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.

TONY EASTLEY: While much of the focus on whaling has been centred on skirmishes in the Southern Ocean, an important legal case will begin today in a regional courtroom in northern Japan. Two Japanese Greenpeace activists will stand trial for trespass and the theft of whale meat. If found guilty they could face 10 years in prison.

The activists – dubbed ‘the Tokyo Two’ – say they intercepted the meat as it was being smuggled from a Japanese whaling ship to the black market, all with the full knowledge, they say, of Japanese officials. But instead of seeing charges laid against the whalers and officials, prosecutors charged the activists.

The "Tokyo Two" on the opening day of the trial. Image courtesy Greenpeace

North Asia correspondent, Mark Willacy reports from Tokyo.

(Sound of paper being rustled)

MARK WILLACY: It was the moment Junichi Sato believed he’d found irrefutable proof of official corruption in Japan’s whaling program. As he unwrapped the package he’d intercepted there it was – 23 kilograms of salt-cured whale meat.

(Junichi Sato speaking)

“This consignment sheet says this package is full of cardboard,” he says “but it’s full of stolen whale meat – clear evidence that Japan’s whaling program is operating illegally,” he says.

Click here for the full story

Pilot whales. Image courtesy diveloreto

Sixteen pilot whales have been moved to a hillside above Port Levy.

The whales were part of a pod of about 60 that stranded in the Bank Peninsula bay on Sunday morning.

Most of the whales were herded to sea by about 80 residents, holidaymakers and volunteers from marine mammal rescue organisation Project Jonah.

The group’s chief executive, Kim Muncaster, said the rescued whales were last seen about 6pm on Sunday three kilometres off Pigeon Bay.

“The pod were doing really well. They were swimming strongly.”

The dead whales were moved from the beach yesterday to Murray Craw’s cattle farm above Port Levy, where autopsies were performed on seven. The autopsies are expected to be finished today.

Department of Conservation community relations programme manager Grant Campbell said it was decided not to do the autopsies on the beach because of the mess it would make and the discharge that could get in the water.

A team of four, including Auckland University of Technology marine specialist Emma Beatson and a DOC marine scientist, performed the autopsies.

Craw, who has farmed at Port Levy for 25 years, said his daughter lived across the road from the beach and he did not want his daughter to face the smell of the whales. The whales were due to be buried today after being blessed by kaumatua.

Read more from The Press.