Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy, a waste worker from Binh Dinh, Vietnam, has worked in the waste collection industry for four decades. She has spent every day at the landfill –…
A controversial experiment to field-test a way to quickly sequester more carbon in the world’s oceans has been pushed back until 2025, according to the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI).…
Esmeralda Albañez used to be afraid of the sea. Just thinking about it would conjure up images of darkness, of how deep and unknown it was to her. Coming from…
Flying spaghetti monsters, Casper octopus, and a fish that looks like a Muppet are just a few of the rare creatures found on a previously unknown underwater mountain off the…
Many of us have likely come across that viral video on social media – a young woman touching the back of a large, possibly pregnant, great white shark, swimming alongside…
A decade ago, the overfishing of sea cucumber (Isostichopus badionotus) was the center of controversy in Celestún, a small community in the state of Yucatán, Mexico. Extraction of the coveted…
The corals of the Marietas Islands, a pair of small islands in Mexico’s Pacific Ocean, have survived record-high temperatures and uncontrolled tourism triggered by the sudden international fame of “the…
ROBERTSPORT, Liberia — “We depend only on the sea for our survival. How will we manage when the sea is closed?” Mamie Freeman was seated atop a beached canoe in…
LAMONGAN, Indonesia — Sulaiman is so practiced at stripping a zebra shark that he can skin the animal in just a few minutes. He sticks a knife into the meter-long…
BEIRUT — Baby loggerhead turtles (Caretta caretta) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas) made their way from their sandy nests in South Lebanon to the Mediterranean Sea, their flippers seemingly too…
Oil exploration in the Republic of Congo’s Conkouati-Douli National Park threatens the local biodiversity, communities and environment, according to U.S.-based NGO Earth Insight. The Conkouati oil block was awarded by…
MEXICO CITY — A mining company trying to launch a controversial phosphate project in Mexican waters has won a lawsuit against the country claiming officials wrongfully rejected its environmental permits,…
The first ever pulse check of the planet’s health shows that the Earth is far beyond it’s safe operating space for humanity. Six of nine key planetary boundaries are already…
In mid-2023, the Caribbean Sea simmered as air temperatures soared, marking the hottest days ever recorded in Puerto Rico and Barbados. Beginning in March, sea surface temperatures throughout the region…
Plastic waste is a global problem, and the food sector is one of its main drivers. It only takes a quick visit to a supermarket to realize this: With the…
Surangel S. Whipps Jr., president of the tiny Pacific island nation of Palau, wants more countries to join him in calling for a moratorium on deep-sea mining. This prospective industry,…
As a young student, Aristide Kamla had “big plans” when he traveled to Lake Ossa in Cameroon to conduct his master's degree fieldwork with the little-known African manatee. He was hoping…
Swimming with giant manta rays (Mobula birostris) feels like an underwater dance. Their slow, rhythmic movements are astonishing to Madalena Pereira Cabral. She describes her dives alongside manta rays, which…
Exactly six months ago, the Rubymar bulk carrier became the first ship sunk in a series of attacks by the Houthis protesting Israel’s actions in Gaza since October 2023. On…
A deep-sea mining operation that recently took place off the coast of Papua New Guinea (PNG) has raised alarm bells for environmentalists and called into question the validity of the…
JAKARTA — A milestone debt-for-nature agreement to conserve coral reefs in Indonesia, the world’s largest archipelagic country, has drawn a mix of optimism and skepticism from environmentalists. While welcoming the…
In the 2020 science-fiction novel The Ministry for the Future, author Kim Stanley Robinson imagines a near-future climate catastrophe in which a deadly heat dome stalls over India, killing millions…
A law that would protect a massive stretch of Argentina’s seafloor is running out of time for a parliamentary vote, and conservationists are racing to raise awareness before they run…
Hundreds of women from traditional communities in the Brazilian Amazon use education and local knowledge to protect the world’s largest continuous belt of preserved mangroves.
Dwelling near the erosion-prone riverbank of the mighty Pasur River, 43-year-old Shumi Mondol understands the importance of a mangrove barrier. Next to her cottage in Loudob in Khulna’s Dacope subdistrict,…
PALEMBANG, Indonesia — A law enforcement crackdown against widespread opportunist oil extraction has shuttered at least 95 illegal wells following a spate of deaths in Indonesia’s South Sumatra province, police…
The Earth is in crisis — a reality made increasingly clear by intensifying heat, drought and storms, worsening pollution, land stripped of forests, and the ramping up of the sixth…
When Anna Wåhlin and her colleagues deployed a submersible vehicle to go under the ice in Antarctica, they meant for it to serve as a proof of concept for the…
VANCOUVER ISLAND, B.C., Canada — Three young men follow a winding trail through a lush spruce, hemlock and western cedar forest. Their destination is a clam garden they look after…
MEXICO CITY — The representative of a prominent advocacy group for Mexico’s fishing industry was killed in July after speaking out against organized crime in Baja California, where illegal fishing…
Brazilian oceanographer Leticia Carvalho has been named the next secretary-general of the International Seabed Authority (ISA) after winning an election that could change the course of the deep-sea mining industry.…
Hopes for closure on a fair deal to stop governments bankrolling overfishing flopped yet again at the recent General Council meeting of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva. Scheduled…
