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

One of the world's biggest and most luxurious private sailing yachts, the Athena, was "shrink wrapped" in Westhaven marina yesterday.

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.