A massive pipi bed in Whangarei harbour is dying and there are fears the change could destabilise the harbour - and Marsden Point itself, Radio NZ reports.

A commercial fisherman who posted a video online of himself killing a shark with a piece of railway iron has been sacked for his actions.

Here are 12 tips, strategies and tactics for you to try out when you feel inclined to engage a Typical Climate Change Denier head on at your next barbecue.

Aucklanders need to prepare for the wide-ranging impacts that climate change will have on their city, a leading scientist says.

Sea levels will rise 30cm around New Zealand by 2050 and threaten coastal properties and infrastructure in low-lying areas, a new report warns.

The Sun Princess arrived in Sydney this morning after returning to sea in an attempt to find a man lost overboard.

It was merely fanciful, of course, to imagine that going to meet William Trubridge, the world record holding freediver, would be like going to meet a merman.

The consortium that pumps gas from the Maui offshore platforms appears to have been forgivably naughty.

Police have now officially ended the search for missing 5-year-old Jack Dixon, who was washed out to sea at Mt Maunganui.

Mt Maunganui surf lifesavers say they will keep looking for Jack Dixon "for as long as it takes" despite no sign of the missing boy for a week.

Rogue waves - mountainous swells that form at sea without warning - have been blamed for countless maritime disasters.

According to NASA, "for the first time in modern history, the eastern basin of the South Aral Sea has completely dried."

New research has confirmed waters off Auckland are crucial breeding grounds for a keystone shark species.

The world's leading expert on the poisoning of the oceans has described how he was "utterly shocked" by the true amount of plastic floating on the sea, warning that it potentially posed a bigger threat to the planet than climate change.

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.