Media Release – (Opinion Editorial/Column) 7 January 2014
How good are the Poor Knights?
By Ben Barr – NorthTec Conservation and Environmental Management Tutor
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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 an important 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 massive 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 shearwater 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.
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Tutor Ben Barr (third from left) with students at the Poor Knights.jpg
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 Knight’s 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… and an amazing place to go and learn about conservation
and the environment.
NorthTec is the Tai Tokerau (Northland) region's largest provider of tertiary education, with campuses and learning
centres in Whangarei, Kerikeri, Rāwene, Kaikohe and Kaitaia. NorthTec also has over 60 community-based delivery points
from Coatesville in rural Rodney to Ngataki in the Far North.
ENDS