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October 06, 2021
Ngātiwai garlands pygmy pipehorse with name
Adam Gifford
Posted On October 6, 2021
Download AudioIn what’s a scientific first, Ngātiwai has been recognised with naming a new species of seahorse found in its rohe.
Marine biologist Tom Trnski from Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland Museum says after some previously unknown pigmy pipefish were spotted in 2011 by a diver off Aorangi Poor Knights Islands, he and colleague Graham Short from the California Academy of Sciences looked closer to the mainland, and in 2017 found some of the pipehorses near off the Northland coast.
Once they determined they were a new species they worked with local kaumātua to come up with the name Cylix tupareomanaia, referring to the pace where the specimen was found.
“The location is Tupare o Huia also known as Home Point, just around the corner from Bland Bay. They referenced this little taonga as tupare o manaia or the garland of the manaia. It’s a really nice name that links it to a place and also gives mana to Ngātiwai in the naming of the species,” Dr Trnski says.
The species was named last month in the in the international journal Ichthyology and Herpetology with credits to Short, Trnski and Ngātiwai.
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