New Zealand Conservation News

New Zealand sea lion ( Phocarctos hookeri ) Seal hunting in New Zealand has a long history, as old as human habitation in the country.   New Zealand fur seal/kekeno ( Arctocephalus forsteri ) and New Zealand sea lion/rapoka ( Phocarctos hookeri ) colonies were found commonly throughout New Zealand's mainland coastlines before the arrival of Maori.   New Zealand sea lions appear to have been exterminated from the North Island entirely by 1500 AD and New Zealand fur seals were missing from at least the northern half of the North Island by this time as well.   When Europeans arrived New Zealand fur seals had been eliminated from all of the mainland except for the south-western South Island and New Zealand sea lions could no longer be found on the South Island except in the regions around Stewart Island. Sealing was the first European industry in New Zealand and began in 1792.   European sealing was driven by the demand for their hides and oil in Europe and No...

Yellow-bellied sea snake (Hydrophis platurus) Most people believe that New Zealand is entirely free of snakes.   While that is largely correct, it is not entirely correct.   There are four species of snakes which have been found naturally in New Zealand.   All of them, however, are sea snakes.   The most commonly seen species is a type of hydrophiine sea snake, the yellow-bellied sea snake ( Hydrophis platurus, formerly Pelamis platurus ), while the other three species are all types of krait. The hydrophiine sea snakes are a fully pelagic (ocean-going) species of snake which does not ever need to come to land for any reason and are much better adapted to life in the open ocean than the kraits.   They hatch their young live (viviparous), so they do not need to return to land to lay eggs.   Although they cannot drink salt water, they drink fresh water as it strikes the surface of the ocean during rainy periods before it has a chance to mix with th...

This is the ocean. See how much hotter it looks? For the first time, New Zealand's NIWA (National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research) and Australia's Bureau of Meteorology have released a joint special climate statement discussing the extreme weather seen over the Summer of 2017-2018.  Their statement notes that the water temperature in the Tasman Sea in November increased dramatically, reaching 2°C or higher above average temperatures over an extremely large area.  The patch of warmer water reached all the way from Tasmania and southeast mainland Australia to New Zealand.  This level of ocean heating has never been seen before and was a major factor behind the highest November and December temperatures that Tasmania has ever seen as well as New Zealand's hottest Summer on record.  Although ocean temperatures in the Tasman Sea will sometimes rise dramatically during the Summer months, the geographic size of the temperature rises are usually limited in...