Habitats

The marine environment is subjected to intense geological processes, which have led to the formation of some unique marine habitats, including chains of underwater volcanoes and deep oceanic trenches. It is a highly interconnected system, with ocean currents transporting species over large distances, and life cycles extending over wide geographic areas. As a result, marine habitats vary considerably, with geology, ocean currents and climate affecting distribution.

6eb31098-7536-461b-9cfd-45be30c3e283  New Zealand’s marine and coastal environment extends out to the 200 nautical mile exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and inshore to the limit of the mean high water springs, including estuaries.
032e1f3e-b6e2-4230-82cc-b17059041082  New Zealand also has more limited rights over the seabed of the continental shelf which extends out further than the limits of the EEZ.

New Zealand has a high diversity of marine habitats, some of which are particularly important to the ecological health and productivity of the marine area. A broad-scale gap analysis of marine protected areas in the territorial sea (the marine area extending out to 12 nautical miles from land), prepared by the Department of Conservation and the then Ministry of Fisheries in 2011, provides some useful information on the location of different marine habitats, including maps.

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Estuaries

Rocky reefs

Soft sediment habitats

Biogenic reefs

Fiords

Seamounts

Hydrothermal vents

  1. Department of Conservation and Ministry for the Environment, 2000, 55

  2. Department of Conservation and Ministry for the Environment, 2000, 55

  3. Department of Conservation and Ministry of Fisheries, 2011

  4. Department of Conservation and Ministry of Fisheries, 2011, 49

  5. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 2009

  6. http://www.niwa.co.nz/publications/wa/vol12-no3-september-2004/marine-soft-sediments-more-diversity-than-meets-the-eye

  7. http://www.niwa.co.nz/publications/wa/vol12-no3-september-2004/marine-soft-sediments-more-diversity-than-meets-the-eye

  8. Department of Conservation and Ministry of Fisheries, 2011, 11

  9. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 2009, 46

  10. Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, 2009, 46

  11. http://www.sciencelearn.org.nz/Contexts/Life-in-the-Sea/Science-Ideas-and-Concepts/Marine-habitats

  12. Rowden A A, M R Clark and S O’Shea, 2004

  13. Ministry for the Environment, 1997, 7.30

  14. Rowden A A, M R Clark and S O’Shea, 2004, 9

  15. http://www.whoi.edu/main/topic/hydrothermal-vents

  16. http://www.whoi.edu/main/topic/hydrothermal-vents

  17. http://www.gns.cri.nz/Home/Learning/Science-Topics/Ocean-Floor/Undersea-New-Zealand/Life-in-the-Deep

Last updated at 2:17PM on February 6, 2018