An image by marine scientist Irene Middleton showing a triplefin sheltering among jewel anemones on the wreck of the Waikato, near Tutukaka. Photo / Irene Middleton
An image by marine scientist Irene Middleton showing a triplefin sheltering among jewel anemones on the wreck of the Waikato, near Tutukaka. Photo / Irene Middleton
A Northland scientist has bagged one of the top awards in a Niwa photography competition for a striking image combining a colourful marine creature and an invasive pest.
Crispin Middleton, who lives at Ngunguru and leads Niwa's specialist dive team, took the underwater photo of a nudibranch climbing the tubeof a fanworm at Parua Bay, in Whangārei Harbour.
His image won the ''our work'' category of the contest, which is open to staff of the research agency Niwa nationwide.
The orange polka dots and pink antennae of the clown nudibranch are a stark contrast to the sinister-looking Mediterranean fanworm, an invasive pest that can smother shellfish beds and infest boat hulls and marine structures.
This image of a clown nudibranch on an invasive fanworm by Whangārei marine scientist Crispin Middleton won the ''our work'' category of a Niwa photography competition. Photo / Crispin Middleton
Northland marine scientist and dive expert Crispin Middleton is one of the winners of this year's Niwa staff photography competition. Photo / Crispin Middleton
Other outstanding images in this year's contest included a photo by marine ecologist Irene Middleton of a fish known as a triplefin hiding among jewel anemones on the wreck of the Waikato, an ex-navy frigate scuttled near Tutukaka in 2000.
The Middletons, who live at Ngunguru, are both accomplished divers, underwater photographers and scientists.
Alvin Setiawin, an aquaculture scientist at the Northland Marine Research Centre in Ruakākā, photographed a rifleman or titipounamu on the Routeburn Track.
A rifleman or titipounamu photographed on the Routeburn Track by Alvin Setiawin, an aquaculture scientist at Niwa's Northland Marine Research Centre in Ruakākā. Photo / Alvin Setiawin
The titipounamu, New Zealand's smallest bird, is rarely seen in Northland but plans are being hatched to reintroduce the species to the Ipipiri islands in the eastern Bay of Islands.
The people's choice winner was a moody Fiordland landscape captured by Christchurch-based freshwater ecologist Shannan Crow in the headwaters of the Eglinton River.
This Fiordland landscape, captured in the headwaters of Eglinton River by Christchurch-based freshwater ecologist Shannan Crow, won the people's choice award. Photo / Shannan Crow
