A decision to kill 48 pilot whales found stranded on Stewart Island had been difficult but there was no alternative, DoC says.

Anti-whaling activists say reports of Japan's annual Southern Ocean whale hunt being suspended are a bluff.

The death of a dolphin after a collision with a boat in the Hauraki Gulf has prompted a warning for boaties to take care around marine mammals.

The Japanese whaling fleet appears to have called an early end to its whaling season in Antarctica, a move which conservationists tentatively say could spell an end to whaling in the Southern Ocean.

Enjoy your shucking while it lasts. Wild oysters are now "functionally extinct" in many places where they were once plentiful.