Ben Barr (third from left) with students at the Poor Knights.
Ben Barr (third from left) with students at the Poor Knights.
How good are the Poor Knights?
Ridiculously good. I recently took NorthTec's first year conservation and environmental management students on a field trip with Dive! Tutukaka and it was nothing short of spectacular.
On the way across, we saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins heading north, no doubt on animportant mission for food or fancy. Half way to the Knights, we discovered a lone seal sunbathing in the gin blue water and a giant sunfish on a jellyfish hunt. The seal casually glanced at us with that innocent yet slightly mischievous look that only a seal can give and then got back to his suntan.
When we reached the marine reserve it was all on. A huge rolling front of trevally was surface feeding on krill, who in turn were feeding on plankton that are so abundant at this time of the year. But it didn't end there ... a tsunami of Buller's shearwaters swept across the shoal feeding on the krill the trevally were thoughtfully rounding up and lazy snapper mooched below waiting for a free lunch (there is such a thing at the Poor Knights). The Buller's shearwaters only nest on the Poor Knight's islands as there are no introduced pests there. A couple of million of these amazing birds will return to the islands during the night to feed their chicks, transferring nutrients from the sea to the land and thereby driving a completely different ecosystem - the island's forest.
Under a canopy of pohutukawa, geckos and skinks feed directly on the fish the adult seabirds spill. These lizards will eat giant bugs and beetles, but will need to watch out for huge tuatara, or even giant centipedes that have a taste for reptilian blood. The Poor Knights giant weta come out at night to feed on coastal vegetation that proliferates due to the nutrient-rich soils the seabirds help engineer. I'm not sure whether the icing on the Poor Knights cake are the giant flax snails or the choir of bellbirds and kakariki that sing of the joys of living on their own island. Either way, the Poor Knights are a jewel that needs to be celebrated.
