A food chain shows how each living thing gets food and how nutrients and energy are passed from creature to creature. Food chains start with plant life and end with animal life.
A large, brown, seaweed that lives in cold water and provides a habitat for many other sea creatures.
Kina, or sea urchins, are a small sea creature the lives in shallow water. They have a round shell which is covered in sharp needle-like spines. Kina are eaten by crayfish, as well as humans, and they like to eat seaweed or kelp.
A carpet shark, or pekapeka in Māori, is a small shark who lives in shallow waters and whose skin resembles a patterned carpet.
Crayfish, or kōura in Māori, are also called Spiny Rock Lobster. They are a creature with long antennae, no claws, and a hard 'exoskeleton' or shell which they need to cast off in order to grow bigger. In some areas it is customary for Māori to make sure that the kōura has all of it's limbs when taken. Why? If a kōura loses a leg or antenna when it is taken, other kōura might see that as a reason to leave the area!
Young Ocean Explorers
P.O. Box 228
Warkworth
, 0941
New Zealand
info@youngoceanexplorers.com
