You can contact LEARNZ, part of CORE Education, at:
Postal Address:
PO Box 13 678,
Christchurch 8141,
New Zealand
Ambassador Aqua
Tēnā koutou,
My name is Aqua and I'm a little blue penguin from Brooklyn School in the Tasman region. I'm active, curious and sharing; just like the students in our school. I love to swim, am curious about our marine environment and I want to share my learning with others.
See you soon,
Aqua.
Monday 5 March
Kia ora,
We had all kinds of weather today. We left Dunedin and it was cool, cloudy and drizzling. We arrived in grey windy Wellington and then headed back to Nelson in time for the cloud to lift. I was surprised at how hot it was in Nelson. I wanted to go for a swim and hunt for fellow penguins, but I don’t think there would be any around during the day.
I am looking forward to heading out to Delaware Bay tomorrow.
See you then,
Aqua.
Tuesday 6 March
Kia ora,
Penguins love spending time at sea so today was the perfect day. I did not even have to swim to catch a meal. Instead we took a boat out to Delaware Bay and went fishing for blue cod. It took quite a few attempts but finally we managed to catch two blue cod. Stina is studying blue cod to find out where they live and how this affects their size and breeding. I couldn’t watch as Stina dissected the fish – it put me off my dinner.
Tomorrow we are back on land to explore an estuary.
See you then,
Aqua.
Wednesday 7 March
Kia ora,
I have been looking forward to today because I knew I would get to talk to my class mates during the web conference. I was really proud of all your great questions. It was fun to work with other Brooklyn School students down at the estuary and discover more about the creatures that live here and the jobs they perform.
We set up an experiment with mussels to show how they filter water. It only took about five minutes before the bucket with mussels in it began to clear. I never knew mussels could filter so much water.
Well it has been a busy day so I'm off to get a good night’s sleep.
See you in the morning,
Aqua.
Thursday 8 March
Kia ora,
This week has been so much fun. I thought I knew a lot about the ocean having lived in it for years, but I have learned so many new things. Today we used some very cool equipment to measure how salty the sea water is and how deep it is. We also measured the temperature of the water. All this information is really useful because it helps scientists understand how seawater moves around and what the different layers in the ocean are.
I am looking forward to heading home and sharing my adventure with you all.
See you soon.
Aqua.
Aqua is looking forward to the Sustainable Seas field trip. Image: LEARNZ.
Aqua looks for fellow penguins in Nelson. Image: LEARNZ.
Aqua takes a boat ride out to Delaware Bay near Nelson. Image: LEARNZ.
Aqua sees how mussels in the bottom bucket filter the water compared with the top bucket which has no mussels in it. Image: LEARNZ.
Aqua checks out a CTD used to measure salinty, temperature and depth of seawater. Image: LEARNZ.
Aqua and the other ambassadors enjoy a boat ride on board the NIWA research boat. Image: LEARNZ.