Newsmakers

• Rowing Australia has named Brendan Long and Kerry Hore in the final Olympic squad, taking Tasmania's Beijing contingent to 12, including three coaches and a paralympic athlete. Tasmanian Institute of Sport rowing coach, Ron Batt, says Tasmanians make up a considerable portion of the Australian team of 44 rowers.

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• Tasmania's Education Minister, David Bartlett, says high school students who left class to attend a protest in Hobart today were within their rights. About 100 students marched to the ANZ bank in Hobart's Elizabeth Street Mall to protest against the ANZ's potential backing of Gunns' Tamar Valley pulp mill.

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• Tasmanian drivers caught smoking in cars carrying children will cop an on-the-spot $120 fine from April 1. A three-month amnesty, which bans drivers and passengers smoking in vehicles while children under the age of 18 are present, ended at midnight.

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• Kelp collectors on King Island are gearing up for a bumper winter harvest, after westerly weather dumped a large amount of bull kelp on the shore. The kelp is dried and then exported for use as fish food and garden fertiliser. Kelp harvesters rely on rough westerly weather to wash the kelp ashore.

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