The documentary A Life Illuminated will make its Washington, D.C., premiere on March 19, the first night of the D.C. Environmental Film Festival, where Mongabay is a media partner. The…
A lower limit on the size of the fleet targeting jumbo flying squid in the South Pacific Ocean, improved controls at ports and the introduction of electronic monitoring systems on…
Though seafood is a prevalent protein source in Bangladesh, some fishes, like stingrays and sharks, never appealed to most of the population here, barring a few coastal Indigenous groups. However,…
For about three decades, beluga whales and bottlenose dolphins greeted more than a million annual visitors to Marineland of Canada. In the sprawling 162-hectare (400-acre) theme park, located a stone’s…
ADANA, Türkiye — Along the final stretch of the Seyhan River, in southern Türkiye, plastic bits in various colors dot the water and sediment. When the river bends, shredded plastic,…
PORT ORFORD, Oregon, U.S. — Aaron Longton reached down into the rinsing sink in his garage-turned-fish-processing facility on the Oregon coast and hoisted a redbanded rockfish by its fat bottom…
The global fisheries and aquaculture sector produces more than 150 million metric tons of food per year, valued at nearly $200 billion. Yet it’s plagued with fraud, according to a…
Labor abuses including violence, debt bondage and withheld wages and medical care, overfishing, shark finning, marine mammal killings: A new report exposes bad practices and a weak regulatory framework governing…
Ever since a deadly strain of avian influenza, H5N1, killed some 17,000 southern elephant seal pups on South American coastlines in 2023 and 2024, researchers and public officials have kept…
A Mongabay exposé that revealed widespread Brazilian government procurements of shark meat to serve in thousands of schools, hospitals, prisons and other public institutions has won first place in the…
SÃO MATEUS, Portugal — Winter forced Emanuel Alves to remove his boat from the water at the port of São Mateus in the Azores, the Portuguese archipelago in the North…
Unintentional catch is a big reason that more than a hundred shark species are threatened with extinction. Yet creating a small electric field around fishing hooks using cheap inputs —…
The southern elephant seal population in South Africa has seen its conservation status improve from near threatened to least concern, with a recent assessment citing the absence of serious threats…
Carole Allen — founder of HEART (Help Endangered Animals Ridley Turtles) and the first director of the Turtle Island Restoration Network’s Gulf of Mexico office — passed away at the…
MOMBASA COUNTY, Kenya — Five minutes’ walk up the hilly road from the mangroves lining the tidal flats of Jomvu Creek, the sharp scent of sea water fills the air.…
SANTA CRUZ, GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS, Ecuador — “Good morning,” Walter Borbor, a social media-famous fisher, says to his followers in a 2022 Instagram video. “What we have here is a plantado.”…
Sharks and rays in the Western Indian Ocean are facing an extinction crisis. Almost half of the region’s 270 known species (46%) are currently threatened with extinction. A recently released…
On a March morning in the suburbs of Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala state’s capital in southern India, a group of fishers were hauling their kambavala — a traditional net fixed between bamboo…
Shark and ray populations are struggling across the world due to overfishing and other threats. A new report delineates 816 areas of the ocean that should be protected to help…
Marine scientists compiling the most holistic “snapshot” of Thailand’s coral reefs to date have uncovered evidence of a long-suspected reality: Thailand’s coral reefs are losing structural complexity. Home to more…
POINTE D’ESNY, Mauritius — In August 2020, Vikash Tatayah at the Mauritian Wildlife Foundation made a phone call he never expected to make. He had “an unusual request,” he recounts…
Marine heat waves have become longer and more frequent along the U.S. West Coast, as elsewhere in the world. But heating doesn’t always lead fish to change their location. A…
NOUADHIBOU, Mauritania — On a busy weekday, the coastal strip of Bountiya in Nouadhibou, Mauritania’s second-biggest city, is eerily quiet. This was once the beating heart of the West African…
2025 was a key year for ocean policymaking, marking the midway point in the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The past 12 months brought landslide multilateral wins…
A Mongabay investigation that revealed Brazilian state-run institutions bulk-buying shark meat for public schools, hospitals and prisons has won second place in the national category of the 67th ARI/Banrisul Journalism…
In 1888, researchers aboard the R/V Albatross began the world's first concentrated marine research expeditions off California's Pacific coast. The team collected untold plant and animal specimens, including orange cup…
The sea otter pup was tiny, probably less than 2 weeks old, alone in Morro Bay on an October morning earlier this year. A kayaker scooped it out of the…
Diego Cardeñosa always knew he wanted to study sharks. But when he started his Ph.D., he had to make a choice: tagging sharks in the field — the “fun,” typically…
Far more manta and devil rays die in fisheries than previously understood, with annual deaths surpassing 259,000 individuals, a new study has found. It suggests that fishing pressure on these…
DILI, Timor-Leste — Whale tourism in Timor-Leste is booming. Tour operators report a healthy number of sightings and full bookings in the peak season of September to December, when hundreds…
The way the oceans are managed is meant to be like a successful medieval commons. Most medieval commons weren’t open-access, but commoners had distinct rights in law and committees organized…
Amid negotiations last week on wildlife trade regulations by delegates from around the world, one item was left out of the discussions. South Africa had been expected to bring to…
