RV Tangaroa
RV Tangaroa is a research vessel operated by the New Zealand National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research. It was purpose-built as a Deepwater Research Vessel for the then Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Research Centre at a cost of $27 million to replace the ageing GRV James Cook. It has a DNV classification of 1A1 and Ice 1C. It was transferred to the new National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research in 1992.
Tangaroa operates for 320 to 340 days per year conducting fisheries research in New Zealand's Exclusive Economic Zone and marine research in the waters surrounding Antarctica. It is equipped for hydrographic, bathymetric and oceanographic surveys to measure and map various properties of the ocean and seabed; biological surveys; and for both acoustic and trawl fisheries surveys. It can trawl to and conduct acoustic soundings down to.
In 2010 Tangaroa received a $20 million upgrade including a dynamic positioning system. This allows the ship to "automatically maintain a vessel in a fixed position at sea by using its own propellers and thrusters". NIWA defended contracting the work to a Singapore dockyard to do the work instead of using the Devonport Naval Base Dockyard.
On one voyage in 2003, scientists aboard RV Tangaroa discovered over 500 species of fish and 1,300 species of invertebrate, and the tooth of an extinct Megalodon.
Andrew Leachman served as the ship's first captain for more than twenty years, bringing the ship to New Zealand from Norway, and taking it as far north as New Caledonia and as far south as Antarctica.
