HELIX IN DEPTH
Sperm Whales couple.
42.4008° S, 173.6814° E
Kaikoura - New Zealand
Kaikoura - is a really amazing place on the Planet Earth. Here, five hundred meters away from the sea coast, the continental shelf zone is ending up into a 1,500 meters gap in depth and this oceanic basin stretches for thousands kilometers up to the Samoa in Polynesia.
The peculiarity of the place is that it is a refuge and food source for many marine spishes. Depending on the season of the year, near the shore you can watch whales, orcas (killer whales), sea lions and the world's largest sea birds - albatrosses.
Here you can watch the most massive deep sea creatures - sperm whales. On the left photograph is a sperm whales couple, which made the ascent and a twenty-minute purge blowhole, then plunged again into the depth searching for deep-sea squid. Amazing moment is to see them together, because normally they swim and hunt separately.
On this day, we were able to see five different individuals and their unique tails that are like an ID card for whales.
Dusky dolphins.
42.4008° S, 173.6814° E
Kaikoura - New Zealand
Dusky dolphins are highly social animals, living together in groups called pods, which in the Kaikōura region can consist of individuals numbering anywhere from 100 to 800 in each pod
Gannet Colony
36.8362° S, 174.4341° E
Muriwai - New Zealand
Breeding in several places in New Zealand, gannet spends most of its life at sea. Flocks engage in spectacular bouts of plunge-diving for fish, with hundreds of birds diving into the ocean from heights of up to 40 meters.
Eared seal - Kekeno
45.8788° S, 170.5028° E
Dunedin - New Zealand
Kekeno are the most common seals in New Zealand and their population is growing.
They are very good swimmers and weaned pups will sometimes travel great distances. A fur seal pup tagged on the South Island's West Coast has even been recorded in Australia!
On land they sometimes become disoriented and have been found in unusual places such as back-yards, drains and streets.
Human activities are the cause of most threats to kekeno today. It is known that fur seals are incidentally captured and subsequently drown during trawling and long line fishing operations in New Zealand.
Kea Alphine parrot
45.6061° S, 167.3608° E
Fiordland National Park - New Zealand
Kea are a protected species. They are the world's only alpine parrot, and one of the most intelligent birds.
To survive in the harsh alpine environment kea have become inquisitive and nomadic social birds - characteristics which help them to find and utilise new food sources.