His work has contributed to the fight against cancer and HIV. He was a leader in the clean-up after New Zealand’s worst maritime disaster. He’s discovered new species and had someone name one after him.
Yet, when Tauranga’s Professor Chris Battershill was named the recipient of a prestigious award for his decades of work in marine science, he was perplexed.
“I thought ‘God, this can’t be real’.”
The University of Waikato professor was honoured with the lifetime achievement award from the New Zealand Marine Science Society at its annual conference in June.
Speaking to the Bay of Plenty Times this week, Battershill said the surprise honour was still sinking in.
“We were sitting in the audience along with everyone else. The next thing, they start reading bios… the bio was starting to ring a lot of familiar bells. I thought, ‘Gosh, that’s familiar’. All of a sudden it became clear it was me.”
Battershill, the Bay of Plenty Regional Council chair of coastal science, said he knew previous lifetime achievement award recipients and struggled to view himself in the same echelon.
His career in marine science included discovering new sea sponge species, leading environmental recovery research around major ocean oil spills such as the Rena disaster, spearheading international initiatives for marine drug discovery, and teaching hundreds of students in marine science.
His work in the marine science space was so prodigious, Dame Professor Pat Bergquist named the Tedania battershilli sponge, commonly known as Red Slimy, after him.
Battershill is currently working to find new and useful biological compounds for medicines and provide new hope in the fight against devastating diseases. What he was learning from the sea was going towards fighting environmental threats such as PSA in the kiwifruit sector, myrtle rust and Kauri dieback.
In 1986, Battershill discovered a rare sponge Lissodendoryx off the Kaikoura coast, which led to the creation of the late-phase breast cancer drug Halaven.
With funding from the US National Cancer Institute, he led teams that contributed towards leads for antitumour drugs and the identification of a protein from a New Zealand species of red algae Griffithsia. The protein has proved to be a highly effective antiviral for HIV/AIDS and SARS-CoV treatment.
“The benefit for us is doing something that has impact and matters,” he said.
“It has improved the lives of many, many hundreds of women.”
Battershill said the “elation of discovery” was addictive.
“Most of us dive a lot and when we get into the water we see for ourselves what’s happening and the damage being done, but at the same time, get to see rejuvenation some of the amazing life out there,” he said.
“That’s where the best clues come from. That’s why we’ve been able to make these advances, because we get into the water and get to see how nature is handling this stuff.”
His favourite local dive spot? Battershill said Karewa Island was “amazing” but also extolled the virtues of Ōtaiti Astrolabe Reef, the deep reefs off Mōtiti Island, and a spot “just up from Bobby’s fish and chip shop” where a student discovered and named a new specimen of sea sponge.
“It shows this area is really, enormously diverse. It’s a real melting pot.”
He said he had many special experiences in his career.
Finding that Kaikoura sea sponge which led to the development of the breast cancer drug was a clear highlight. So was being among the first to dive just off Scott Base, Antarctica, in the 1980s, he said.
A standout “in a good and bad way” was the 2011 Rena disaster, for which he coordinated the response and environmental recovery monitoring.
He said the Rena event meant people saw “the fragility of the environment but also how resilient it could be in terms of recovery”.
People could eat fresh tuatua two months after the grounding, he said.
Battershill became the public face of the Rena Maritime Response Team but said his role was “really tiny” in the context of the thousands of people involved in the effort, which united the community.
The disaster inspired a new generation of marine scientists.
“We had people who were solo parents and rangatahi [young people] who had not done science before get angry about Rena and want to do something about it.”
He first became interested in marine science and Jaques Cousteau in the 1970s when, at 17, he fell into a school holiday job at a marine laboratory in Leigh. He would go every school holiday to dive and help the graduate students.
As director of the Coastal Marine Research Station, he now supervises post-graduate students from around the world. He also teaches undergraduates.
More than 50 students went through the 10-year Intercoast programme led by Battershill and established by the University of Waikato and Bremen University in Germany.
He hoped the planned development of a potential fit-for-purpose marine education and research facility in Tauranga would help with future work.
He said the future facility would be dedicated to “issues our coast is facing”.
Recent weather events, for example, were “absolutely devastating our coastal reef systems and breaking the food chain … it’s already affecting kaimoana such as crayfish, paua”.
Battershill co-leads the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment-funded programme Toka Ākau Toitū Kaitiakitanga - Building a Sustainable Future for Coastal Reef Ecosystems, which has a mātauranga [Māori knowlege] science focus on coastal impacts and sustainable management.
Despite his accomplishments, Battershill said there was “still so much more we need to do”.
University of Waikato Dean of Science Prof Margaret Barbour said the award was “a wonderful recognition of the stellar contributions by Prof Battershill to marine science research, teaching, and community engagement over many years”.
“His development of new courses, teaching in lectures, labs and field courses, and understanding the values of Mātauranga and science, are a model of what a top scientist, teacher, and scholar should be.”
New Zealand Marine Science Society president Jeny Hillman said the award recognised a person’s continued outstanding contribution to marine science in New Zealand.
Nominations were open every year but it was not necessarily awarded.
Battershill said the award itself was substantial and beautiful.
“I look at it every morning and think ‘My God, did that really happen?’.”
Most scientists liked to go under the radar and help where needed, he said.
“I think that in all walks of life, everyone is striving to do their very best and they are so busy just going for it, you don’t really notice what’s happening around you.
“I don’t think many of us do this for accolades. We have a feeling of needing to contribute but something like this suddenly makes you appreciate that other people are looking in.
“It’s kind of scary and, in a way, very, very humbling.”
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