Rare 'Smeagol' slug found in South Westland & More News Here

Marine ecology researchers are delighted to have found a slimy creature referred to as “Smeagol” has been secretly dwelling in soggy South Westland.

Smeagol is the scientific identify for a really small sea slug or “gravel maggot” that till this yr had solely been found on one small seashore close to Wellington and one other seashore close to Kaikōura.

It is known as after the light-deprived, secretive ring bearer, Gollum, from JRR Tolkein’s The Lord of the Rings.

In the story, Gollum is a hobbit referred to as Smeagol, who earned his onomatopoeic nickname after he succumbed to the evil attract of the One Ring and have become a gurgling river dweller.

A workforce of University of Canterbury scientists and Mahaki ki Taiao rangers had been monitoring the ecology of the Hautai Marine Reserve, 85km south of Haast, for the Department of Conservation, in January.

The reserve was final monitored in 2017 they usually had been in search of any adjustments.

Despite Covid and wild climate, the journey to New Zealand’s most distant marine reserve was an amazing success, they stated.

“We saw a large storm system approaching and managed to squeeze this work into a tight weather window, and get helicoptered out shortly before it hit,” researcher Shawn Gerrity stated.

During the journey, the workforce used a brand new eDNA expertise for detecting the presence of species.

This works by passing seawater by a really wonderful filter to gather DNA fragments left by vegetation and animals.

The fragments had been despatched to Wilderlab in Wellington to be analysed.

About 500 totally different species had been detected in the Hautai Marine Reserve, starting from micro organism to dolphins.

West Coast marine ranger Don Neale stated the workforce was “incredibly shocked and delighted” when the outcomes confirmed the presence of Smeagol in the pattern.

“The gravel maggot has a similar lifestyle [to Gollum], living up to 30cm down under the gravel beach surface. That makes it very hard to find and study, but the eDNA method is one way to do that.

“It has beforehand solely been found in two locations — a small seashore on the south coast of Wellington, which was considered its solely house, till it was found {that a} genetically distinct inhabitants additionally exists in Kaikoura,” Neale said.

The scientists do not know yet if the new population at the Hautai Marine Reserve is its own species or related to one of the two known populations, 750km and 950km away.

“To determine this out could be a fairly main enterprise. We would wish to return in to Hautai and spend a while digging rigorously round gravel or beneath boulders to see if we will discover any reside gravel maggots there,” Neale said.

That is not likely to happen any time soon, considering access to the study area requires a helicopter or a two-day walk from the nearest road end.

Neale hopes there will be a search next time monitoring is done.

Little is known about the Smeagol sea slug or its ecological role.

Neale said they likely had some role to play in recycling nutrients from beach-cast kelp back into the ocean ecosystem.

“Their identify, ecology and risk standing all give Smeagol a little bit of an iconic standing. And it goes to point out how way more there’s to study our marine environments, with dozens of recent species found in New Zealand yearly,” he said.

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