Fish farms boomed globally in recent decades — more than half the world’s seafood now comes from aquaculture — but it’s not a boom all environmentalists support. One argument that critics…
In December 2020, during the COVID-19 pandemic, more than a dozen mega cruise ships were stationed in Bahía de La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico, due to the tourism shutdown.…
The search for intelligent life is looking in the wrong direction. There are billions of stars in our galaxy, some of them older than our sun and with Earth-like planets…
This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center's Ocean Reporting Network, where Elizabeth Claire Alberts is a fellow. BUSAN, South Korea — Delegates from more than 100 nations and thousands…
SAINT-DENIS, La Réunion — The intergovernmental body that regulates tuna fisheries in the Indian Ocean agreed to a suite of shark conservation measures, including rules to curb shark finning and…
MIRISSA, Sri Lanka — Sri Lankan waters are considered a haven for the largest creatures ever to have lived, the blue whale, a rare place for a resident, year-round population…
Coral restoration won’t save reefs from global warming, according to a recent study – at least, not the way we’re doing it now. The study, conducted by researchers at the…
This story is published through the Indigenous News Alliance. In Native Hawaiians’ genealogical stories, says Solomon Kahoʻohalahala, the coral polyp is considered the oldest ancestor, and they hold spiritual relationships…
Overfishing in Southeast Asia’s coastal waters has been reported since the 1970s, driven by overcapacity, high demand and population growth. While most studies point to the depletion of nearshore fisheries,…
Lorayne Meltzer has lived along the Gulf of California for 30 years. As an ecologist and director of a binational field station, she’s supported many scientists in their research into…
Over the past few decades, the harvesting of the Cortez oyster in western Mexico’s Marismas Nacionales — or the Marshes Biosphere Reserve — in Nayarit state has shifted from suffering…
For years, Jack Auty studied how inflammation in the human body drives diseases, ranging from stroke to sepsis to Alzheimer's, at the Tasmanian School of Medicine. But a visit to…
EILAT, Israel — Rugged red mountains tower over the aquamarine waters off Eilat in southern Israel. A group of divers plunges beneath the waves on a warm winter morning, bound…
Unprecedented numbers of emaciated dugongs have washed up dead along Thailand’s Andaman Sea coast over the past three years, prompting marine scientists to urgently investigate what’s driving their decline. Thailand’s…
JAKARTA — A thresher shark conservation effort in eastern Indonesia focusing on alternative sources of income has reduced up to 90% of catches of the globally endangered species, a new…
On Jan. 15, 2022, more than 11,000 barrels of oil spilled into the ocean off the Peruvian coast. It flowed from a pipeline that had broken while the Mare Doricum,…
Satish Bhaskar was a curious man. From a very young age he was fascinated with the sea and the diverse marine creatures, especially turtles. When he learnt that sea turtles…
Rhythmic clicks, grunts and roars fill the Año Nuevo Island Reserve in California, home to a large breeding colony of northern elephant seals (Mirounga angustirostris). For nearly 60 years, scientists…
What better way to track whales than listening in on them? Passive acoustic monitoring, in which microphones are placed underwater to pick up any sounds, has long helped scientists detect…
Rosie knows the Lighthouse Reef Atoll like the back of her fin. She calls this atoll home and is a matriarch of the thriving population of Caribbean reef sharks (Carcharhinus…
ROBERTSPORT, Liberia — The sun was scorching hot in the town of Robertsport as James Dayougar shook debris from his nets, which he’d just returned from fishing with moments earlier.…
DENPASAR, Indonesia — Conservation foundations on the Indonesian island of Bali raised concerns in February over the volume of live sea turtles seized from traffickers so far this year. “The…
Within only a couple of weeks during their breeding season, more than 100 olive ridley turtles were found dead at Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar Beach. Conservationists blame the indiscriminate use of…
BATAM, Indonesia — Stress levels among the population of Batam reportedly spiked in January after extreme rainfall over a saltwater crocodile farm allowed more than 100 captive predators to explore…
Bottom trawling, a fishing technique in which vessels drag weighted nets along the seafloor, has long been condemned by conservationists for disrupting seabed habitat and capturing species indiscriminately. Yet it…
Hundreds of thousands of Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) died on fish farms in Scotland in the final months of 2024. The mass mortality events took place as a parliamentary committee…
When certain algae flourish in the sea, they produce neurotoxins that can sicken both humans and marine animals. Acute exposure to these toxins is known to kill whales and other…
Marine biologists diving in the Gulf of Thailand were thrilled in 2023 to rediscover several colonies of a rare type of ocean sponge once thought to be extinct in the…
This month Washington banned salmon aquaculture over environmental concerns, making it so there are no active operations on the U.S. West Coast. A new lawsuit now takes aim at operations…
GALÁPAGOS ISLANDS — Marco Andres Vizcaino Garcia is probably the most qualified naturalist guide a person could hire during their visit to Galápagos National Park and its adjacent marine reserve.…
1. Long-awaited plastics treaty flops, for now Despite around-the-clock efforts from delegates, negotiators and numerous advocacy groups, the fifth session of the U.N. Environment Programme’s Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee (INC-5) on…
In the 1990s, a single moratorium announcement wiped out an entire industry, leaving 37,000 people unemployed overnight. The ecological collapse of the Canadian Grand Banks Cod Fisheries is the most…
