Heather du Plessis-Allan: Mice and rats aren't Countdown's problem

It is amazing, isn't it?

How the story of one rat in a Dunedin supermarket has just blown up for Countdown. First, it was a photo of a couple of rats in the supermarket in Dunedin.

Then there were more rats caught, then the supermarket closed for two days, then it closed for another day and now it's closed indefinitely- until they finish catching the rats. At last count, it was 19 just since Friday.

Kate Hawkesby: Everyone seems to know what to do about killer seaweed - except the Govt

Labour announced yesterday that ‘bottom trawling and Danish seining will be banned in most of the Hauraki Gulf as part of a plan to better protect the 1.2-million-hectare marine park.’  

They have four options going for public consultation next week, one of them stipulating that ‘bottom-trawling would be banned from 89 per cent of the Gulf. Currently, 27 per cent of the Gulf is closed to bottom trawling and Danish seining fishing methods.’  

Bottom trawling involves dragging weighted nets over the seafloor to catch fish.