The eastern Baltic cod has shrunk dramatically in size in recent decades due to rapid evolution — changes at the genetic level — caused by decades of intensive fishing, a…
KHAO LAK, Thailand — Conservationist Ying Pemika Choovanichchanon holds a small basket in her hands, careful not to disturb the leathery brown pouches nestled inside. When she shines a light…
A global study tracking nearly 13,000 individual marine animals has uncovered a sharp disconnect between where these animals actually spend their time and where marine protections exist. The findings raise…
These are turbulent times for the global economy and multilateralism. Uncertainty lies at every turn, yet for Antigua and Barbuda — and other Small Island Developing States (SIDS) like ours…
Trawling vessels pursuing fish are damaging marine ecosystems in Canada’s West Coast waters and could be operating illegally in some cases, and yet they work with insufficient transparency, a new…
For more than three decades, Mark Erdmann has worked where many only dream of diving—on the reefs and in the tangled mangroves of Indonesia’s farthest reaches. A marine biologist by…
The Chilean government has recently approved a new port project in Magallanes and the Chilean Antarctic Region, an area that recently attracted a lot of attention due to its enormous…
As shiny, pearl-like white plastic pellets rode wave after wave and piled up on the beaches of Thiruvananthapuram in India’s southern state of Kerala, local residents were first bemused, then…
COLOMBO — Young birder Lahiru Walpita begins most of his days at dawn by scanning the skies for seabirds along the coastline in northern Sri Lanka. In July 2024, during…
PLACENCIA, Belize — After Hurricane Iris decimated the coral reef at Laughing Bird Caye National Park in 2001, many wrote off the UNESCO World Heritage site as a coral graveyard.…
Climate change has already caused significant declines in coral reef coverage globally and is expected to do much further damage in coming decades. Some scientists have held out hope that…
A Canada-based website’s listing of Indonesian islands for sale has reignited fears of privatization, long linked to conflicts between companies and coastal communities. On June 18, 2025, listings appeared for…
MARERENI, Kenya — The scorching afternoon sun stretches across the semiarid landscape of Marereni, in Kenya’s Kilifi county, where salt and sea shape both the land and the lives that…
KARACHI — From the sands of Manjhaar Beach on the far outskirts of Karachi, Pakistan, an island is just visible 10 kilometers, about 6 miles, offshore. Mist rising from the…
They live in the ocean’s coldest, darkest depths, far from sight — but cold-water corals are far from safe. In a first-of-its-kind study published in Marine Biodiversity in June, a…
“I lost my sons, nephews, and grandson in this tragedy. I lost my older brother’s son. I can say that I lost almost ten relatives in this shipwreck. It is…
This is Mongabay's second story in a short series about the new Shimoni Fish Port. Read the first story here. SHIMONI, Kenya — On a drizzly March afternoon, more than…
Ocean health is moving into a danger zone, with rampant human-caused carbon dioxide emissions having already pushed ocean acidification levels beyond safe limits in large swaths of the marine environment,…
I have spent much of my life studying predatory fishes in East Africa’s coastal waters, but never have I been more concerned about their future. The disappearance of the western…
Shark conservation is not a field for the faint of heart. It pits biology against commerce, sentiment against symbolism, and, frequently, science against entrenched bureaucracies. Sharks themselves, apex predators honed…
Daniel Caniullán has been diving in the cold waters of the Guaitecas Archipelago in northern Patagonia, Chile, for more than 30 years. “Just by looking at the seabed landscape, you…
Among the many spectacular reef fishes swimming the Indo-Pacific corals, from Africa to Oceania, is the big-eyed, bulge-faced, thick-lipped, blue-green humphead wrasse, also known as the Napoleon wrasse. It’s among…
This is Mongabay’s first story in a short series about the new Shimoni Fish Port. Read the second story here. SHIMONI, Kenya — Behind the gates of a small, forested…
Tiny, translucent and no longer than a finger, juvenile European eels, also known as glass eels, might not look like much. But demand for these slippery creatures, particularly in East…
Vietnam’s first marine protected area, Nha Trang Bay, has lost nearly 200 hectares (494 acres) of coral reef since its creation in 2002, a new study shows. The alarming decline…
The United Nations Ocean Conference, held June 9-13 in Nice, France, saw some progress on better protecting the hundreds of thousands of species that live in marine waters and the…
The movie Jaws, released on June 20, 1975, was one of the very first Hollywood summer blockbusters, and remains one of the highest-grossing films of all time, adjusted for inflation.…
Prochlorococcus, a genus of bacteria that’s key to oxygen production in the ocean, tends to disappear when faced with marine pollution. It lives throughout the sunlit layer of tropical oceans…
This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center’s Ocean Reporting Network, where Elizabeth Claire Alberts is a fellow. NICE, France — James Marape, the prime minister of Papua New Guinea,…
JAKARTA — A stormy saga over nickel mining in one of the most biodiverse marine regions in the world appears to be far from over, even after the Indonesian government…
Three communities in Papua New Guinea are waiting for the country’s Supreme Court to decide whether their concerns about the dumping of mine waste in the sea near their homes…
This story was supported by the Pulitzer Center's Ocean Reporting Network, where Elizabeth Claire Alberts is a fellow. NICE, France — At the 2025 U.N. Ocean Conference (UNOC), taking place…
