IN THE NEWS
Every so often we update this page which
includes news stories which are particularly interesting.
All sources are acknowledged by a link to the originating
website.
Tue, 06 Jan 2009 8:13a.m. (3News.co.nz)
A poisonous sea creature with toxin potent
enough to kill someone in 20 minutes has been seen in the
waters off Northland.
The marine snails have previously been seen in the Parengarenga
and Whangaroa Harbours.
The cone shells' potentially lethal venom can seep through
gloves or a wetsuit, even when handled carefully, the Northern
Advocate reported.
Dive instructor Alan Morrison spotted the carnivorous cone
shell while diving at Deep Water Cove in the Bay of Islands.
"I was about 300m from the frigate Canterbury when I
saw the 6cm-long cone shell. It was about 10m down the bank
of an island and stuck to the side of a rock."
Mr Morrison said he photographed the snails.
The cone shells were either herbivores or carnivores, marine
expert Wade Doak said.
The herbivores attached themselves to reef crests where they
ate algae.
"Carnivorous cone shells, like the one seen at Deep
Water Cove, have lighter shells and they fire their weapon
at small fish like a whaling harpoon. It's linked to the animal
by a translucent tube down which fatal venom is injected."
The cone shell retracts its tube and draws the prey into
its mouth, Mr Doak said.
He said cone shells were capable of killing fish bigger than
themselves.
Marine author Tony Enderby said the variety of cone shell
found at Deep Water Cove -- Conus lischkeanus kermadecensis
-- had been found at the Kermadec Islands and in Parengarenga
and Whangaroa Harbours, but nobody in New Zealand had died
after contact with them.
- NZPA
Google link to images
which help identify the highly toxic Cone Shell
5:00AM Wednesday May 14, 2008 (NZ HERALD)
Divers will inspect a sunken fishing boat that went aground
on a reef in the Far North before it was washed off by big
seas.
The 100-tonne Seawyf is lying broken up in shallow water
off the Fairway Reef in Doubtless Bay.
The Northland Regional Council had been discussing what to
do with the vessel before it was washed off the reef and into
the bay.
It grounded on March 3 and sat firmly on the rocks with a
badly damaged hull until it was washed off the reef on April
22.
The ship's owner, Te Rarawa Fisheries, and its insurers were
disputing who should pay the salvage cost when the Seawyf
disappeared into the bay.
Northland Regional Council harbourmaster Captain Ian Niblock
said a surface assessment had been done of the wreck.
"But we really need to have a better look. I understand
it is in two main pieces with some smaller bits.
"We will go and have a look and then we will look at
any potential environmental impact."
He said a date had yet to be set for divers to inspect the
Seawyf.
Diesel fuel was removed within a day or two of the grounding.
Captain Niblock said that until divers had inspected it,
it was not pozssible to say if the wreck would be lifted off
the seabed or left to deteriorate.
- NZPA
5:00AM Thursday Apr 24, 2008 By Tony Gee
(NZ HERALD)
Heavy sea swells have tipped a 100-tonne
Far North commercial fishing boat into the sea from its perch
on Fairway Reef, 7km north of the entrance to Mangonui Harbour
in Doubtless Bay, where it had been stuck for seven weeks.
The 20m Seawyf struck the reef in darkness on March 4 while
returning to Mangonui in heavy seas. The vessel disappeared
from the reef on Tuesday.
Northland Regional Council deputy regional harbourmaster
Jim Lyle confirmed the boat had "gone totally" over
the edge of the reef and now could not be seen.
Council staff plan to visit the site today to see what's
happened to the wreck.
The council has issued a local warning to fishermen, boaties
and sailors who use the bay to be aware of the wreck if they're
near Fairway Reef.
No salvage had been attempted because of a disagreement between
the Seawyf's owners and insurers over who should pay for its
removal.
5:00AM Thursday Apr 10, 2008 By Tony Gee (NZ HERALD)
A wrecked fishing
boat now stuck fast on a Far North reef may eventually become
another diving attraction in a growing list of dive tourism
wrecks off Northland's east coast.
The 20m Seawyf has been sitting on Fairway Reef, 7km north
of the entrance to Mangonui Harbour in Doubtless Bay, since
March 4 when it hit the reef during darkness in heavy seas
and high winds while returning from a fishing trip.
The boat's three-man crew were rescued unharmed but more
than five weeks later, the local owners of the 100-tonne vessel
and their insurers have been at odds over salvage and removal
costs.
Northland Regional Council harbourmaster Captain Ian Niblock
says no decisions have been made on what will happen to the
Seawyf, which is badly damaged and holed.
"It's not desirable to have it still there but it's
not going anywhere so it does allow us time to work through
various options," he says.
An informal group of Doubtless Bay people is interested in
the possibility of turning the vessel, now believed to be
a total loss, into a dive attraction if no agreement can be
reached on removing it from the exposed reef.
A resource consent would have to be approved and extensive
iwi consultation undertaken before any sinking could take
place.
Dive instructor Andre Kunz, who owns the Whatuwhiwhi and
Kaitaia dive centre, says for the Seawyf to be sunk as a diving
venue, it would have to benefit the local economy and the
marine environment as an artificial reef to attract marine
life.
A member of the group is putting together a report on whether
such a venture would be environmentally viable.
"We like diving on things and it would be beneficial
for us having it there but we're not pushing anything at the
moment," Mr Kunz says.
If the vessel was sunk, it would be preferable to have it
on the reef's northeast side where there was depth of water.
Mr Kunz said Fairway Reef was "not an ideal place"
for a diving wreck but if it did happen, it would be "the
icing on the cake" in a dive-wreck tourism trail stretching
from Tutukaka, northeast of Whangarei, to the northern Far
North.
Former Navy vessels Waikato and Tui have been sunk off Tutukaka,
the Canterbury was sunk last year just inside the entrance
to the Bay of Islands, and the former Greenpeace flagship
Rainbow Warrior lies to the north on the seabed near the Cavalli
Islands, just out from Matauri Bay.
A local man involved in previous efforts by the group to
get a dive wreck into Doubtless Bay said a consent process
would have to be gone through and the Seawyf would have to
be stripped bare in its present position.
"But if it's left there, the sea will do that job itself,"
he said.
If the vessel was to be washed off the reef and sunk by a
storm, however, there would be no need for a consent process,
although local iwi would still have to agree to any dive venture
proposal.
Fuel and oil have already been removed from the Seawyf and
the regional council says it poses no risk to the environment.
NORTHLAND DIVE WRECKS
* Former Navy vessels Waikato and Tui, off Tutukaka.
* Canterbury, inside the entrance to the Bay of Islands.
* Former Greenpeace flagship Rainbow Warrior, near the Cavalli
Islands off Matauri Bay.
11:59AM Wednesday Apr 09, 2008 (NZ HERALD)
A wrecked fishing boat could be cut into pieces to get it
off the rocks in Northland where it went aground last month.
The 100-tonne Seawyf is stuck on the Fair Way Reef at the
entrance to Mangonui Harbour and its owners and the insurers
are in dispute over removal costs.
It is believed to be a total loss but was not yet legally
considered a wreck, Northland Regional harbourmaster Captain
Ian Niblock said.
Since the grounding the boat's owner Te Rarawa Fishing and
the insurers had been trying to sort out "an issue"
over who paid for its removal, Capt Niblock said.
Legal action to force the company to remove the hulk was
an option but it was too early to say if that option would
be used.
"We are still working through the issues with the owners
and they in turn with their insurers."
He said another option was to cut it into pieces to remove
it.
He said contaminants including diesel fuel had been removed
and it was not an environmental risk.
Because of the damage there were a lot of practical difficulties
in removing the boat.
"That is why the vessel is still sitting there because
it is not an easy job to save it from where it is."
- NZPA
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