“Half the world’s marine species wiped out in one generation! Marine life slashed by half since the 1970s. Ocean fish numbers on brink of collapse”

The headlines are screaming. Sure enough, WWF’s latest report, Living Blue Planet Report: Species, habitats and human well-being, tells a terrifying tale. The introduction, by Director General of WWF International, Marco Lambertini, is bewitching and uncompromising: “Our ocean – that seemingly infinitely bountiful, ever awe-inspiring blue that defines our planet from space – is in crisis.”

Sobering article about the plight of the Pacific Bluefin Tuna: How much will the last pacific bluefin tuna cost?

For some species no controls on catch or effort are likely to be enforceable or effective, and large MPAs are the only effective tool for conservation...
 

Continued reliance on a strategy of setting aside land and marine territories as "protected areas" is insufficient to stem global biodiversity loss, according to a comprehensive assessment published July 28 in the journal Marine Ecology Progress Series.

Article taken from Science Daily, July 29 2011.

This review on the benefits of marine parks is essential reading for anyone engaging in the complex process of establishing a network of marine protected areas.

A photographic insight into the marine world / Dr Roger Grace
Seaweek event: Mon 28 Feb, 6pm Copthorne

A once in a lifetime opportunity to view images by international Greenpeace marine photographer and renowned marine biologist, New Zealander Dr Roger Grace.  The show includes photographs from major international campaigns including Antarctica, set-netting, and a selection of ‘weird and wonderful’ marine life, gathered over a 20 year span. 

An inspiring initiative led by Mäori and supported by Forest & Bird could create a way forward to protect marine life.

This article by Dean Baigent-Mercer features in Forest & Bird magazine this month drawing much needed attention to the plight of marine protection across New Zealand.

Biodiversity is all we have.

Living things provide humankind's food, fabric, fibre and pharmaceuticals; they fertilise and pollinate crops, generate oxygen and recycle water. The wealth of nations is built upon biodiversity: even the oil, coal, peat, chalk and flints dug from the ground were once living tissue. So the case for the conservation of life's variety ought to be obvious.

'No Fish Left Behind' Approach Leaves Earth With Nowhere Left to Fish, Study Finds

Science Daily (Dec. 2, 2010) - Earth has run out of room to expand fisheries, according to a new study led by University of British Columbia researchers that charts the systematic expansion of industrialized fisheries.In collaboration with the National Geographic Society and published in the online journal PLoS ONE, the study is the first to measure the spatial expansion of global fisheries.

NIWA/LINZ Media Release 14 October 2010

New web portal opens window to vast storehouse of information about Bay of Islands coast. 

Visit the site here: http://www.os2020.org.nz/