It won't matter if you spill red wine on the shag-pile carpet and white sofas in this $2.65 million luxury launch — it just slides right off the specially made fabric.

Hollywood director James Cameron is among those lamenting the loss of a robotic research submarine which imploded in the Kermadec Trench.

Superyacht firms say their multi-millionaire customers will sail off to Australian shipyards for lucrative refit and service contracts if Auckland does not develop more deep-water facilities.

A monster kingfish surprised a party of snapper fishermen last weekend when it swallowed a bait meant for snapper. The 36kg king took the piece of pilchard on a flasher rig by the Noises and was eventually subdued on the light 10kg breaking strain line.

Snapper can still be found around Auckland, but they are only in patches and the best way to find them is to look for changes in the temperature of the water.

Alarming declines in patronage on Auckland ferries have been blamed on a double-counting blooper stretching back to 2011.

Rugby isn't the only thing that matters to former All Blacks coach Sir Graham Henry. The World Cup-winning coach has put out the call for people to help raise funds for training some of the emergency heroes of the sea.

No one had known just what kind of weapon lay hidden off the coast of the South Island. Behind the unlikely facade of a harmless sea sponge lurked a fearsome cocktail of chemicals that had evolved over billions of years.

Snapper fishing is still going well as seasons change and fish can be found just about anywhere.

Anglers looking for a dinner of fresh fish over the long weekend don't have to go past the harbours at the moment.

A new report says the missing Malaysia Airlines plane was 'thrown around like a fighter jet' - flying drastic manoeuvres in a bid to dodge radar.

After a week of optimism over four underwater signals believed to be coming from the missing Malaysian plane the sea has gone quiet.

A body seen floating in Auckland's Waitemata Harbour was ignored, joked about and photographed, but few people were willing to help.

There is a trout lure called a toby which has been around for generations, and like many top lures it originated in Scandinavia. But, as with most fishing experiences, one is often surprised at how the fish change the rules or do the unexpected.

Fishing is fickle, the saying goes. And as summer departs and cold nights descend and leaves start turning, the snapper turn up. It has been a long wait, but the old Maori knew this was often the way. They called May tamure, in honour of the snapper.

Sharks have forced themselves back into the minds of Australians.

Scientists have used an underwater camera to count large snapper in Hauraki Gulf marine reserves.

Crayfish fishing around our coastlines is thought to be triggering a damaging sequence of effects that also threatens the species' infants.

'Foveaux Strait is an iffy strait'. A woman who lost four family members when the Easy Rider sank says she's distressed by the guilty verdict slapped on the skipper's widow.

Kaikoura's world-renowned wild marine environment will be better protected by a new marine reserve.

There have been some bright spots on the fishing scene, with occasional bags of nice snapper reported.

The massive accommodation block of the wrecked container ship Rena has seen daylight for the first time in more than two years.

A three-hour search was carried out in Western Bay of Plenty last night after a boat carrying three men was reported overdue.

A Bay of Plenty sailor thought he'd gone back in time when his catamaran almost struck what appeared to be a World War II-era sea mine off the Auckland coast.

Scientists hoping to boost marine life and water quality in the Hauraki Gulf are buoyed by the instant success of a trial to re-establish mussel beds on the seafloor.

About 1500 litres of aviation fuel leaked into Lyttelton Harbour after a storage tank was damaged by a landslip during the storm that hit the area earlier this week.