The Portobello Marine Laboratory is located on the end of a short peninsula close to the township of
Portobello, within the limits of the city of
Dunedin in
New Zealand's
South Island
The South Island, also officially named , is the larger of the two major islands of New Zealand in surface area, the other being the smaller but more populous North Island. It is bordered to the north by Cook Strait, to the west by the Tasman ...
. It is run as part of the
University of Otago, the main campus of which is 23 kilometres to the southwest in Dunedin's main urban area.
History
The laboratory is New Zealand and
Oceania's oldest established
marine research facility and was opened on 13 January 1904. It was originally proposed for Dunedin by leading MP and naturalist
G. M. Thomson
George Malcolm Thomson (2 October 1848 – 25 August 1933) was a New Zealand scientist, educationalist, social worker and politician.
Biography
Born on 2 October 1848 in Calcutta, Thomson grew up in Scotland, being educated at the Edinburg ...
as a fish hatchery.
Initially planned to be sited at
Pūrākaunui, north of
Port Chalmers, the current site on the shores of
Otago Harbour was deemed more suitable.
The laboratory went through a period of revival in the 1950s, in which
Elizabeth Joan Batham
Elizabeth Joan Batham (2 December 1917 – 8 July 1974) was a New Zealand marine biologist and university lecturer. A past president of the New Zealand Marine Sciences Society and a Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand, Batham directed ...
was a key player.
The laboratory is highly regarded worldwide for its facilities and research, and is an important asset to the university's Marine Science Department. The facility also includes the
New Zealand Marine Studies Centre
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
, which offers education programmes to pre-booked groups.
References
External links
Laboratory website
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Otago Peninsula
Buildings and structures of the University of Otago
Research institutes in New Zealand