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PILCHARD.tif
In the 1990s, a mystery virus imported in fishing bait from Australia decimated New Zealand’s pilchard population. Australian scientists described the disease fronts there moving with the speed of a bushfire, even against the current—spreading up to 40 kilometres per day. Here, the virus left pilchards dead in their millions, strewn across the surface of the gulf, and their numbers have never recovered. While there have been no fish-stock assessments or biomass estimates done for either anchovies or pilchards in decades, experienced commercial fishers report that both species are much less plentiful than they once were—with consequences for the many other animals that depend on them.
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue: 178 November/December 2022.
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-big-blue-banquet/
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2022. Rights managed images.
No Reproduction without prior written permission.
Shot on assignment for New Zealand Geographic Issue: 178 November/December 2022.
Read the Feature: https://www.nzgeo.com/stories/the-big-blue-banquet/
Photograph Richard Robinson © 2022. Rights managed images.
No Reproduction without prior written permission.
- Copyright
- Richard Robinson © 2022. No Reproduction without prior written permission.
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- 6657x4438 / 169.1MB
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