New Zealand Phytoplankton & Earth Observer Lists

Peter is right about the good fishing. A similar meeting of warm and cold currents occurs in the Santa Barbara Channel of California in the summer, with a similar upwelling of nutrients, and bloom of phytoplankton, with consequent large populations of zooplankton. A few years ago we took the Condor Express catamaran out to look for whales there, and found ourselves in the midst of a circle of about 40 Blue Whales. What an experience! They were all feeding on the zooplankton. Good fishing indeed. http://www.condorcruises.com/ http://condorcruises.com/whale-watching.cfm/whale_watching/summer.cfm
Several daffnetters have been interested in the satellite photo source. I subscribe to three lists from NASA: one is daily and two are weekly. They contain wonderful images of phytoplankton blooms, volcanic eruptions, wildfire smoke plumes (as several this year in Australia and California), ice-sheet breakup, floods, droughts, dust storms, and other natural phenomena. If this sort of thing interests you, I expect that an email to each of the three addresses below will put you on the lists also. NH stands for Natural Hazards, and EO stands for earth observer.
Melissa