Hollywood has a lot to answer for when it comes to how we view sharks. The Great White, we all know. But sharks have been around since before the dinosaurs, and in that time they’ve evolved into 538 different species of all different shapes and sizes – and counting. Sharks with glow-in-the-dark armpits, sharks that can fit in your pocket, sharks with spots, sharks with frills. Isla Hodgson joins Hannah in the studio, and she’s got some astonishing shark facts up her sleeve. We’ll also meet Shaama Sandooyea, a climate activist from Mauritius who staged the world’s first ever underwater climate ..read more

Over the last year, our oceans have been hotter than any time ever recorded. Our instrumental record covers the last 150 years. But based on proxy observations, we can say our oceans are now hotter than well before the rise of human civilisation, very likely for at least 100,000 years. This isn’t wholly unexpected. Ocean temperatures have been steadily rising due to human-caused global warming, which in turn means record hottest years have become increasingly common. The last time ocean temperature records were broken was 2016 and before that it was 2015. The last year we experienced a record ..read more

RMA Reform Minister Chris Bishop is one of three ministers who will have unprecedented power to approve any development project under the Fast-Track Approvals Bill. He has written to over 200 organisations inviting them to apply under it, but the catch is that he won’t tell the public the names of the organisations or how they were chosen. Two seabed mining companies – Trans-Tasman Resources and Chatham Phosphate Company – that received the letter have publicly stated that they have been invited to re-apply under the Bill. Both had their applications turned down previously. Chatham Rock Phosph ..read more

In a groundbreaking declaration earlier this month, Indigenous leaders of New Zealand and the Cook Islands signed a treaty, He Whakaputanga Moana, to recognise whales as legal persons. A Humpback whale breaches off a reef in the Southern Great Barrier reef on its Southern Migration, Queensland, Australia. Humpback whales travel huge distances from the warm waters of the great barrier reef on the east coast of Australia to icy waters of the southern Ocean off Antarctic. Aotearoa New Zealand has already granted legal personhood to a river (Te Awa Tupua Whanganui River), land (Te Urewera) and a m ..read more

Lana Young/AntarcticaNZ/NIWA/K872, CC BY-SA Craig Stevens, University of Auckland, Waipapa Taumata Rau At the end of the southern summer, Antarctica’s sea ice hit its annual minimum. By at least one measure, which tracks the area of ocean that contains at least 15% of sea ice, it was a little above the record low of 2023. https://www.youtube.com/embed/v3fjX1kDLtY?wmode=transparent&start=0 Source: NASA’s Scientific Visualization Studio. At the time, I was aboard the Italian icebreaker Laura Bassi, ironically surrounded by sea ice about 10km off Cape Hallett and unable to make our way to one ..read more

New data released by the Ministry for Primary Industries shows that commercial fishing companies have been massively underreporting their catches of dolphins, albatross and fish prior to the cameras on boats programme. The data shows that for the 127 vessels now with cameras, reporting of dolphin captures increased nearly seven fold while reported albatross interactions were up 3.5 times. The reported volume of fish discarded has increased by almost 50%. Greenpeace says this is proof of concept for cameras on boats. “What this shows is exactly why a comprehensive cameras on boats programme is ..read more

The extent of the Luxon Government’s disregard for the environment is becoming clearer by the day. The fast-track approvals bill is, in Luxon’s own words, a ‘one-stop shop’ – and it really is. It is a one-stop shop for short-cutting environmental protection and undermining democracy. It’s a wrecking ball in this Government’s war on nature. This week’s announcement of a fast-track advisory group with no discernible environmental expertise adds insult to injury to the whole process.  The panel is stacked with executives from extractive industries and has nobody with any obvious expertise or ..read more

Greenpeace says that today’s announcement of a fast-track advisory group with no discernible environmental expertise adds insult to injury and shows just how little regard the Luxon Government has for the environment. The coalition Government claims its ‘expert advisory group’ will provide independent recommendations to Ministers on projects to be included in the Fast Track Approvals Bill. Greenpeace spokesperson Juressa Lee (Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi, Rarotonga) says: “It really rubs salt into the wound to see the Luxon Government’s new fast-track advisory panel stacked with executives fro ..read more

Greenpeace Aotearoa is calling on the Luxon Government to stop the rollback of freshwater protections following the release of the Ministry for the Environment’s Our Land 2024 report. Greenpeace spokesperson Amanda Larsson says, “Rivers, wetlands, lakes, forests and the wildlife that depend on them are in a dire state. However the Luxon Government intends to remove crucial environmental protections and fast-track the expansion of the very industries causing this damage.  “The Our Land 2024 report confirms that intensive agriculture, particularly from dairy farming, is continuing to put pr ..read more

3 billion people rely on the oceans for their livelihoods. But who are they? What are their stories? Hannah Stitfall is moving away from the ocean’s wild animals this week, and meeting its humans instead. She’s joined by lifelong fisherman Jerry Percy, and speaks with free-diver and ocean advocate Hanli Prinsloo about who the oceans are for. We’ll also meet Frida Bengtsson, a researcher who focuses on fisheries, tells her success story of working with fisheries in the Barents Sea. Presented by wildlife filmmaker, zoologist and broadcaster Hannah Stitfall, Oceans: Life Under Water i ..read more