ON THE SEA BED.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVI, Issue 234, 3 October 1935, Page 10

ON THE SEA BED.

ANIMAL COMMUNITIES.

FASCINATING RESEARCH.

Discovering the extent of animal communities on the sea bottom in the Auckland and Manukau harbours and mapping them out to show their occurrence has heen the fascinating work of Mr. A. W. B. Powell, conchoiogist to the War Memorial Museum, who described some of the preliminary results, of the research at a meeting of the Auckland Institute last night.

In 1025 a grant was made to an Auckland committee by the New Zealand Institute for the purpose of examining animal life on the sea bottom. With the aid of lantern slides Mr. Powell showed the. remarkable results that had been so far achieved with the use of a simple dredge bucket towed behind a launch.

Four distinct animal communities were discovered, one of which was peculiar to the Manukau Harbour. The existence of each family depended on the type of the sea bed —one was able to live in soft mud, another needed clean and fast-flowing water. The salt content, of the water a|so affected their occurrence. But the communities were found to succeed'each other as their own decay gradually changed the nature of the sea bottom. The discoveries would he of great practical interest to those engaged in fishery research, said Mr. Powell, for the mapping of the sea bed in this way would indicate the probable extent of fishing grounds.