image of a bloom of plant-like organisms known as phytoplankton encircled the Chatham Islands. Like plants, these organisms contain chlorophyll and other light-harvesting pigments for photosynthesis. The pigments change the way the surface of the ocean reflects and absorbs sunlight, creating colorful swirls that trace the location of the bloom. The very bright blue color of the bloom in the east suggests that it contained a kind of phytoplankton called coccolithophores. These plankton have a chalky (calcium carbonate) coating that is very reflective.

The Chatham Islands are at the eastern end of a feature called the Chatham Rise—an underwater plateau that stretches eastward from New Zealand’s South Island for about a thousand kilometers. The relatively shallow depth of the water over the rise, combined with its location at a subtropical front (a boundary where warm waters in the north mix with cold, sub-Antarctic waters to the south), make the area especially hospitable to phytoplankton blooms. The plankton support productive fisheries.

NASA image by Jeff Schmaltz, MODIS Rapid Response Team. Caption by Rebecca Lindsey

Plankton bloom surrounding
Chatham Islands

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