Centuries of over-exploitation of whales for their meat and blubber has seen populations of most species plummet. But with no small amount of irony, the tables have turned with research discovering that we need whales for a healthy marine ecosystem.

The moa were driven to extinction due to human activities - over-hunting and habitat destruction. Here are 10 other animals mankind has wiped out.

Global warming is melting sea ice so fast that more than half of Antarctica's population of emperor penguins are set to be wiped out by the end of the century, according to alarming new research saying they should be listed as an endangered species.

NZ's oceans are undoubtedly important. Our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is the fifth largest in the world, but it's not just size that puts us on the world map, writes Peter Hardstaff.

Not long after the Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 was declared missing, the world's attention was focused on a remote, poorly known area of the Eastern Indian Ocean as the possible location of the lost aircraft.

"Sea," said King Canute, the 11th-century Danish King of England, "I command you to come no further!"

The social media phenomenon known as the Beached Az whale has been killed off by its creators to highlight the plight of marine life ahead of World Oceans Day.

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

One of the most "disastrous breeding seasons" in recent years has hit endangered yellow-eyed penguin colonies along Otago's coast.

New Zealand's endangered yellow-eyed penguin have been found to follow the line of swooping seabirds - literally - when it comes to reaping the food stirred up by trawlers.

'Wow, this guy's a whopper,' said experts of a 1.5m monster jellyfish that washed up on a Hobart beach last month. So what does its sting feel like?

It all began in December 2012, when Jose Salvador Alvarenga, an El Salvadorian fisherman, boarded his 7m fibreglass fishing boat in the village of Costa Azul on the coast of the Mexican state of Chiapas.

Sections of the Northwestern cycleway will most likely be underwater and low-lying sections of Auckland's motorway network are at risk of flooding during high king tides forecast for later this week.

Asteroids like the one that wiped out the dinosaurs on Earth could have shot life to Mars or the moons of Jupiter and Saturn, US scientists have said.

In the last of a three-part series, Young New Zealander of the Year and CEO of the Sustainable Coastlines Charitable Trust ,Sam Judd, discusses the United Nations Environment Programs’ Global Partnership on Marine Litter.

Every day, millions of tons of inadequately treated sewage, industrial and agricultural waste enters the world's waterways, writes Sam Judd.

Sam Judd writes that perhaps the biggest environmental problem we currently face is the contamination of our waterways by nutrients.

Environmental columnist Sam Judd takes a look at the disastrous consequences of the Japan earthquake on our food chain.

Lynn Dao has allowed us to watch her fantastic video. Towards the end of her two week trip in New Zealand, she went with Dolphin Encounter in Kaikora to hop in the ocean and swim with a bunch of dolphins. She thought it was going to be amazing, but nothing prepared her for the surreal experience of swimming with a pod of 500 dusky dolphins!

Environmental columnist Sam Judd checks out the proposed controversial changes to areas for commercial harvesting for paua.

The 2012-13 State Ocean Swim Series, which offered the richest swimming prize in New Zealand history, came to a dramatic finish last weekend with Aussies Ky Hurst and Melissa Gorman sweeping the titles.

New Zealand's best open water swimmers are philosophical after conceding the recent State New Zealand Ocean Swim series to Australians, but still have much to look forward to in 2013.

Early in its life the moon was much closer to Earth and the tides were a lot bigger and more frequent.

Technically, Pink Floyd had it wrong. The space-facing side of the moon isn't dark. Not that you'd know that, given we always see the same side of our nearest neighbour.

It's reaching the business end of the State Ocean Swim Series.

The carbon fibre Solar Impulse plane has the wingspan of a 747 but only weighs as much a Honda Prius.

Could it be that the humble sea urchin has come to the rescue? Sam Judd finds that the latest technological breakthrough for waging war on carbon emissions has the spiny sea creatures to thank.