WAYS OF THE WILD.

Auckland Star, Volume LXVII, Issue 271, 14 November 1936, Page 1 (Supplement)

WAYS OF THE WILD.

THE CHATHAM ISLANDS. MARINE LIFE AND SEA BIRDS. I (By A. W. B. POWELL.) The marine life at the Chathams, considering the latitude, is for the most part surprisingly brightly coloured, and on the somewhat rare occasions when the prevailing south-westerly wind moderates and the sun penetrates the usual haze, the snow white shelly beaches strewn with handsome snells are quite reminiscent of a tropic isle. Only the huge brown writhing masses of kelp and the stunted coastal vegetation remind one of the boisterous conditions that only too frequently prevail. As the Chathams are oceanic, tides are slight, not exceeding three feet, and on this account no extensive tidai platfoi ins are loft bare, and in rough weather little rise and fall is noticed. Shellfish life is abundant and along with other marine organisms serves to feed the vast quantities of bine cod, for which these islands are justly lamous. So abundant is the blue cod" that two fishermen with hand lines can, under favourable catch over one ton in a day. Many of these fish exceed Sib weight uncleaned. The feeding habits of the blue cod resemble those of our snapper, quite a wide ranjre of animal life making up their daily • diet, other species of fish, various cra-ba,, crayfish, smaller crustacea, shellfish and sea urchins being regularly taken. Kelp-covered rocks a few fathoms deep off outlying islands are the usual haunts of this fish. If an unusual number of shellfish is found in the stomach of the cod this is interpreted by the local fishermen as an indication of pending stormy weather. They consider that the fish are taking in ballast. A more likely explanation is that, when stormy weather prevails, the fish seek a shallow water lee shore for feeding where shellfish abound. This was indicated by the stomach contents of a number of blue cod which I examined when at the fishing village of Owenga a few years ago. The Moon Fish. I heard of a large red fish that was washed ashore from time to time on the north coast of Chatham ,Island. It was recorded in 1929 by Mr. Maxwell Young, of the Fislories Department, Wellington, as the opali, or moon fish, known to the Maoris as aro kura, aro meaning oily and kura red. The moon fish is related to the sun fish, but is more normal in shape, having a deep oval body not truncated at the hinder end.

The paua, Haliotis iris, is the most conspicuous shellfish. Dead shells always litter the beaches and at and below low tide they are often packed together so tightly that the smooth rock faces to which these shellfish cling are almost completely covered. The suction exerted by a paua is remarkable. Once this shellfish is warned by being touched it instantly responds by clinging so tightly that it takes all one's strength to wrench the shell from the rock.

The paua frees itself from would-be carnivorous attacking shellfish by a sudden and vigorous semi-rotary movement of its shell. On several occasions I witnessed whelks being thrown off in this

An outstanding find was a large and lmndsome new species of volute of the genus pachymelon. This handsome shell, which is five inches in length and pinkish buff in colour, zigzagged with reddish brown, makes the second known living survivor of an ancient genus which formerly flourished in New Zealand waters during the tertiary period. The only other living record of this rare genus of shellfish is based upon a specimen dredged by the famous Challenger expedition in 275 fathoms, 200 miles west of Farewell Spit.

After a storm the beaches are strewn with tangled masses of kelp and innumerable clumps of a curious organism known to the Maoris as "kaeo" and relished by them as food. All the Maoris questioned were confident that the "kaeo" was a seaweed, but nevertheless it is decidedly animal, being a stalked seasquirt or tunicate known to science as Boltcnla. The kaeo develops a body of some three or four inches in length, is coloured pink or reddish-brown and is shaped' somewhat like a wrinkled tulip bud attached to a long flex'ble stall:.

In spite of their simple and uninteresting appearance tunicates are actually degenerate survivors of those creatures from which has arisen the great groups of backboned The young tunicate hatches from the ejg into a tiny free-swimming larva possessing a tail and rudimentary backbone, termed the notocord, as well as an eye and gill slits. In fact the tunicates are not far below the fishes in their - structure. However, all resemblance to these higher animals is soon obscured when the adult /stage is reached, notocord, tail and eye all disappear and the whole creature is wrapped in a tough, wrinkled coat or tunic, from which resemblance their name is derived. Black-backed gulls, mackerel gulls and antarctic skuas are abundant, but the endemic Chatham Island shag is seldom seen. The most striking bird around Pitt Strait is the handsome Mjick and white Buller's mollymawk, Tfialassarche bulleri. Its distinctive characteristics are a sooty zone around the face and back of the head, leaving the top of the head white, and a curious upeurved groove in the feathers which runs from the eyes hack wards. lhe'-e features give# the birds a bad tenipcied appearance, out they are not really so quarrelsome as one would expect. Tt was only necessary to throw some bait overboard to r ret dozens swimming expectantly round the boat.

Secret Still To Be Wrested. Shellfish seem to form the staple diet of the l)hick-hacked gulls. and miles inland 011 the "clears" remains of marine slid!* were to ho seen in considerable numbers where they had been taken to the young gull* in the nesting season. Tlic rugeed ontlyinjr inlets. Ihe Sisters and The Forty-fours, are the nesting sites of the proat royal albatross. a species commonly seen 011 the wins- between the Chatham* and the mainland. For centuries the nestlings of this albatross have been taken as food by the Morioris and the Maoris, tegular expeditions for this purpose being made in September. The intrepid Morioris braved the Southern Ocean in their frail canoe-rafts of flax sticks lashed together. Surely no more hazardous expeditions in quest of food are 011 record.

As recently as 1020 an American collecting expedition discovered a new species of molymawk on the lonelv Pyramid, an almost inaccessible rock otT the south coast of Pitt Island. Although the main island lias been largely denuded of much of its interesting original fauna and flora the almost inaccessible outlying islets still hold in store a wealth of interesting life yet to be discovered by the field naturalist wlio is prepared to suffer the discomforts and hazards of collecting in these stormy outposts of our-Dominion.