Exchange between the Tasman and Pacific
Cook Strait, the waterway between New Zealand’s two main islands, influences a range of themes of relevance to society and the environment. The strength of this influence is in part a function of the physical oceanography of the waters running through the Strait.
Stevens, CL, M.J. Smith, B. Grant, C.L. Stewart,T. Divett, 2012, Tidal Stream Energy Extraction in a Large Deep Strait: the Karori Rip, Cook Strait, Continental Shelf Research, 33: 100-109. , DOI: 10.1016/j.csr.2011.11.012. (*list of most downloaded papers April 2012)The Strait is around 25 km wide at its narrowest point, and over 300 m deep in places. Furthermore, it is subject to spring tidal currents in excess of 2 m/s and occasionally subject to surface waves in excess of 10 m in wave height. There is evidence the Strait should, from an oceanographic perspective at least, be considered as one of the great Straits of the world. It is comparable through both similarities and differences with the Straits of Gibraltar, Messina, Bosphorus, Bering, Torres, Magellan, Hudson, Bass, Malacca and others.
Cook Strait is
many things to many
groups. As well as its high cultural and tourist value, it supports
fisheries
and sustains substantial ferry and commercial shipping. From the energy
perspective it contains potential for marine energy as well as
containing a
vulnerable link in the chain transporting electricity from one island
to the
other. In addition it provides a substantial control on New
Zealand’s
coastal oceanography,
which in turn influences coastal ecosystems. Despite this, beyond
general
knowledge of tides, little is known about the details of the
oceanography of
the Strait.