Drone technology is providing important new insights into the lives of dugongs, while also revealing the vital role they play in managing seagrass meadows, one of the ocean’s most important…
Along a stretch of the Oregon coast where the Pacific meets an exposed working waterfront, fishing has long been shaped by constraint. Port Orford lacks the shelter of a…
When I set sail on the MV NorSky in the summer of 2008 to probe the depths of Manus Basin off the coast of Papua New Guinea, I believed in…
Animals that cross borders often encounter conservation systems that stop at them. Migratory species move through jurisdictions with little regard for political boundaries, relying on habitats spread across large…
José Manuel Bolieiro says he’s been an environmentalist for as long as he can remember. He recalls captivating encounters with marine life as a teenager while diving in the North…
SUMALATA, Indonesia — Following encounters while diving, Gusnar Ismail has long turned to the morning glory plants growing on sandbanks here on the north of Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island. “When I…
Researchers pulled 24 tiny new creatures from a deep abyss in the central Pacific Ocean, some with long, spindly legs and others with more squat, compact bodies. Some appeared to…
Dozens of migratory animals, including 33 marine species, gained new protections during the recent summit for the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals. The 15th Conference…
For conservationists, one of the major achievements of the high seas treaty was that it created a means to establish marine protected areas (MPAs) in international waters. High seas MPAs…
Neptune grass is generally regarded as the most ecologically important seagrass and shallow-water habitat in the Mediterranean Sea. It suffered a severe decline during the 20th century, and there have…
The University of São Paulo Medical School Hospital said it would cancel a plan to buy more than 17 metric tons of shark meat as part of a 2026 procurement,…
A small, blue-gray fish that once gathered in loose schools along the rocky shores of the Galápagos Islands has become the subject of a more precise question: whether it…
More than 10% of the world’s ocean is now protected to some degree, marking significant progress in global ocean conservation efforts, according to an Apr. 1. annoucement from the U.N.…
At 7:45 a.m. one recent January day in American Samoa, a delegation from Greenpeace and Pacific Island partners sat in a small radio studio explaining why we had traveled thousands…
Indigenous leaders in Indonesia’s South Papua province have rejected a government plan to build a state-backed fishing settlement on their ancestral land, highlighting growing tensions between national development programs and…
SINGAPORE — The Resorts World Sentosa casino and entertainment complex in Singapore has halted sourcing dolphins from the wild for its aquarium, Mongabay has learned. The resort’s Oceanarium has also…
Last week, governments, conservationists and civil society from around the world gathered in Brazil for the 15th Conference of the Parties to the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS-15). In a…
For coastal Indigenous communities in American Samoa, giant clams are deeply rooted in fa‘a Sāmoa (the Samoan way of life) and local food systems. According to the findings of a…
Following an October 2025 Mongabay report of the shark fishing vessel Zanette violating the conditions of its permit to catch endangered sharks, the South African Department of Forestry, Fisheries and…
NAIROBI — On Kenya’s eastern coast, a small-scale fisher lugs the day’s catch onto a table for processing and selling. Chances are, mostly threatened species like the scalloped hammerhead shark…
COLOMBO — The sawfish, a large ray, is easily recognized by its long, flattened snout edged with sharp, tooth-like projections that form a distinctive “saw,” technically known as a rostrum.…
On paper, the sea is increasingly protected. Governments have designated vast marine protected areas (MPAs) and pledged to conserve 30% of the ocean by 2030. Maps shaded in reassuring blues…
For several months, the waters around New Ireland province in Papua New Guinea have been causing illness, skin irritation and the death of sea life, according to communities living along…
In public finance, some costs are politely kept off the books. The ocean has long been one of them. Governments often speak of “blue growth” and “sustainable use,” yet many…
HIKKADUWA, Sri Lanka — On Saturday, March 7, three days after the Iranian warship IRIS Dena was torpedoed by a U.S Navy submarine close to the southern coast off Galle…
Seagrass meadows might not catch the eye like coral reefs, but they play an important and often unsung role in coastal protection, particularly as climate change increasingly eats away at…
Healthy reefs aren’t just about colorful fish — they also shield shorelines from intense tropical storms. If Florida’s reefs keep degrading, flooding during tropical storms could get much worse, increasing…
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,…
