Icebergs spotted off New Zealand

Icebergs have been spotted in New Zealand waters for the first time in 56 years, with some of them as large as two miles wide, a scientist said today.

The cluster of 15 icebergs, sighted near Campbell Island about 450 miles south east of New Zealand, could be a hazard to shipping, said Lionel Carter, a scientist at the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research.

Carter said the icebergs appeared to have been generated by the break-up of ice shelves in the Ross and Weddell Seas of Antarctica, and were likely to drift toward South America.

Organisers of the Vendee Globe solo round-the-world yacht race had warned competitors to be aware of the iceberg hazard.

Icebergs were last sighted in New Zealand waters in 1948, Carter said.