Previous work has suggested that marine heat waves (MHW) and cool spells (MCS) in the Tasman Sea are responses to a stalling of an eastward propagating austral wavenumber‐4 atmospheric pressure wave. We investigate extrema in sea surface chlorophyll (SSC), defining high‐ and low‐chlorophyll events (HCE and LCE) analogous to MHW and MCS, but using Tasman‐Sea averaged SSC anomalies. From 2002 to 2020, there were 13 HCE and 10 LC...

Communication skills training can enhance health professionals’ knowledge and repertoire of effective communication practices. This paper describes the conceptual model underlying a 3-day retreat communication skills training program, methods used for training, and participant perception of outcomes from the training using qualitative interviews. Repeated qualitative telephone interviews (approximately 6 months apart) with par...

Hydrothermal vents are a source of many trace metals to the oceans. Compared to mid-ocean ridges, hydrothermal vent systems at arcs occur in shallower water depth and are much more diverse in fluid composition, resulting in highly variable water column trace metal concentrations. However, only few studies have focused on trace metal dynamics in hydrothermal plumes at volcanic arcs. During R/V Sonne cruise SO253 in 2016/2017, h...

Satellite‐derived estimates of sea surface temperature (SST), chlorophyll (Chl), and fluorescence line height (FLH), from 22 sites ∼20 km offshore from the West Coast of the South Island, New Zealand (WCSI) are used to investigate long‐term trends in SST, the frequency and magnitude of cool and warm events, and their impacts on SSC and FLH. WCSI trends have been towards higher temperature and less chlorophyll, with a 0.83°C ri...

The shelf seas surrounding New Zealand/Aotearoa, a region nominally extending out to the 250 m depth contour, are complex and varied as they sit above the submerged continent of Zealandia. These seas surround the two main islands that span 1,500 km in latitude from 34°S to 47°S and include a series of plateaus that extend far beyond. This review summarises the present state of knowledge of the physical processes that control o...

Analyses are presented of model simulations and Lagrangian drifter experiments designed to quantify circulation and dispersal in Tasman and Golden Bays, and their connection to Cook Strait, New Zealand. Observations made in autumn 2017 and summer 2018 are compared with numerical model results. The drifter experiments were focussed on three repeat experiments in each bay designed to measure the local horizontal eddy diffusivity...

We test the paradigm that in a future warmer ocean, shallower winter mixing will lead to less net primary production (NPP), by investigating whether warming between 2002 and 2018 led to changes in NPP in the Tasman Sea/New Zealand region. The 2002–18 trend in sea surface temperature (SST) was positive over most of the region, and was driven by increasingly warmer summers and marine heat waves (MHWs) rather than year‐round warm...

The future status of the surface ocean around New Zealand was projected using two Earth System Models and four emission scenarios. By 2100 mean changes are largest under Representative Concentration Pathway 8.5 (RCP8.5), with a +2.5°C increase in sea surface temperature, and decreases in surface mixed layer depth (15%), macronutrients (7.5–20%), primary production (4.5%) and particle flux (12%). Largest macronutrient declines...

We present the results of a combined observational and numerical study to investigate cool plumes of nutrient‐rich upwelled water that emanate near the Kahurangi Shoals and extend into Greater Cook Strait. Surface temperature and chlorophyll are mapped using satellite observations to produce surface climatologies, to validate a numerical simulation and to show the utility of using spatial temperature differences as a measure o...

Global Drifter Program (GDP) drifter data and Argo float data from 2006 to 2013 are used to provide quantitative description and comparison of the mean near‐surface (15 m) and 1000 m velocity fields in the New Zealand region. These fields are estimated both from bin‐averaging the drifter/float velocities and by fitting non‐divergent streamfunctions to the velocities. At both levels, our velocity fields are broadly consistent w...

We review the advances in ‘blue water’ physical oceanography of the seas around New Zealand since the last major review in 1985. By 1985, a basic description had been made of the circulation around New Zealand. Since then, dramatic increases in data from satellites, hydrographic cruises, surface drifters and profiling floats have improved knowledge on the locations, strengths and variability of the currents, water masses and f...

The relative distributions of mid‐ and late‐stage phyllosomas, and pueruli, of Jasus edwardsii from five research cruises off the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand were analysed. A statistical approach was taken, using a bootstrapping with replacement method to test whether the observed mid‐ and late‐stage phyllosomas could have come from the same distribution. Differences in distribution between mid‐ and late‐stag...

The rock lobster Jasus edwardsii forms the basis of important fisheries in south‐eastern Australia and New Zealand. Their long pelagic larval phyllosoma phase (12–24 months) raises many questions as to how the larvae are retained and/or recruited into local populations. Recent attempts to model the dispersal of J. edwardsii phyllosoma have had mixed success at reconstructing settlement patterns. However, these models have eith...

The mean and variability of the circulation off the east coast of the North Island, New Zealand are investigated using shipboard conductivity‐temperature‐depth (CTD) and satellite altimeter data collected between 1993 and 2003. The altimeter data are used to adjust the in situ observations for the mesoscale eddy variability before computing the 11‐year mean in dynamic height. Mean dynamic height shows two anticyclonic eddies,...

The Wairarapa Eddy appears as a permanent anticyclonic eddy situated off the east coast of the North Island, New Zealand. In April 2001 a spatial survey of the eddy was made on a ship equipped with an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler (ADCP). The absolute circulation at 100 m was estimated by objective mapping of the ADCP‐derived velocities to produce a velocity field that has enforced non‐divergence. Assuming that enforcing n...

Estimates are made of the mean and variability in temperature and salinity across the Subtropical Front along 178°30'E, east of New Zealand. These estimates are made from six sections taken over 5 years, but biased towards spring and autumn sampling. Monte‐Carlo simulations of the potential errors introduced by this sampling suggest that the mean fields can be reasonably well determined, but the annual cycles have large relati...

The Wairarapa Coastal Current (WCC) flows along the east coast of the North Island, New Zealand. This current has been relatively little studied, and there are few direct measurements of its mean and variability. Here, an indirect method is used to gain some insight into the WCC variability and its effect on coastal temperature. Eight years of coastal temperature from Napier in Hawke Bay are modelled as a bivariate linear expa...

The assumption that variability in the circulation around the east coast of the North Island of New Zealand can be described using satellite‐derived sea level and temperature and two empirical modes is tested. Potential errors are quantified if such an assumption is used to derive the internal fields from surface observations. Data from 303 CTD (conductivity‐temperature‐depth) casts made in the region between 1994 and 1999 are...

Thermistor data from around Kaikoura Peninsula, New Zealand, show that in the synoptic band, temperature fluctuations at 1 m are coherent with the along‐shore wind with a 90° phase difference. At 5 m, however, the coherence is not as high, and the phase relationship is in the opposite sense. Along this coast, wind‐driven advection of the coastal current and upwelling have opposite effects on temperature. A simple model is deve...

The Chatham Rise, which rises to a depth of 400 m immediately to the east of New Zealand, appears to constrain the latitudinal movement of the Subtropical Front (STF). Data from current meters moored over the Chatham Rise are used to estimate the spatial variation of mean and turbulent kinetic energies and Reynolds stresses in and around the STF. Mean currents over 8 months are to the east, and are stronger south of the rise....

A new name is proposed for the relatively cool, fresh, northwards‐directed flow along the Wairarapa coast of New Zealand. Data from two research cruises plus historical hydrocast dam are used to show that the water within this current is modified subtropical water with sources likely to be the Southland and D'Urville currents. This current has previously been known as the Canterbury Current or as an extension of the Southland...

Current meters deployed near East Cape, New Zealand, for 1 year show large differences between the offshore flow and that inshore of the 1000 m isobath. Offshore, mean flows are to the south‐east, and are the East Cape Current. Inshore, mean flows are to the north‐east, indicating that there may be a persistent inshore counter current. Comparison between the offshore current meter measurements and geostrophic currents inferred...