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.

Atlantic bluefin tuna is in crisis and meets the criteria for a total ban on international trade, the head of the UN wildlife trade organisation said on Saturday in opening a 13-day meeting.

The 175-nation Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES), convening for the first time in the Middle East, is the only UN body with the power to outlaw commerce in endangered wild animals and plants.

Pacific Bluefin Tuna - endangered but delicious

Besides the sharply disputed proposal on bluefin, the Convention will debate the status of African elephants, polar bears and tigers.

Delegates from the nearly 150 nations in attendance will also vote on less stringent protection for several types of shark and their lookalikes.

Read the full article from the Sydney Morning Herald

Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner Karli Thomas says NZ fish stocks like snapper, hoki, orange roughy, yellowfin and bluefin tuna are all endangered and that the government needs to look at changing its quota system to allow for regeneration of stocks.

View video from Breakfast on TV1 on Monday 8th March.

We love our beautiful beaches, our gorgeous Gulf islands. So why are we turning them into garbage dumps? John Landrigan and chief photographer Kellie Blizard went to Great Barrier Island to see for themselves.

Hayden Smith (left) and Sam Judd clearing trash from the coastline of Great Barrier Island. KELLIE BLIZARD

We love our beautiful beaches, our gorgeous Gulf islands. So why are we turning them into garbage dumps? John Landrigan and chief photographer Kellie Blizard went to Great Barrier Island to see for themselves.

A plastic bottletop dropped at the top of the Waitakere Ranges floats down through Oratia Stream into Henderson Creek and then Waitemata Harbour.

If it’s raining hard and the bottletop catches the high tides, it might be whipped out to Rangitoto Island within two hours.

If a southeasterly is blowing, it could reach Great Barrier Island’s idyllic beaches inside a week.

This journey is the story of a piece of discarded rubbish hitting the perfect – or, as the case is – imperfect storm so it can contaminate the furthest reaches of our Gulf.

Read full article from The Aucklander.

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