Pete Bethune has revealed his latest mission and declared war on fishing piracy.

The Kiwi self-styled eco-warrior gained international notoriety after serving time in a Japanese prison for illegally boarding a whaling ship two years ago.

His latest venture looks even more dangerous.

The Auckland waterfront launch of Pete Bethune’s purpose-built amphibious boat couldn’t be further from its intended destination – the seas around West and East Africa, plagued by illegal fishing operations.

Built by Auckland company Sealegs, the impressive craft is fitted with every conceivable gadget from infrared cameras to night vision.

“This allows us to be a lot more effective in coastal waters,” he says. “On the patrols we’re undertaking, this will be an amazing asset for us and we will start to deliver on this boat.”

By deliver he means bagging, as he puts it, “the bad guys”. Mr Bethune has assembled a team of commandos from former navy seals and other international special forces, all willing to put their lives on the line for marine conservation.

“This team of ex-military guys are taking on a very formidable target – these criminal gangs that fish illegally in Africa – and we’re really looking forward to getting over there and getting stuck into them.”

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NIWA and Environment Southland have recently returned with stunning new footage of undersea sills in Dusky and Doubtful Sounds, brimming with sea life, corals and sponges. The footage was taken from a remote-operated vehicle (ROV), and is being used to assess 20 areas within Fiordland currently designated as anchoring sites for tourist cruise ships.

“The scientists were surprised with what is down there. It’s pretty amazing,” says NIWA’s Nelson Regional Manager Ken Grange. It’s believed the ROV footage has captured new species and previously undescribed habitats after only a week surveying Fiordland’s undersea sills.

“We know that the fiords are globally unique and have some of the highest marine diversity in New Zealand, but the discovery of these sill communities was outstanding. We can’t wait to get back and survey more of them,” says Grange.

“We found large areas of horny coral fans, rare and protected fragile red coral, sponges and sea pens. Large black coral trees, over a metre tall, were attached to the rocks and they provided shelter to large numbers of rock lobsters, while dense schools of fish, mainly butterfly perch, hovered above.”

“There were several dozens of things that are new to science: sponges, sea pens, corals, sea squirts and sea cucumbers. Prior to this trip, we didn’t know about these sill communities,” says Grange.

Ships’ anchors would be very destructive to such habitats. This year, 87 cruise ships will bring tourists to marvel at the spectacular scenery in Fiordland National Park. Next year there will be 90. Only a few of these ships drop anchor, but those that do can offload passengers in large numbers to sight-see in Zodiac boats.

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ON A MISSION: Grim has averaged 108km a day since being tagged off Stewart Island on March 29.

Researchers tracking a young great white shark are more concerned for its safety as it basks in Bay of Plenty than about a shark attack.

The 2.8-metre-long shark, named Grim by conservation scientists, surprised researchers who are tracking him with his reluctance to follow his peers and move north to the tropics.

In three months, Grim has travelled more than 2000 kilometres, averaging 108km a day on a journey that has taken him from Stewart Island to the shallow waters of Eastern Bay of Plenty.

Conservation Department marine scientist Clinton Duffy said the group had tagged six sharks in the summer, but Grim, a juvenile aged three to five years, was the only one staying around New Zealand.

He was possibly happy to stay where he found food. “He’s on a real tiki tour around the North Island.”

Yesterday, Grim was 7.5km off Te Kaha, the closest to shore he had been since setting off on his journey on March 28. Scientists were more concerned about Grim’s safety, than the risk of a shark attack. “The risk is greater to the shark the closer he comes to shore.”

Great white sharks were occasionally caught in gill nets, with some reported to have been caught off nearby Torere, which Grim had visited.

However, if sharks were alive when they were discovered in gill nets, they often had a good chance of surviving when they were freed, Mr Duffy said.

Great white sharks were protected under the Wildlife Act, and the DOC study was being carried out in conjunction with the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research to learn more about their movements.

Earlier in the study, another shark named Shack surprised the team for diving to a depth of 1200 metres while migrating from Stewart Island to Brisbane.

The sharks were tagged off Stewart Island and the Chatham Islands with an electronic device that records movement by sending information to a satellite.

By Charlotte Tonkin

The Department of Conservation (DOC) is asking the public to be on the lookout and report any sightings of southern right whales, as they make their way north in their annual migration.

Right Whale

The number of sightings doubled between 2008 and 2009 and DOC hopes this year will be even better.

One hundred and forty-eight southern right whales were recorded during the 2009 migration season, when the DOC received 79 calls of sightings, up from 50 the year before.

DOC wants anyone who sees the coast-loving creatures over the next four months to let them know.

“The data helps us with putting together that bigger picture of the animals’ movements and the relationships between the populations,” says Laura Boren, DOC national marine mammal co-ordinator. “With this we can make better decisions, more informed decisions on how to protect these guys in the future.”

The southern right whale was hunted to near extinction during the 1800s and early 1900s. Because they spend so much time near the surface and float when harpooned, they were considered the “right” whale to kill.

DOC says it’s difficult to say how many are left. The last count was 936 back in 1998.

THE public awareness campaign launched by the Bay of Islands Maritime Park to highlight destruction of fisheries globally and the need to do something locally has picked up speed.

The Bay of Islands

A working group will meet tonight at 6pm at Island Life cafe, on the Paihia waterfront.

Under discussion will be a proposed timeline for the group’s marine reserve campaign and discussion about community consultation, which includes developing a genuine understanding of the possible effects of a marine reserve, having conversations with groups in the area and putting on events to help raise public awareness.

The Bay of Islands Maritime Park is the umbrella group for a number of working groups who are all focused on replenishing the Bay of Islands.

The focus is on establishing a network of no-take marine reserves in the bay.

Public consultation is under way to find out what the community thinks of the proposal.

There is a strong case for marine protection to boost tourism potential – illustrated at Leigh and Kaikoura – an aspect which is likely to draw support from the tourism industry.

Another local group, Experiencing Marine Reserves, is working closely with the Bay of Islands Maritime Park and aims to offer its programme to all schools in the Bay.

New Zealand has 31 mainland reserves. Establishing marine protected areas may not be easy but it’s not too hard, says the director of Victoria University’s centre for marine environmental and economic research Jonathan Gardner. He says he is a strong advocate of marine reserves. While there will always be someone who objects to a particular area being designated a protected area, the Fisheries Ministry and the Conservation Department are working more closely together and he is optimistic about the future, he says.

Fisheries scientists are concerned with stock management and commercial harvest, while marine biologists are concerned with protecting and restoring. But while they might disagree about the state of the marine environment, there is little dispute about the benefits of marine protected areas.

“Marine reserves are wonderful and they serve a social and conservation purpose but they won’t cure fisheries.

“However, ultimately, if there are enough of them and they are linked, they may make a larger contribution,” Dr Gardner says.

Read the full article here.

If convicted, Peter Bethune could face up to 15 years in prison.

The Sea Shepherd activist admitted in court today that he boarded the Shonan Maru 2 in Antarctic seas and pleaded guilty to two other criminal counts – illegal possession of a knife and obstruction of business – but said he believed he had “good reason to do so.”

He denied a fifth charge of assault.

Bethune jumped aboard the whaling vessel Shonan Maru 2 in Antarctic seas in February, saying he wanted to make a citizen’s arrest of the Japanese captain. He handed over a $3 million bill for the destruction of a protest ship that sank after a confrontation a month earlier.

Read the full story from the NZ Herald.

Southern Right Whale - Eubalaena australis

American offshore whaling maps, log books and strike documents from the 1700s to the 1920s are being analysed to shed light on southern right whales and sperm whales in Australasia.

Whaling was big business in the 1830s, so very detailed records were kept, said marine ecologist Dr Leigh Torres, of the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research (Niwa).

Using these historic records, Dr Torres has begun to analyse the old whalers’ data for comparison with the distribution of whale sightings today.

The research would provide an insight into the distribution and movements of endangered whale species before their numbers were reduced to what they are today.

“We are using these data, that are over a hundred years old, to tell us what the key foraging, migratory, and frequently used habitats were for southern right whales and sperm whales, because abundance levels were high in the 19th century before heavy whaling,” Dr Torres said.

She is developing models, based on the historical data, that will be used to predict modern-day habitat use patterns of these two whale species.

Read the full story from stuff.co.nz.

4:00 AM Sunday May 9, 2010

A Government funded mission to survey the mineral wealth beneath New Zealand waters is raising fears the seafloor could one day be dug up by miners.

NIWA research vessel Tangaroa.

National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research (Niwa) research vessel Tangaroa will set sail on Wednesday with a team of 16 scientists to survey two underwater volcanoes and ascertain their value.

The volcanoes, about 200km north-east of Auckland, are believed to be rich in iron, and copper and contain lesser concentrations of gold.

Expedition leader and Niwa marine geologist Dr Geoffroy Lemarche said one reason the project had Government funding was the “economic potential”.

Mining critics, buoyed by last weekend’s protest in Auckland, expressed concern about where the surveying could lead.

Forest & Bird spokeswoman Karen Baird said the Resource Management Act ended 19km from the shore.

The biologically unique region was home to hundreds of underwater volcanoes and stringent controls were needed “before you even thought of seabed mining”.

Read the full article from the NZ Herald.

The Suunto Dive-Off competition will be held at the 203m deep Dean’s Blue Hole.

William Trubridge will be competing alongside two other New Zealanders.

The 15 freedivers will attempt to reach new depths in three different disciplines. The athletes can earn up to 100 points in each discipline, depending on the ratio of their best performance compared to the best dive in the event.

Read the full story from the NZ Herald.

Hydrothermal vents spew heated fluids – often containing dissolved minerals such as gold, zinc, and copper – with the plumes from the vents influencing influence ocean chemistry and providing a source of energy for a complex web of organisms.

More than 220 vents have been discovered worldwide – many of them on the Kermedec Arc between New Zealand and Tonga. So far no one has found them in the rough and frigid waters off Antarctica, but the new research has narrowed the places to look.

Geochemist Gisela Winckler at Columbia University’s Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory analysed thousands of oceanographic measurements to pinpoint half a dozen spots where vents are likely to be found on the remote Pacific Antarctic Ridge.

They are about 3200km from New Zealand, 1600km from the coast of Antarctica, according to the research published in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.

“The Pacific Antarctic ridge is one of the ridges we know least about,” she says. “It would be fantastic if researchers were to dive to the seafloor to study the vents we believe are there.”

Read the full article here.