Good news for change. On Sunday, a pod of more than 30 pilot whales became stranded on Ruakākā Beach near Whangārei in northern New Zealand. Hundreds of residents joined forces with conservationists to save the pod. The rescue effort was … Continue reading
HMNZS Manawanui, a multi-role offshore support vessel commissioned in the Royal New Zealand Navy, ran aground while surveying a reef off the island of Upolu in Samoa on Saturday night local time. The ship subsequently caught fire before capsizing and … Continue reading
Eight hundred passengers, reported to be mostly Americans, found themselves stranded on the cruise ship Viking Orion off South Australia for seven days after the ship was denied permission to dock in Adelaide, Christchurch, Dunedin, and Hobart, due to marine growth … Continue reading
The BBC reports that five people died in New Zealand after a birdwatching boat capsized, possibly after colliding with a whale. Eleven people, mostly from the birdwatching group, were onboard when the boat capsized on Saturday in Goose Bay near … Continue reading
The New York Times reports that a leaked document has revealed that China and the Solomon Islands are close to signing a security agreement that could open the door to Chinese troops and naval warships flowing into a Pacific Island … Continue reading
Researchers have photographed a large bioluminescent shark in deep water off New Zealand. The kitefin shark was a known species of ocean predator but was only recently discovered to be able to glow in the darkness of its deep-ocean environment. … Continue reading
We recently posted about the Wellerman and the Sea Shanty Boom on TikTok. We noted that of all the recent strangeness, the most pleasant and least expected has been the explosion of sea shanties on TikTok. It all began when … Continue reading
Almost a decade ago, the container ship MV Rena ran hard aground on Astrolabe Reef off Tauranga on New Zealand’s Bay of Plenty. The ship, carrying 2,100 containers and 1,700 tonnes of heavy fuel, would break up resulting in New Zealand’s … Continue reading
Here is a fascinating short video on the AC75 foiling monohulls preparing to race in the 36th America’s Cup to be held in March 2021 in Aukland, New Zealand. Described as “monohulls on steroids”, the boats are amazing feats of … Continue reading
Passengers on RCL’s Ovation of the Seas who signed up for the excursion to White Island were promised “an unforgettable guided tour of New Zealand’s most active volcano. In fact, White Island is one of the most active volcanoes in the … Continue reading
Here is a wonderful video of a 26′ long pyrosome, a translucent worm-like creature, videoed off the coast of New Zealand. Pyrosomes, which can grow up to 30′ long are, of course, are not actually worms. They are not even … Continue reading
The owner of a USB memory card, which was found in a pile of leopard seal scat, has been located. Last week we posted about USB memory card that was buried in a pile of leopard seal scat near Oreti Beach … Continue reading
If you are kayaking and happen to get slapped in the face by a flying octopus hurled by a seal, don’t take it personally. Its probably not about you. Kyle Mulinder was kayaking near Kaikoura, New Zealand on Saturday when … Continue reading
Over 400 pilot whales became stranded after they swam into the shallow waters of Golden Bay, near Farewell Spit, at the northernmost tip of the South Island of New Zealand. An estimated 300 of the whales have died, as a small … Continue reading
It is easy to get caught up in the bad news. The oceans are filling with plastic. Coral reefs are dying due to ocean acidification caused by climate change. Overfishing will wipe out all currently fished seafood by 2050. And … Continue reading
Ben Talman, a reader and contributor to the Old Salt Blog, visited the Edwin Fox in Picton, New Zealand and took a series of wonderful photos of the historic ship. The Edwin Fox is an East Indiaman built in 1853 of teak in Calcutta, India. … Continue reading
On July 10, 1985, agents of the French government planted mines and blew up Greenpeace‘s Rainbow Warrior in the port of Auckland, New Zealand to prevent the ship to be used to protest a planned French nuclear test in Moruroa. Fernando Pereira, a photographer, drowned … Continue reading
A waka, a 600 year voyaging canoe, was recently found on the New Zealand’s South Island’s West Coast. The results of a study by University of Auckland researchers appeared recently in the US Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The waka, … Continue reading
The 70′ schooner Nina and her crew of seven have been reported missing. They sailed on May 29, from Opua in the Bay of Islands, New Zealand bound for Newcastle, Australia. They were last hear from on June 4th, 370 nautical miles west … Continue reading
During World War II, the United States worked to develop a “bat bomb” that consisted of an air dropped canister containing Mexican free-tailed bats with a small timed incendiary bombs attached to their tails. Work on the bat bomb was cancelled due to the … Continue reading