News Article: February/March 2005Local NewsVolkner Rocks now reserve-02-2005The marine reserve (off the Bay of Plenty coastline) circles Volkner rocks with a 1.6km boundary and covers 1444ha. More Whale Stranding and High Winds-02-2005Scientists predict increased whale strandings in and around the South Pacific over summer. More Technology normally used for preserving human tissue is being used on a giant colossal squid caught in the Ross Sea. More Some ships are ignoring a ban on sailing inside the Poor Knights Islands off Northland’s east coast. More The Minister of Fisheries announced that 115 New Zealand sea lions can be killed by squid fishery trawl operations. More An Assembly of God church minister who threatened a fishery officer with an oar after being caught with a large quantity of excess snapper on Hauraki Gulf was fined a total of $2000. More Three rivers and four lakes, including most of the Whanganui River and Pencarrow lakes have been closed to all commercial fishers since mid January in an effort to boost dwindling eel numbers. More Taranaki Fishers vow to fight plans to close off fishing along a coastline south west of New Plymouth, to create a marine reserve. More The Te Whaka a Te Wera mätaitai reserve at Paterson Inlet, Stewart Island, came into effect on 30 December. More Heading out to the Mokohinau Islands, 16 kilometres from Omaha, the fish was spotted tailing on the surface in 2-3m visibility and 17 degree water. More A significant reconnaissance seismic survey is being acquired off the east coast of the North Island this summer. More The Ministry of Fisheries will review a series of amateur fishing regulations identified as a priority by the New Zealand Recreational Fishing Council. More Notice is hereby given that from 20 December 2004 all water craft will be prohibited from entering the Hapu of Ngati Kura, or fishing/diving between the island of Flat Motueka and Cape Brett extending 400 miles out to sea. More After joining the international whaling commission (IWC), Kiribati has been urged to support whaling conservation. More There are three aid agencies set up to specifically handle diving related post-tsunami aid. More NZDE has pledged to dedicate all proceeds from this international expedition to post-tsunami humanitarian aid and in particular, to assist in the re-building of the region's tsunami-devastated dive tourism industry's infrastructure as essential to the recovery of the region's economy and as the region's primary source of employment opportunities for tsunami survivors. More The Japanese Government is investigating the possibility of salvaging the remains of the war dead on an Imperial Japanese Navy transport ship Iro that was sunk off Palau during World War II. More Divers have discovered several cave sites along the Cape Peninsula coast in South Africa, where ancient lost civilisations might have lived. More Endangered hawksbill sea turtles are not recovering to the extent scientists thought. More Marine scientists say they have discovered 178 new species of fish and hundreds more new species of plants and other animals in the past year, raising the number of life-forms found in the world’s oceans to about 230,000. More Red October The Solomon Islands government has banned live dolphin exports following international outrage over a shipment of the marine mammals to a Mexican theme park last July. More The Queensland Government fears a fatal shark attack on the Great Barrier Reef near the tourist haven of Port Douglas could harm the state’s $2billion-a-year dive industry. More International ships are illegally polluting the Great Barrier Reef by dumping garbage and oily bilge water into the sensitive area, prompting a crackdown by federal authorities. More Genetic testing has shown that an animal scientists thought was the common ornate wobbegong is actually a new species of shark. More Placer Dome Niugini has set up a joint venture company to mine the deep ocean in Papua New Guinea, Fiji and Tonga. More Only about 30% of the world’s coral reefs are healthy, down from 41% two years ago, according to a study released the Global Coral Reef Monitoring Network a month before the devastating Tsuanami. More Japan’s whaling heartland will resume serving whale meat to schoolchildren after a gap of 20 years in a bid to preserve the whaling culture under attack from environmentalists. More More than 60 countries have agreed to ban the killing of sharks for their fins in the Atlantic Ocean, a move that conservationists hope will increase protection of threatened species around the world. More Beyond the horrific loss of human life, the first environmental assessment of Indonesia’s coast after the earthquake and tsunami of 26 December shows the extent of the severe damage. More A diver who drifted for five hours after a boat crew left him at sea has sued the diving company for $4 million. More In a landmark New South Wales case, a spearfisherman has been charged with killing a grey nurse shark - a threatened species. More After Asia's tsunami disaster triggered a global outpouring of compassion, a seamy side of human nature has emerged as fraudsters and profiteers scramble to make money out of misery. More Led by the Department of Marine and Coastal Resources, volunteer divers are mapping the extent of the damage expecting it to be to about 20% of the Andaman Sea reefs. More In order to dive the Red Sea, live-aboard divers will now be required to: Four days after the tsunami struck, an unprecedented number of researchers from various government agencies and educational institutes joined up with volunteer divers in a massive cooperative effort to assess the impact of the tsunami on marine resources in southern Thailand. More Studies show the oceans are becoming increasingly acidic as they soak up manmade emissions of carbon dioxide. More Plans are afoot to declare the Rekawa beach area as Sri Lanka's first Turtle Conservation Sanctuary. More Tiny single-celled organisms, many previously unknown, have been discovered beneath nearly seven miles of water in the deepest part of the ocean. More
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