Using only fins, divers wild-harvest abalone off eastern Australia's coast. The marine snail, known for its beautiful iridescent shell but sought for its meat, is a fishery worth more than…
The Philippines’ western island province of Palawan tops tourists’ bucket lists for its picturesque main destination, El Nido. This small fishing town of 50,000 residents is located within the larger…
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 became the last state on the U.S. West Coast to reject salmon aquaculture over environmental concerns. A new lawsuit now takes aim at operations on the country’s…
Conservation groups in Panama are trying to halt the construction of a new port in the Pacific province of Chiriquí that they say could destroy breeding grounds and nurseries for…
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.…
Average temperatures across the world’s oceans reached an all-time high in 2024, a new multi-team study shows. The temperatures surpassed even those of 2023, which themselves represented a marked uptick…
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…
As the long summer days of August turn into nights, a few dozen volunteers gather in the small community of Witless Bay, a tiny town on the Atlantic coast about…
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…
Evolution has perfected the world’s sharks and rays for more than 420 million years. Unlike the ammonites or pterosaurs that they once shared the oceans with, sharks and rays persevered…
COLOMBO – The MV Thermopylae Sierra, a 155-meter (508-foot) bulk carrier flying the Cypress flag, was anchored off Sri Lanka’s west coast by court order following a legal dispute. Neglected…
A giant anaconda, a vampire hedgehog, a dwarf squirrel, and a tiger cat were among the new species named by science in 2024. Found from the depths of the Pacific…
Ocean-based carbon dioxide removal technology is ramping up, with startups and existing companies racing to develop electrochemical techniques that either remove carbon from seawater or prompt oceans to suck up…
TOAMASINA, Madagascar — Abraham Botovao, a boat skipper and the president of the Association of Progressive Fishers of Toamasina, has become accustomed to seeing an unusual activity while out at…
TOAMASINA, Madagascar — The landscape was primed for adventure during a mid-April visit to L’île aux Prunes, an idyllic islet selected by the NGO Tany Ifandovana for transplanting rescued corals.…
On Dec. 6, Iceland’s caretaker government announced it had issued five-year licenses to hunt fin and minke whales in Icelandic waters. It granted the fin whale hunting license to Hvalur…
In Cabo Verde, as in many low-income countries in Africa, the historical record of fish catch is incomplete, making it hard to know what’s been lost and what’s required to…
2024 brought the hottest Northern Hemisphere summer ever recorded, only narrowly surpassing the record set in 2023. The trend, driven largely by human-caused climate change, according to NASA, caused the…
PHUM RIANG, Thailand — The sea is quiet except for the swish of the longtail boat cutting sharply through the waves. Fishermen Sutham Abmanee and Komsan Witan, from Phum Riang…
The first thing the researchers noticed from their boat were red spots below the surface of the water during one of their expeditions. This detail led them to carry out…
It’s 4 a.m., and a group of fishers in the city of Chimbote, 422 kilometers (262 miles) north of Lima, have arrived at the rocks of Campamento Atahualpa and Vesique…
Corpus Christi is a city of 316,000 residents on Texas's Coastal Bend, a rich marine area along the Gulf of Mexico. Located close to multiple water hungry industries, this city…
An epidemic of avian flu in Patagonia appears to be on the decline after decimating southern elephant seal populations for the last year and half, with researchers finding no new…
Mackerel and herring in the Northeast Atlantic Ocean, near Europe, have been dramatically overfished for many years, endangering the stocks and creating potential knock-on effects for marine mammals and seabirds…
As we've watched the biodiversity COP in Colombia and then the climate COP negotiations in recent weeks, the urgency of addressing the twin crises of climate change and biodiversity loss…
India’s government organization dedicated to developing technologies for exploring and harnessing ocean resources has been exploring parts of the Indian Ocean for the last few years. In October, the National…
ULLAPOOL, U.K. — The fish float on the surface by the dozen, their bellies pointing toward the still-dark sky of the early morning. We are peering into a cage of…
TELA, Honduras — “These lionfish are so confident,” says Mario Motiño Jr., co-founder and divemaster for Tela Divers, a community group in the small city of Tela on the northern…
Among marine ecosystems, the capacity of mangroves, seagrass meadows and kelp forests to store carbon is well documented, but less is known about the sediments of the ocean floor. Two…
Fossil fuel projects are putting the Pacific Coral Triangle’s unique marine ecosystem at risk, according to a new report presented Oct. 31 at the U.N. Convention on Biological Diversity summit…