NZ Marine Studies Centre Science Extension & Enrichment Programme

Wednesday 16th September 2020

George Bary, Samuel la Hood and Fergus Macdiarmid recently took part in a multiday programme at the NZ Marine Studies aquarium in Portobello. They describe their group project research experience below.


At the Marine Science Centre we studied the preferred habitat of triple fins.We hypothesised that the triple fins would prefer the rocky shore. We placed rocks and seaweed into a grey and black box and one on each side. We then placed the fish in the middle, we let them have two minutes to settle then started a ten minute timer and recorded where the fish went. Our hypothesis was proven correct and the triple fins preferred the rocky shore over the seaweed - Fergus


In my group our project was to see if the habitats in the Dunedin harbour affected the water imagery from a satellite view. Such as if in one area of the harbour there was a dark spot from an aerial view we would find out if it was seaweed, deep water etc. To accomplish this we used a ROV a (remotely operated vehicle). We drove this round the Dunedin harbour to see if what we thought was correct - Samuel la Hood


The marine center was a really cool place to learn all about marine life. At the start we went to different tables to find a question that we wanted to find out that fit us. My group's question was what do sea grazers prefer to eat. Overall, it was a fun extension programme - George Bary