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With more than 30 years of hard work behind her facing the worst elements of the Atlantic and Southern Oceans, the polar research and supply ship SA Agulhas is currently enjoying pleasant conditions off the east coast on a pre-COP17 voyage.

The voyage taking Agulhas from Cape Town to Port Elizabeth and on to Durban, where the 17th Conference of the Parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change will start later this month is an opportunity to highlight the role of the seas in climate.

The voyage will showcase three decades of South Africa

One of the world’s smallest and rarest marine dolphins has been seen in the harbor of New Zealand’ s capital, more than two years after the last sighting, conservation officials announced Tuesday.

The Hector’s dolphin was sighted in Wellington harbor on Monday and reported the country’s Department of Conservation (DOC), said a DOC statement.

The person who spotted the dolphin said it had “spent about five minutes zooming under and around the boat (with the engine in neutral) before disappearing,” said the statement.

Meanwhile, a spectator on shore reported seeing two dolphins.

“It is really exciting to see the return of this very special New Zealand dolphin,” DOC Kapiti Wellington biodiversity program manager Peter Simpson said in a statement.

“The next step is to try and get a high qualit...

Researchers from the University of California Santa Barbara have found that certain fish may help coral reefs recover from cyclones and predators.

Coral reefs around the world are under threat from rising sea temperatures and over fishing. However, researchers have discovered one location in the South Pacific Island of Moorea where the coral seems to be protected by parrotfish and surgeonfish.

Coral reefs that suffer large losses of live coral often become overgrown with algae and never recover. However, the reefs around Moorea experienced large losses of coral in the past — most recently in the 1980s — and each time they have recovered.

The research team, operating under the Moorea Coral Reef Long-Term Ecological Research project, was keen to find out what ecological factors might be re...

Conservationists have raised fears that the Government is set to push ahead with less than a quarter of the dozens of protected areas proposed for the UK’s seas.

A total of 127 proposed “marine conservation zones” have been drawn up by four regional groups as part of efforts to develop a network of areas designed to improve the protection of the marine environment.

They range from a 2,200 square mile site offshore in the south west of UK waters which could be designated to protect seabed habitats, to around 100 acres of coastal saltmarsh, saline reedbeds and mud flats in an estuary in the North Sea.

Some 2% of the 14,500 square miles of protected seas would be made up of 65 “reference” areas, which would be afforded the highest protection with all damaging activity such as fishing banned.

Far out on the Pacific Ocean, the world’s industrial fishing fleets pursue one of the last huge wild hunts

The first time scientists explored deep in the Indian Ocean, they found a new species of glowing squid. Now researchers who are departing from South Africa on Monday with even better equipment are hoping for similar success.

In 2009, the scientists collected some 7,000 samples including the newly discovered squid, which has light-producing organs that it uses to attract its prey. Researchers aboard the RRS James Cook are taking along special cameras for photographing the ocean floor _ something they didn’t have last time.

“We don’t know much about the deep sea community,” Aurelie Spadone, a sea specialist with the International Union for Conservation of Nature, said in a telephone interview Monday before setting out on the Indian Ocean expedition...

Fiji’s coral reef fisheries are under threat from climate change and the threats are greatest for people who will continue to depend on coral reef fisheries.

However, a new book Vulnerability of Tropical Pacific Fisheries and Aquaculture to Climate Change says there are options for sustaining food resources through tuna and aquaculture.

The book also says there will be winners and losers from climate change, and the way Pacific governments react and adapt will be vital.

Dr Johann Bell, a principal fisheries scientist with SPC’s Strategic Engagement, Policy and Planning Facility and one of the book’s three editors, said coral reefs were likely to suffer a lot of damage under the changing climate, and coastal communities in many Pacific island countries and territories would have to find new...

Loggerhead turtles take almost half a century to reach maturity, say scientists.

A female turtle, the researchers report in the journal Functional Ecology, will not start to lay eggs until she is 45.

This estimate, based on examination of several decades of data on the turtles’ growth, has implications for conservation efforts.

It reveals how long it takes for turtles hatched at a protected nesting site to return to that site to breed.

Prof Graeme Hays from the University of Swansea, one of the authors of the study, explained how reaching maturity so slowly meant that the turtle population was “less resilient” than previously thought.

“The longer an animal takes to reach maturity, the more vulnerable the population is to [man-made] causes of mortality,” said Prof Hays.

This, he explained,...

Evidence is emerging of unregulated and probably illegal tuna fishing in Libyan waters during this year’s conflict.

Signals recorded from boats’ electronic “black boxes” show a large presence inside Libyan waters, a major spawning ground for the endangered bluefin tuna.

Several strands of evidence, including a letter from a former industry source, suggest the involvement of EU boats.

The issue will be aired this week at the annual meeting of Iccat, which regulates tuna fishing in the region.

The European Commission believes any fishing in Libyan waters this year could be judged illegal.

EU Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki told BBC News that she is also investigating whether Italian authorities made bilateral deals with Libya on tuna-fishing, which would contravene EU regulations.

The...

A film about the effects of overfishing has won a new award set up to honour films that have made a significant impact on society.

The End of the Line received the first Puma Creative Impact award, worth 50,000 euros (