Police have warned two protest yachts that they were on a collision course with an oil and gas survey ship operating off East Cape.
Environmental groups and iwi have been following the survey vessel to protest against deep sea oil exploration, and were previously issued exclusion notices for deploying swimmers in the ship's path.
The police national manager of operations, Superintendent Barry Taylor, says that overnight on Wednesday the captain of a survey ship working for Brazilian oil company Petrobras warned the protest boats to change course.
Superintendent Taylor says the yachts did not respond and police officers on board the navy vessel Taupo launched an inflatable boat to warn the protesters they were endangering the safety of the survey ship.
