#subantarctic

[unbfacts]

Castaway depots were emergency huts built on remote islands to help shipwreck survivors stay alive. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, New Zealand’s government placed these shelters across its subantarctic islands with food, clothes, tools, matches, fishing gear, boats, and other survival supplies.

[edinzphoto]

A short update, back on the mainland again. Still dreaming of albatrosses though...

Show-off

[ellaandtheocean]

The locals in the tussocklands of Campbell Island - Southern royal albatrosses and a pipit. 

[jimabernethy]

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#Repost @orcaprojectoz Probable new species of Orca discovered! --- During our voyage researching Type D killer whales, we were lucky to spend time among a group of about 30 whales, which approached the vessel many times. When we towed the hydrophone behind the boat to record Type D calls, whales immediately came over to inspect it!!! . From wide-angle cameras mounted on the hydrophone, we obtained revealing underwater images as the curious whales showed details of their unique colour patterning and body shape. Here is this revealing footage of the inquisitive Type D Subantarctic killer whales! 💦 Genetic samples our team collected will help determine whether this animal, with its distinctly different colour pattern and body shape, is indeed new to science. 💦 “We are very excited about the genetic analyses to come. Type D killer whales could be the largest undescribed animal left on the planet and a clear indication of how little we know about life in our oceans,” said Bob Pitman, a researcher from NOAA Fisheries’ Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla, California. 💦 This Type D killer whale imagery captured serves as a reminder of how little we know about life in our oceans. In the next few months, the DNA samples should finally reveal just how different the Type D is from other killer whales. 💦 A huge thank you goes out to our collaborators & the incredible research team that made all this happen: Bob Pitman, NOAA; Lisa Ballance, NOAA and Scripps; Bec Wellard @becandthesea , Project ORCA; John Totterdell, CETREC WA Cetrec WA, Jared Towers @jtcoastal , Bay Cetology Jared Towers; Mariano Sironi, @icb.argentina Instituto de Conservacion de Ballenas, Ocean Expeditions @oceanexpeditions , and Cookson Adventures @cooksonadventures @its_me_henrycookson. And of course @kathmandugear for gearing up our scientists. . . #projectorca #orcatalkoz #orca #killerwhale #underwater #wildlifephotography #typed #subantarctic #antarctica https://www.instagram.com/p/CAWhVfOJr59/?igshid=1bjl1pfcik1cj

[namu-the-orca]

“Icy Waters”

This is something I have been meaning to paint for a very long time: subantarctic type D killer whales. They are extraordinary, the most instantly recognisable of all killer whale ecotypes (there are about 10 currently recognised). Unlike other killer whales their heads are bulbous and round, their backswept fins sharply pointed and their white eyepatches absolutely tiny.

And they have gone unnoticed for a very long time. The first time they were documented was when a whole pod came ashore in New Zealand in 1955. Back then people already realised how strange the whales looked, but thought it was the result of an aberrant genetic mutation for no other Killer whales like them had ever been seen before. From genetic material collected in the 1955 stranding researchers much more recently calculated that the type D's split off from all other killer whales as long as 390,000 years ago! It was not until 2004 that a live, at-sea sighting was made, followed by five more, which finally led to the ecotype's recognition and description in 2010. It wasn't until 2014 that they were filmed for the first time, and to this day they are known from only a dozen or so sightings.

They probably have a circumpolar distribution, living between 40°S and 60°S. The weather is bad down there, and that's probably why they have been discovered only so recently - there's just hardly any humans out there! Although they're sometimes seen near islands, they are more often found in deep offshore waters. Their preferred type of prey is unknown, but they reportedly steal Patagonian toothfish off of longlines.

I've been pondering about a painting for the type D's for years, but never had a solid idea to follow through with. It wasn't until I saw the wonderful type D characters of Shiverdam on deviantArt that I really felt I knew what to paint. So this piece features Keffeu and Yudi, brother and sister in a pod of eight. These two may not be real, but there are quite a few real type D's out there who have been individually identified. Check out the awesome ID catalogue made in 2014 for the Crozet islands!

[depthnz]

The fate of penguins are wedded to our coasts, and as scientists have begun to understand, they are a perfect indicator of the health of this fragile boundary too. What can penguins tell us about our seas and shores? Tawaki (Eudyptes pachyrhynchus), Milford Sound, New Zealand. Shot on assignment for Life On The Edge @nzgeo Issue 143 January-February 2017. Photograph Richard Robinson © 2017 No Reproduction without Prior Written Permission. #follow #journey #penguin #subantarctic #instagood #ice #climatechangeisreal #nature #naturelovers #love #beauty #nzgeo #canonnz #endangeredspecies #Tawaki #seabird #bird #PEW (at Milford Sound)

[edinzphoto]

Skycall

A male Antipodean albatross calls to the open sky I love simplicity in wildlife images. I spend time chasing minimal scenes, removing distractions, and refining images down to their most basic, and hopefully most striking form. Life is not minimalist, but images highlighting parts of life can be. Overcast skies that blow to white when overexposed are useful. Repeating textures and the bold…

Skycall

[edinzphoto]

Re-greetings

Re-greetings between Antipodean albatrosses, who have spent a year at sea.

Albatrosses are famously ‘monogamous’, choosing one partner to nest with for most, if not all, of their life. Real life is messy, and this does come with caveats – there’s a bit of ‘extra-pair copulation’ that goes on, and if breeding doesn’t work out well they may choose another partner, if they can. With the large sex-bias towards males in the Antipodean Albatross population, a lot of the males…

Re-greetings