Portobello is 100 From Foreign Fish to Saving our Seas

Forest and Bird, Issue 311, 1 February 2004, Page 33

Portobello is 100 From Foreign Fish to Saving our Seas

DENIS PAGÉ.

The Portobello Marine Laboratory on Otago Harbour is celebrating

its centenary, reports

century of research into New Zealand waters began with an attempt to introduce English fishes to our seas. While the research conducted at Portobello over the last 100 years has made an important contribution to understanding the marine environment of

southern New Zealand, the original intention was very different. The idea of establishing a marine research station was driven mainly with the goal of establishing fisheries based on introduced species. Attempts in 1886 to import herring ova had failed even though the eggs had been kept in iced water to

arrest their development during the long sea voyage. A Dunedin scientist and schoolmaster, G.M. Thomson, who considered such attempts doomed without a fish hatchery ready to receive live eggs, worked hard at promoting the idea of a marine station to university and commercial circles.

In 1904, the Fish Hatchery and Marine Investigation Station was established on the shores of Otago Harbour at Portobello, across from Port Chalmers. The hatchery’s main role was to help establish European species of fish and shellfish, such as lobster, edible crab, turbot and herring in New Zealand waters. Mr Anderton, the curator handling much of the early work, wrote: "The desire for the introduction of certain marine fishes into these waters may be said to be to a certain extent a sentimental one... based on a remembrance of the zest with which such fishes as the herring, plaice and haddock were partaken of in their younger days, Although many species were released into Otago waters over those early years, none survived. In 1926, hatchery work was abandoned and the station’s focus switched to studies of local species. The research focus has continued to shift with the view now on maintaining biodiversity and keeping exotic species out! The University of Otago took over the station from the Marine Department in 1951. After years of neglect a new era dawned and the facility evolved from a fish hatchery into a scientific research station under the direction of eminent New Zealand scientists such as Dr Elizabeth (Betty) Batham and Dr John Jillett. Dr Batham directed the marine laboratory between 1951 and 1974. She had a lifelong interest in the marine

environment and had used the station’s facilities in the late 1930s as a zoology and botany student. She worked hard to reequip and upgrade the station, and was successful in finding funds to commission a 14-metre research vessel. Before the road from Portobello village was built, she often travelled to the station by canoe or on foot. Appointed associate professor in 1967, and several marine species, including a hermit crab and starfish, have been named after her. As part of her work, she learned to scuba dive at the age of 52. Dr John Jillett was Director from 1974 to 1994. Under him, the Portobello Marine Laboratory achieved spectacular growth. He oversaw the expansion of the postgraduate programme, the establishment of a Master’s course in marine science and the completion of a new three-storey building. Dr Jillett is an authority on the behaviour and distribution of animal plankton, and has researched many aspects of fish biology. In 1997, he was made an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit for his outstanding contribution to marine science. The marine laboratory is now part of the Department of Marine Science, which was established in 1992 at the University of Otago, under Professor Philip Mladenov. These days it’s a hive of activity where students and staff of the Marine Science Department carry out their research. The laboratory manager, Beverley Dickson, quotes the day’s schedule for her five technicians and the students:

‘You will find worms being sorted from mud samples in efforts to examine the effects of dredge dumping outside Otago Harbour; there’s dive gear being packed to be shipped to Antarctica for scientists to get below the ice to look at the effects of ultraviolet rays on sea urchin larvae; gut contents of arrow squid are being sorted to look at their role in the Southern Ocean food web; then there’s water-sample collection for Health Care Otago as part of a national phytoplankton monitoring programme for early detection of toxic algal

blooms; and we have a class of marine sedimentology students analysing samples collected from the research vessel. Ever since it came under control of the University of Otago, the Portobello Marine Laboratory has attracted a succession of visiting scientists from overseas and around New Zealand. They come for a variety of reasons, from the unique cool temperate, southern hemisphere location, its fauna and flora, and the opportunity to work with resident scientists based there. Other specific features of the location include proximity to deep water and the presence of subtropical and subantarctic surface waters, all within range of the research vessel. The laboratory is ideally located with a wide variety of marine environments nearby, from tidal mud flats and sheltered rocky outcrops to ocean-swept sandy beaches and exposed rocky headlands. The Otago Peninsula is home to some of the world’s rarest marine species such as the yellow-eyed penguin, New Zealand sea lion, and a colony of northern royal albatross at the tip of the peninsula. The present facilities at Portobello include a broad range of teaching and research areas. The laboratory itself has evolved from a small single-storey building with concrete holding ponds. Support for field activities includes diving facilities, small boats for shore and dive collections, and wharfing facilities to allow the research vessel Munida to load equipment and deliver specimens. Seawater is the lifeblood of the facilities, and up to 44,000 litres per hour are pumped through experimental tanks, a hatchery facility,

teaching laboratory and a display aquarium. The Portobello site is recognised for more than scientific research — public marine education has been a focus for many years. It started during the time of the Fish Hatchery with resident biologist David Graham giving talks to the public in the 1930s and the setting up of holding tanks for public viewing. In 1954 the present aquarium was built and modelled after one at the Plymouth Marine Laboratory in England. The aquarium has been refurbished a couple of times since then and an extensive school and public programme developed. The New Zealand Marine Studies Centre was built in 1997 and now incorporates the Westpac Aquarium, a facility combining marine education and tourism. It is an important public front for the University, with over 16,000 public visitors from

Dunedin, New Zealand and overseas and over 7400 participants in education programmes every year. According to Sally Carson, programme director for the New Zealand Marine Studies Centre, ‘the Centre is striving to lead public marine education in New Zealand and to foster understanding, appreciation and responsible management of New Zealand’s unique marine environment. To many, the ocean is inaccessible, "out of sight, out of mind", but the centre wants to is "roll back the tide" to introduce the secrets of these southern seas to visitors.’

To find out more about the year’s events log on to www.otago.ac.nz/marinescience/ pmlcentenary or write to PO Box 8, Portobello, Dunedin or phone 03 479-5810.