DoC all at sea on things marine

5:00AM Saturday May 10, 2008
By Geoff Cumming
Environmentalist Raewyn Peart loves darting like a guppy around our undersea realm, from fish of all shapes and sizes to colourful sponges, kelps and corals. She’s keen to pass on her love of snorkelling to her daughter and, in late summer, headed for Matai Bay in the Far North, [...]

Fisheries, police bust illicit $1.3m paua operation

Police and fisheries officers today began dawn raids on houses and business premises in a massive poaching bust centred on a Wellington-based man trading as much as a tonne of illicit paua each week.

“He would typically pay his divers $17/kg for the paua meat and on-sell it for about $50/kg,” said Fisheries Ministry national investigations [...]

Twenty hours missing, but real drama starts now they’re ashore

RICHARD NEELY said he waved frantically to fellow crew members before he and his partner were left to drift in shark-inhabited waters on the Great Barrier Reef for 20 hours in a diving trip that went horribly wrong.

But crew members have contested his story, saying the boat remained at the dive site overnight so staff [...]

Aussie hurt, diver killed in Maldives

Maldivian authorities are investigating how a Russian tourist died and 10 others were injured while scuba diving, the tourism minister said.
The 36-year-old Russian national was among a group of tourists including from Germany, Australia and Russia taken casualty on Thursday while diving around a reef, minister Mahamood Shougee told AFP by telephone.
“The family of the [...]

Loggerheads over seabed mining

Opinions are split between two major government departments over the impacts of seabed mining.

Crown Minerals and the Department of Conservation are at loggerheads over the environmental risk posed by prospecting for mineral sands.

Snot a flatworm, it’s a new jellyfish

It looks like snot, it’s the size of a grain of rice, and it’s taking the marine science world by storm.
A new jellyfish species has been discovered inside the seahorse exhibit at the Reef HQ aquarium in Townsville, in north Queensland.
Scientist Dr Lisa Gershwin said she found the species by accident.
The expert in marine stingers [...]

Brittlestar City found near NZ

Millions of starfish-like creatures have been found in a novel colony on a subsea mountaintop south of New Zealand, aiding knowledge of mysterious seamounts that dot the oceans, scientists said.

Fewer than 200 seamounts - mountains that rise from the ocean floor without piercing the surface - have been surveyed out of an estimated 100,000 around [...]

Pest sea squirt found at Marsden Cove

Friday, 9 May 2008
A ‘relatively abundant’ infestation of the unwanted marine sea squirt ‘Styela clava’ has been discovered during a routine sweep of the new Marsden Cove Marina by a dive team contracted to Biosecurity New Zealand.

Biosecurity New Zealand (MAFBNZ) advised the Northland Regional Council yesterday that about 40 Styela clava (or clubbed tunicate sea [...]

How the world’s oceans are running out of fish

The future of our seas has never been more precarious. Ninety years of industrial-scale overfishing has brought us to the brink of an ecological catastrophe and deprived millions of their livelihoods. As scientific guidelines are ignored and catches become ever bigger, Alex Renton tells why the international community has failed to act.

A tuna transport floating [...]

Hutchwilco New Zealand Boat Show starts Thursday

15-18 May 2008, Thursday to Sunday, ASB Showgrounds, Auckland
Everything you want to know about boats, all in one place. And the chance to win a boat every single day of the show!

New Zealand’s largest and most popular boat show!
New Zealand’s biggest collection of new boats for sale!
New Zealand’s largest fishing supermarket!
Four days of marine fun, [...]