Living World

Speed Demon

Built for acceleration and power, the shortfin mako is the fastest shark in the world and an icon of New Zealand seas. Although heavily fished for decades by commercial longliners, mako populations are beginning to recover, and prospects look good for this oceanic speedster.

Magazine

ISSUE 135

Sep - Oct 2015

Mako sharks

Toothfish poaching

Curling

Whangaroa

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Society

The Roaring Game

Curling requires perfect weather conditions for its national tournament, the bonspiel, to take place. For the first time in 84 years, the frosts aligned and New Zealand’s gathering of curlers returned to the Central Otago town where it all began in 1879—Naseby.

Profile

Down to earth

John Baker invented a revolutionary piece of agricultural machinery, a seed-planting drill proven to increase crop yields while decreasing carbon emissions from arable farming. Bringing it to market and convincing farmers to use it has been his life’s work.

Science & Environment

Forbidden Catch

Last summer, the Royal New Zealand Navy ventured far from its beaten path into the iceberg-strewn waters off East Antarctica. There it found three pirate ships illegally fishing Antarctic toothfish—a deep-dwelling favourite of top chefs, a fishery worth nearly $600 million. What followed was a four-month chase also involving Australian authorities and two vessels of the direct-action organisation Sea Shepherd. By the end, five pirate ships were detained and one lay at the bottom of the sea, sunk in suspicious circumstances. This is a story of navies and pirates, of governments and vigilantes, of an ugly fish that grows to the size of a human, and a daring pursuit across three oceans to drive poachers out of our seas.

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