NIWA's research vessel Tangaroa recently returned from a 3-week voyage to the bottom of the ocean. Here's a look at the strange and stunning creatures they found.

It was a shark attack that started it all. The 3m tiger shark ripped into one of Sam Judd's legs during a surfing trip to the Galapagos Islands in 2007.

Little blue penguin nests are being ruined by ignorant beachgoers trashing their burrows. Researchers are concerned that the rubbish could be fatal.

A manta ray provided a rare but welcome sight for a number of people cruising around the Bay of Islands at the weekend.

You could be contributing to the mess on our beaches and not even know about it. Recently 90 parking tickets or car registration dockets were picked up by volunteers cleaning up Rangitoto island. We traced several of them back to their Auckland owners.

Our summer-sun credits may have been exhausted on the World Cup

2.66 tonnes of trash was removed in the first Christmas coast clean-up in Auckland, worrying figures for those hoping to hit the beaches this summer.