Hello to all the fungi experts who enjoyed the toadstool grouper. The Australians on board tell me they commonly know that fish as a strawberry cod! Which just goes to show how common species names vary between places, and why

We have shifted from our anchorage on the northern side of the Meyer Islands around to Boat Cove on the south side of Raoul. It’s a beautiful sheltered spot, and gets us out of the rising wind. We’ve been lucky

There are two marine invertebrate specialists from the Australian Museum along on the expedition, and when you think that invertebrates are all animals without a backbone, you’ll appreciate they are looking for an enormous variety of creatures. They could be

Some of the prettiest mysteries we have on the trip are the sea hares. They’re a mystery because no one here is a sea hare expert, and Mandy can’t find any of them in the books we have (and I

One of the really exciting discoveries so far was the zebra lionfish – the first of its type recorded in New Zealand. Alison has taken a video of Tom talking about how the fish is prepared before it is photographed

UPDATE (21 May 2011): A bit stressful last weekend when we couldn’t work out why Alison wasn’t sending any blogs through. It’s the first time we’ve tried something like this, and figuring out all the pieces of the communications

One of the main aims of the expedition is to collect specimens of fishes, invertebrates and plants for Auckland Museum’s collections, as well as for the other museums. Museum reference collections are a fantastic treasure trove, which biologists around the

Here is one of the most dramatic fish we collected yesterday – and it’s the first time it’s ever been recorded anywhere in New Zealand. So a brand new record, not just for the Kermadecs but for the whole country.

We are a very happy boat load of people today – we’ve reached our destination of Raoul, the boat has stopped moving (except for a very gentle roll), and we have begun work! First up, after a hearty breakfast of