Watching the Seaweed

Keeping a drone eye on seaweed recovery after Kaikoura earthquake.

Dr Leigh Tait
Leigh is a marine ecologist whose work at NIWA has taken him into the tech realm; he uses drones to explore and monitor marine ecosystems, and employs remote operated vehicles (ROVs) to look underwater for marine pests.

In his talk, Leigh will reflect on a recent project looking at aerial views of seaweed recovery along the Kaikoura coastline where the 2016 earthquake lifted huge areas of submerged reef metres out of the water. He’ll also show how a customised ROV can help us track a range of threats to marine ecosystems.

Beautiful Science Gallery.