Return to the Kermadecs: video highlights Return to the Kermadecs: video highlights

Our expedition team is back from the Three Kings Islands and ready to answer your questions about what they found and to show you some of the specimens they collected to help build their understanding of the marine environment. The blog has been a fantastic chance to follow their discoveries but now you can meet them face to face and talk to them about their preliminary findings about marine life in the Three Kings. In the few days since the team got back on dry land they've already identified that one of the fish they found is likely to be a new species. So who knows what tomorrow will bring. You can meet four of the team - including University of Queensland PhD student Libby Liggins and one of the expedition's photographers Richard Robinson - tomorrow at 11am at the Auckland Museum. There are some more details of the session below and we've also got some more underwater footagREAD MORE...

This collection includes footage of the spotted black grouper fish and a school of blue maomao.

While our team of scientists was carrying our their work in the Kermadec Islands the diving conditions were pretty incredible with visibility under water reaching over 30m so these short clips capture a lot of activity under the water and are worth watching a couple of times.

Spotted black grouper – our divers dubbed it a fish with real presence

A school of blue maomao in the waters around the Kermadec Islands

Zebra Lionfish – a new record for New Zealand discovered on our expedition to the Kermadecs in 2011

We’ve also got a few clips of our scientists sharing some of the discoveries they made while they were in the Kermadecs including the zebra lionfish which was a new record for New Zealand.

A milestone discovery – 100 unique species identified in the Kermadecs Islands

Never put a soapfish in your togs

My pick of the clips with our scientists is our marine curator Tom Trnski (who is leading the Three Kings Islands expedition) explaining how it was discovered that the soap-like foam on the soap fish was an irritant – it involves the soapfish and somebody’s unfortunate idea which swaw them put it in their swimming trunks.

More coming soon

For our Three Kings Islands expedition we’ll be bringing you more images and a daily video so you can see what our scientists are seeing on their daily dives.

Next week I’ll share some of the top discoveries we made on the Kermadecs expedition and our hopes for next month’s expedition.