Dive Pacific 175 Dec2020 Jan 2021

Kermadec Islands
number of herbivorous fishes,
including drummers, marblefish and
Parma anglefishes. Here they are more
diverse in their diet, relying more on
plankton, and it is not uncommon to
see large schools of drummer feeding
on salps in the top couple of metres of
the water column.
The mobile invertebrates are chiefly
tropical: crown-of-thorns starfish,
tropical urchins, exquisite crustaceans
and gastropods. Perhaps the most
iconic are the giant limpets, endemic
to the islands, and dominating the
shallow surge zone.
Splendid hawkfish (Notocirrhitus splendens)
…Gratitude for wild places like
this, left for nature, without
human interference…
However due to its isolation, and
compared with other places, the
knowledge of this underwater world
is relatively low. Even from our few
days there, between us we recorded at
least two fish species that we hadn’t
encountered in New Zealand before.
Predators
Two large predators patrol the reefs.
The Galapagos sharks are very
common, a great sign of a healthy
ecosystem, and they are our near-constant,
yet distant, companions on
dives. As dusk approaches each day,
we find their curiosity increasing.
Several close encounters ensue!
Fortunately, most are less than a
couple of metres, and as I consider
there to be a basic size hierarchy with
sharks, so as long as I am longer than
them, I’m happy!
Hingebeak shrimp & diadema urchin
Grey moray (Gymnothorax nubilus) in soft coral
The other large fish predator we
encounter is the charismatic spotted
black grouper. The Kermadecs are the
last bastion of healthy populations
of this species which reach nearly
two metres long! Being long lived and
easy to catch, they are vulnerable to
overfishing, irrespective of the marine
reserve status, and they are fully
protected throughout New Zealand,
in fact one of only two species of bony
fish in New Zealand that are. But, here
there is megafauna even larger than
either sharks or the grouper.
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