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On September 29 2015, Prime Minister John Key made a surprise announcement at the announcement at the UN General Assembly in New York. The Kermadec Group will be at the centre of a massive marine sanctuary, 620,000 square kilometres in extent—an area twice the size of our landmass, and 50 times the size of our largest national park. The new designation will outlaw both fishing and mining activity. Positioned between the tropics and the temperate zone of the New Zealand mainland, the Kermadecs host a panolpy of endemic marine life unique to the archipelago, as well as being an important staging post for 35 migratory dolphin and whales species, including humpback whales which pause here en route between the tropics where they breed and rich feeding grounds in Antarctica.

Here, a young calf breaches at Raoul Island, barely a week after the declaration was made in New York. The springtime migration of whales through the Kermadec region is recorded in Polynesian oral histories as well as the diaries of European settlers on Raoul Island.

Shot on assignment for The Humpback Highway New Zealand Geographic Issue 140 July – August 2016.
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016
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Richard Robinson © 2015No Reproduction without prior written permission.
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Kermadec
On September 29 2015, Prime Minister John Key made a surprise announcement at the announcement at the UN General Assembly in New York. The Kermadec Group will be at the centre of a massive marine sanctuary, 620,000 square kilometres in extent—an area twice the size of our landmass, and 50 times the size of our largest national park. The new designation will outlaw both fishing and mining activity. Positioned between the tropics and the temperate zone of the New Zealand mainland, the Kermadecs host a panolpy of endemic marine life unique to the archipelago, as well as being an important staging post for 35 migratory dolphin and whales species, including humpback whales which pause here en route between the tropics where they breed and rich feeding grounds in Antarctica.<br /> <br /> Here, a young calf breaches at Raoul Island, barely a week after the declaration was made in New York. The springtime migration of whales through the Kermadec region is recorded in Polynesian oral histories as well as the diaries of European settlers on Raoul Island.<br /> <br /> Shot on assignment for The Humpback Highway New Zealand Geographic Issue 140 July – August 2016.<br /> Photograph Richard Robinson © 2016