Chatham / Challenger Project

The Chatham/Challenger project maps and compares habitats and diversity of sea-bed communities in fishable depths at key locations across the Chatham Rise and the Challenger Plateau.

The first voyage of the Chatham/Challenger project was in August 2006, during which a series of multi-beam echo-sounder transects were completed across the Chatham Rise and Challenger Plateau.

Based on the multi-beam results, the main aim of Voyage 2, in April 2007, was to collect information on the biodiversity and seafloor habitats on Chatham Rise. This information will be compared with a similar data-set that was collected on Voyage 3, to the Challenger Plateau in late May 2007.

PURPOSE OF PROJECT

The prime purpose of this project is to map and compare the sea-bed habitats and the biological diversity of the sea-bed at several locations across the Chatham Rise and the Challenger Plateau.

REASON FOR PROJECT

Very little is known about the diversity of animal communities that live on the sea-bed, particularly in offshore sediment habitats which cover much of our economic zone. More importantly, we know little about how crucial these communities are to the health of the marine environment and their role in sustaining our fish resources. Mapping and characterising the types of communities living there is the first step.

Zoning the ocean into areas that reflect biodiversity for management purposes is a complex task. To date, progress has been made using physical oceanic data, but information about sea-bed ecology is largely missing. The Chatham Rise and Challenger Plateau areas have been chosen for this project because they provide a strong contrast in terms of plankton productivity. Sea-bed biodiversity is likely to mirror this.

WHAT WILL BE ACHIEVED

This project will provide significant new information about the biodiversity of the sea-bed. Once combined with the physical ocean data that already exists, the government will be much better placed to make decisions about the protection of biodiversity and developing standards for maintaining aquatic health.

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