Bay of Plenty Maori say they have been offered thousands of dollars to withdraw their opposition to leaving the Rena on Astrolabe Reef.

Since becoming New Zealand's first marine reserve in 1975, Goat Island has proven to be worth its weight in gold - and snapper.

They washed in by the thousands: tiny red crabs covering the Orange County shoreline much further north than their typical home.

The New Zealand Navy seized about $235 million of high-grade heroin - then let the smugglers free and hosed the drugs into the ocean.

Giant waves which pounded houses, spat up boulders and trapped a vehicle on Wellington's south coast could return today.

Car batteries, coffee cups and condoms - welcome to the underwater junkyard that lies just off our city beaches.

Researchers have linked an ancient marine dolphin fossil, found in Waitaki, with an endangered dolphin that lives in Nepal, India, and Bangladesh.

Although they are frequent visitors to the Manukau and Kaipara Harbours, white sharks are rarely seen in the gulf.

Twenty-one tonnes of oiled debris has been collected from the Tauranga Harbour following last week’s oil spill.

About 1500 litres of heavy fuel oil was leaked into Tauranga Harbour on Monday, Mobil has revealed.

Mobil isn't saying how much oil has been spilled because they are trying to spin it to make it sound like it’s not a major deal, an MP says.

'The long-liners have been working this area," said Peter Blackwell, as he stopped the boat and dropped a baited ledger rig over the side.

"This is one of New Zealand's biggest ports - if we can't contain this, how are we going to deal with off-shore drilling? I don't think we can really take the risk."

Shark diving around Stewart Island will be under the spotlight at a public meeting tonight that is being hosted by New Zealand First.

The dead oarfish washed up at Aramoana last week has disappeared and marine experts are warning against eating its 3m-long fillets.

A picture of a young boy who drowned off of the coast of the Greek island of Rhodes has come to represent the tragedy in the Mediterranean sea.

A shipwreck in which hundreds of people are feared dead may be one of the worst disasters of the Mediterranean migrant crisis.

A bizarre, self-amputating, vertical swimming, serpent-like marine specimen has washed up on the salt marsh at Aramoana in Dunedin.

Thermal imaging could be used to prevent ships striking whales by detecting the heat from their bodies.

The boat of two fishermen missing from Port Waikato since Monday may never be recovered, police say.

An ocean ecologist is extremely disappointed after he saw a commercial fishing boat allegedly longline fishing at a Marine Reserve.

The families of two fishermen missing at Port Waikato endured a third anxious night waiting for any news of their loved ones.