Quick Dips

Lost Species, Lost Opportunity

New Zealand has a vast reservoir of undiscovered and unrecorded species, but unless a new generation of local taxonomists is trained to start cataloguing these biological riches, this vital work will fall even further behind.

This was the main message from Species 2000: New Zealand, a five-day biological census -- the first of its kind in the world -- which covered all living and fossil, native and introduced species and subspecies found in New Zealand's seas, fresh waters and land.

Organiser Dr Dennis Gordon, from NIWA (the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research), said delegates were unanimous that the Government's Biodiversity Strategy must address the need to document New Zealand's biota.

In opening the symposium, Environment Minister Marian Hobbs acknowledged the need for funding to address the critical shortfalls. Gordon says that such shortfalls exist not only in the area of information, but also in the capacity to build and sustain such efforts.

Gordon gave an example from his field, pointing out the special challenges for marine biodiversity inventory. Despite having a vast Exclusive Economic Zone -- 15 times the size of the country's land area -- New Zealand has just one macroalgal specialist and no-one with skills in marine fungi.

Gordon says New Zealand could not afford to approach the catalogue of life in the ad hoc way it has done so to date.

"At the present rate, it would take two centuries to document all of New Zealand's [remaining] biota. Let's shorten that.

"An entirely workable but visionary approach is open to us. A 50-year strategy, in five 10-year steps, would offer New Zealand the opportunity to look systematically at its present knowledge gaps. We need to take a measured approach towards prioritising this issue and recuiting and training the people to fill the gaps.

"This massive task needs to be carried out before it grows too big. Our known biota is fast reaching a size where it is becoming incomprehensible. Many species groups are not catalogued and the literature is often scattered."

Scientific interest aside, such a project has clear benefits in areas as diverse as biosecurity, human and animal health, sustainable ecosystem management, resource identification and conservation.

"We sometimes forget that a comprehensive catalogue of biodiversity is also a matter of naked human self-interest. We simply don't know enough about the potential sources out there of food, medicines, and biochemicals. It could come from fungi, bacteria, or marine life.

"Sea sponges are but one example. Research is now underway into a species of sea sponge found in Fiordland that contains a valuable new compound to stop patients rejecting transplants of foreign organs. We also know a Kaikoura sponge called yellow slimy' has cancer-fighting properties and is currently being used in major clinical trials in the United States.

"We know so little about the fantastic creatures we share the Earth with. We don't know how many there are, or what kinds of things they have to offer. It is like a library of unread books and we haven't even finished the first chapter. And the great tragedy -- especially for our children and grandchildren -- is that we are losing the species around us before we can even turn the next page."