No respite for Indonesia’s Raja Ampat as nickel companies sue to revive mines
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…
Oceans News
‘It’s our garden’: PNG villages fight to prevent mine waste dumping in the sea
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…
‘Madness’: World leaders call for deep-sea mining moratorium at UN ocean summit
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…
New study dismisses Amazon River runoff as primary cause of sargassum blooms
A recent study suggests that ocean changes are the primary nutrient source for sargassum blooms since 2011, challenging previous hypotheses.
Stars & lighthouses: Marine conservation that blends Pacific Islander wisdom and Western knowledge (commentary)
I’m in Nice, France, this week attending the U.N. Conference to Support the Implementation of Sustainable Development Goal 14: Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for…
Indonesian women sustain seaweed traditions in a changing climate
NUSA PENIDA, Indonesia — Storm clouds loom overhead as Nyoman Mitri peers out at rows of seaweed lines stretching across the shallow tidal waters of Nusa Penida. Her weathered hands…
When our oceans can’t breathe, a sea change is needed (commentary)
When wildfires rage across landscapes, smoke fills our skies and chokes our lungs. It makes headlines, emergency measures are triggered, and communities rally to respond. We act because we can…
One-two punch for mangroves as seas rise and cyclones intensify
More than half of all mangrove areas worldwide may face “severe and widespread risk” from climate change-intensified tropical cyclones and rising sea levels by 2100, according to newly published research.…
Bumble Bee asks court to dismiss lawsuit alleging forced labor in tuna supply chain
U.S. canned tuna producer Bumble Bee Foods has asked a court to dismiss a lawsuit alleging that it knowingly benefited from its suppliers’ use of forced labor by Indonesian workers.…
Researchers race to understand disease killing Caribbean corals at unprecedented rates
This May, divers found stony coral tissue loss disease on corals in Laughing Bird Caye National Park, Belize, for the first time. The team from Fragments of Hope, a nonprofit,…
New method can detect nearly every coral genus in Japan from water samples
Sending scuba divers down to survey corals is time-consuming and expensive. In recent years, scientists have developed other methods to determine what kinds of corals are down there just by…
Signs of hope as elephant seals rebound from avian flu in remote Chilean fjord
Year after year, a colony of elephant seals arrives in Jackson Bay, on the islands of Tierra del Fuego at the southern tip of Chile, to molt and breed. However,…
Samoa’s new marine spatial plan protects 30% of the country’s ocean
Samoa, an archipelagic country composed of nine islands in the South Pacific Ocean, is on the frontline of climate change. Rising sea levels, ocean warming and acidification all pose significant…
Marine artificial upwelling, problematic climate solution slow to advance
Artificial upwelling is a geoengineering climate solution with a long history. The concept: mimic natural ocean upwelling by pumping cold, nutrient-rich seawater up from ocean depths via pipes to the…
From local planting to national plan, Belize bets on mangrove recovery
GALES POINT, Belize — On a narrow stretch of shoreline across from the Gales Point cemetery, Jamal Galves and the rest of the team from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research…
US pioneers restoration of deep water corals damaged by country’s worst oil spill
In the twilight depths of the Gulf of Mexico, about as deep down as a football field is long, U.S. Navy divers carefully snip small branches of corals with gloved…
Only a tiny % of the deep seafloor has ever been visually observed: Study
For national and international policymakers, decisions on how to regulate — and whether to allow — exploitative human activities such as deep-sea mining require good information. A new study suggests…
New map highlights complex web of marine migrations
Where are all the marine animals going? Given the vastness of the oceans, the countless species that live in them, and the lack of a global data set, it’s not…
Tuna fishing devices drift through a third of oceans, harming corals, coasts: Study
A recent study reveals that drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs), widely used in tuna fishing, have spread to more than a third of the world’s oceans. These devices harm ocean…
Coral reef research dominated by rich countries, plagued with inequities: Study
Most of the world’s coral reefs, and the communities that directly depend on them, are in the tropics, so one might imagine the research on them being led by scientists…
Indigenous Bajo suffer child deaths & toxic sludge amid green energy push
Indonesia’s environment ministry plans to curb deforestation and push for environmental rehabilitation in response to industrial nickel mining on Kabaena Island, where severe ecological damage and the cultural and economic…
The blobby little sea squirt that stowed away across the Pacific to California
In 2023, biologists Lauren Stefaniak and Marie Nydam had time to kill before their university workshop on marine invertebrates began, so they drove to a marina not far from Los…
West Sulawesi erupts in protest over sand mining for Indonesia’s new capital
Hundreds of protesters, including young and Indigenous peoples from three coastal villages, have demanded the closure of sand dredging in Indonesia’s West Sulawesi over environmental concerns and permit violations. The…
New study maps the fishmeal factories that supply the world’s fish farms
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…
Brazil’s offshore wind farms could sacrifice small-scale fishing in Ceará
A symbol of Brazil’s Ceará state and present on its official coat of arms since 1897, sail rafts known as jangadas are 80% of the fishing vessels in the state,…
Cruise ships and intensified tourism in Mexico threaten whale shark habitat
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.…
Angling for answers, this saltwater fishing group boosts research for better conservation
Saltwater fishing is both big business and a pastime in the U.S., with millions of Americans working in the industry – from commercial trawlers to professional fishing guides and gear…
Down on the ranch with Mafia Island’s free-range sea cucumbers
MAFIA ISLAND, Tanzania — His white beard streaming in the turquoise waters, Waziri Mpogo dives under the surface a few hundred meters offshore of a palm-lined beach. Holding his breath,…
There’s something fishy about ‘blue economy’ proposals for sustainable marine management (commentary)
The “blue economy” emerged as a popular vision for sustainable ocean development during the 2010s, as communities across the world grappled with challenges of declining ocean health, economic crises and…
Our responsibility for cetacean conservation grows with proof of their intelligence (commentary)
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…
World’s top seafood firms lobby against ocean conservation measures: Report
The world’s biggest seafood companies might seem to have a vested interest in healthy marine ecosystems and plentiful fish stocks. Many claim a commitment to biodiversity in their public messaging.…
Annual ocean conference nets $9.1 billion for initiatives, despite US absence
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…
Special series
Forest Trackers
- Narco airstrips beset Indigenous communities in Peruvian Amazon
- 15 illegal narco-trafficking airstrips found near Peru Indigenous communities
- Satellite data show bursts of deforestation continue in Indonesian national park
- Fires rip through Indigenous territories in Brazilian Amazon
Oceans
- Samoa’s new marine spatial plan protects 30% of the country’s ocean
- Tuna fishing devices drift through a third of oceans, harming corals, coasts: Study
- Indigenous Bajo suffer child deaths & toxic sludge amid green energy push
- Southeast Asia’s fisheries thrive despite decades of overfishing warnings: Study
Amazon Conservation
- ‘World’s largest’ carbon credit deal in the Amazon faces bumpy road ahead
- New conservation model calls for protecting Amazon for its archaeological riches
- Brazil dredges Amazon rivers to ease drought isolation, raising environmental concerns
- ‘We need white men on our side to save the Amazon from destruction,’ 92-year-old Indigenous Chief Raoni says
Land rights and extractives
- Indigenous Bajo suffer child deaths & toxic sludge amid green energy push
- ‘Colombia’s Amazon peoples provide solutions’: Interview with José Homero Mutumbajoy
- Should mining companies consider no-go zones where isolated Indigenous peoples live? (Commentary)
- Brazil sets a date to remove illegal miners from Munduruku land, more details await
Endangered Environmentalists
- Environmental & rights activists flee and hide as M23 captures DRC’s cities
- Environmental journalist in Cambodia shot and killed by suspected logger
- Vietnam sentences yet another energy expert over renewables research
- Mother Nature Cambodia activists sentenced to prison — again
Indonesia's Forest Guardians
- On a Borneo mountainside, Indigenous Dayak women hold fire and defend forest
- Fenced in by Sulawesi national park, Indigenous women make forestry breakout
- In Borneo, the ‘Power of Mama’ fight Indonesia’s wildfires with all-woman crew
- Pioneer agroforester Ermi, 73, rolls back the years in Indonesia’s Gorontalo
Conservation Effectiveness
- How effective is the EU’s marquee policy to reduce the illegal timber trade?
- How sharing and learning from failures can transform conservation (commentary)
- Is planting trees as good for the Earth as everyone says?
- Failure in conservation projects: Everyone experiences it, few record it
Southeast Asian infrastructure
- An ‘ocean grab’ for a property megaproject leaves Jakarta fishers grounded
- Study: Indonesia’s new capital city threatens stable proboscis monkey population
- Indonesia’s new capital ‘won’t sacrifice the environment’: Q&A with Nusantara’s Myrna Asnawati Safitri
- Small farmers in limbo as Cambodia wavers on Tonle Sap conservation rules
