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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If you’re planning to go head-to-head with a sea creature, it’s probably best to start small.

Only the very brave, or very stupid, would begin a headbutting competition with a 50-ton sperm whale… after all, its head is one third of its overall size.

Nevertheless, here are pictures of a snorkeller doing just that – swimming with his head down right up to a massive whale.

Up close and personal: A lucky snorkeller takes whale-watching to a new level by nudging heads. The amazing photo was taken of Dominica in the Caribbean.

Of course, you can’t make a 60ft animal do anything against its will, so it’s up to the whales to decide if they are in the mood to play. But, when they are feeling sociable, the results lead to amazing pictures like these.

Dominica has become known as the whale-watching capital of the Caribbean. Sperm whales can be seen year-round and – because the ocean floors drops to thousands of feet deep just off the coast – the whales are within easy reach of humans.

Whale of a time: The snapping snorkeller keeps his distance from the giant whale to capture more intimate shots

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The water may seem like a limitless source of food but we are slowly realising the free-for-all can't continue. Photo / Richard Robinson

Control of global stocks is the only answer, say Gareth Morgan and
Geoff Simmons, authors of Hook, Line & Blinkers: Everything Kiwis Never
Wanted to Know About Fishing.

The election is looming, but it’s a sad state of affairs when a conversation
over tea takes precedence over actual policies.

So we’ve decided to clock out and go fishing.

Out on the waves, the vast blue of the ocean dupes us to believe it to be a
limitless source of food and a bottomless receptacle of our waste.

Yet as instances of abuse of our oceans accumulate we are slowly realising
that this free-for-all can’t continue – unless we’re happy to leave the ocean in
a worse state for our grandchildren.

Read Full Article at NZ Herald

New video footage captured by a tuna industry whistleblower has been released by Greenpeace, which reveals the routine slaughter of other marine species, including whale sharks, rays and whales. The footage is shot onboard a tuna fishing vessel in the Pacific which deploys fish aggregating devices, one of the most aggressive fishing operations used by the industry in the face of declining fish populations owing to overfishing. Warning: this footage contains images that some may find disturbing

5:30 AM Wednesday Nov 9, 2011

Paul Watson. Photo / Steven McNicholl

Sea Shepherd captain Paul Watson believes whaling in the Antarctic is at a tipping point, but no thanks to the “useless” New Zealand Government.

The outspoken, uncompromising eco-warrior will soon hoist his ship’s Jolly Roger for conservation group Sea Shepherd’s eighth voyage to the Southern Ocean to chase and harass Japanese whalers.

This summer’s battle is expected to be fiercer than usual because the Japanese are sending a strengthened fleet with armed guards to the Antarctic for the first time in three years.

Watson, 60, is in Auckland to attend the New Zealand premiere of a biographical documentary Eco-Pirate.

Read Full Article at NZ Herald

8:37 AM Thursday Nov 10, 2011

Underwater Association president Shane Wasik will ask the owners of the stricken Rena to leave part of the ship on Astrolabe Reef as a diving wreck. Photo / Alan Gibson

The container ship that brought an environmental tragedy to the Bay of Plenty could become a tourist-pulling underwater wonder, says a national marine group.

which is sponsoring a national divers’ conference in Tauranga this weekend, wants part of the crippled MV Rena to remain as a shipwreck and will approach Greek owners Costamare Shipping with the plan.

The bid comes as a new nationwide campaign backed by 5000 people puts fresh pressure on Costamare to cover the disaster’s entire damage bill, saving millions of taxpayer dollars.

Pumping of heavy fuel oil from the submerged number five starboard wing tank on the Rena began last night.

Operations were hampered yesterday, as salvors had to purge air from the vessel’s last full oil tank before pumping could begin.

Read Entire Article at NZ Herald 

University of Auckland

To make the article more attractive! Photo by AUUC Member Mazdak Radjainia

There are far fewer species on Earth – just 2 million – than widely believed and it is possible to discover them all this century, according to Associate Professor Mark Costello from The University of Auckland’s Leigh Marine Laboratory.

In the keynote address at the World Conference on Marine Biodiversity, Dr Costello presented new research showing that greater progress has been made describing the world’s biodiversity than previously thought.

“This is excellent news,” he says. “The discovery and description of new species is essential if we are to protect them, and learning more about the diversity of life on Earth will help us to understand the ecosystems we depend on for our survival. It is a massive task, however, and should be a top priority in world science.”

“People often despair that it will be impossible to discover and describe all of the species on Earth before they go extinct,” he says. “But this is based on a significant overestimation of both the number of species and the rate of extinction, and underestimation of the current rate of taxonomic effort in discovering new species.”

There has been speculation about the number of species for hundreds of years, and estimates have varied by tens of millions. Recently, for instance, it was widely reported that there are more than 8 million species on Earth. In a study published in the journal Systematic Biology, however, Dr Costello and colleagues from Trinity College, Dublin, concluded that there are likely to be just 1.8 to 2.0 million species.

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Greenseas restated its commitment to be supplied with tuna from sustainable fisheries, which do not use FADs. (Photo:Greenseas/Greenpeace/FIS)

Tuna company Greenseas has announced that it is deepening its commitment to tuna conservation by sourcing 100 per cent of its tuna from fish aggregating device- (FAD) free sources by the end of 2015.

“Greenseas was the first canned tuna brand to switch to dolphin-friendly fishing methods two decades ago, so it is appropriate that Greenseas is once again taking the lead on environmental sustainability,” said Heinz Australia Corporate Affairs Manager Jessica Ramsden.

In addition, Greenseas informed this week, it will go on providing financial backing for scientific research by the Oceanic Fisheries Programme (OFP) and supports having marine reserves to safeguard marine biodiversity in the Western Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO).

“Dropping FADs and supporting marine reserves in the Pacific high seas pockets are among the strongest conservation moves a company like Greenseas could make. That commitment, along with their ongoing support for OFP’s research programme, demonstrates genuine leadership,” stated Greenpeace oceans campaigner Nathaniel Pelle.

Read full Article Here!