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Failure to launch

10,000 Birds

The objective wasn’t even birds, it was fur seals. They are now protected by Taputeranga Marine Reserve , a marine reserve created in 2008 and to protect marine life around Wellington. It wasn’t fur seals, or even eciting birding, but it was fun to poke around. Which brings us to yesterday.

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Sperm Whales in Kaikoura

10,000 Birds

Just offshore is the Kaikoura Canyon, a marine crevasse that means you can quickly pass over water that is a thousand metres deep. This makes the waters massively productive, which attracts fishermen and marine life close to the shore, where it can be watched without hours spent reaching the continental shelf.

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Offshore Sea Life ID Guide: West Coast–A Book Review

10,000 Birds

The two main chapters cover Marine Mammals (Orca; Whales; Dolphins and Porpoises; Sea Lions, Fur Seals, and Elephant Seal; Rarer Marine Mammals) and Seabirds (Albatrosses, Shearwaters and Fulmar, Strom-Petrels, Phalaropes, Alcids, Red-billed Tropicbird, Brown Booby, South Polar Skua, Jaegers, Gulls and Terns, Rarer Seabirds).

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