Guest Blogger: Bev Woods, Secretary for the Northern Branch As many of you will know, our bar tailed godwits are fattening up for their 11,500 kilometre trip to the Alaskan-north, and will depart anytime in the next few weeks. Packing on an estimated 50% of their body weight in fuel, the birds are currently in […]

Guest blogger: Chairperson for the Kaikoura Branch, Ailsa Howard While DOC has been busy crafting dummy sea-lions  in an attempt to attract males ashore, the Kaikoura community along with the local DOC staff have been involved in a charade of our own: playing the call of the endangered Hutton’s shearwater through loud speakers, in bid […]

Google has just announced a new tool that allows viewers to take a glimpse under the sea, which goes a long way to addressing our “out of sight – out of mind mentality” currently plaguing marine conservation efforts. Having just rolled out google sky following the ever-popular google earth, google is now giving us a chance to dive […]

While the impacts of climate change on land are hotly discussed, its effect on our oceans and marine life tend to fall into the ‘out of sight out of mind’ black hole. Yet the effect of increased carbon dioxide levels in our atmosphere is likely to have significant impacts both on our marine life and […]

Well it’s official. 113 is the new kill quota for our threatened New Zealand sea lions – a 40% increase on last year’s quota. Set by the new Minister of Fisheries Phil Heatley, the quota determines how many sea lions the Auckland Island squid fishery can kill in the 2009 fishing season.

How often do we hear that children have lost the ability to learn about life because they are wrapped in the cotton wool of bureaucratically-safe environments? Play areas must be free of dangerous objects, games must be safe, and children must be wrapped up warmly if outside in cold weather, fully protected from the sun’s rays […]

New Zealand sea lions once ranged right around our coastline, however today they are largely restricted to the isolated islands of the Sub-Antarctic – with over 85% of breeding at the Auckland Islands. Each summer the Auckland Island squid trawl fishery takes to these water with large trawl nets that scoop up squid. As well […]

Why is it that a picture of a cute and cuddly kiwi or a doe-eyed dolphin gets a response, yet animals pre-dating our most ancient of species – the tuatara – get completely ignored? Sharks are the living dinosaurs of our seas. Originating long before dinosaurs arrived, sharks are among our top predators and act […]