Mongabay - Marine

Following the March 4 sinking of an Iranian warship in the Indian Ocean, fishers and coastal communities have spotted an oil patch along the Hikkaduwa coast in southern Sri Lanka, …

Seagrass is known for its blue carbon potential, but meadows also play an important role in coastal protection by helping reduce wave intensity and stabilizing sediments, both of which are …

Coral reefs absorb incoming waves, protecting shorelines from tropical storms. A recent Earth’s Future study examines flood risks from tropical storms to communities in Florida, if coral reefs keep degrading …

The 14th meeting of the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (SPRFMO) took place in Panama City from March 2-6. The intergovernmental organization regulates fishing activities in the high seas …

The new documentary “A Life Illuminated” traces the career arc of U.S. marine biologist Edie Widder, an expert on bioluminescence who’s made headlines for decades. The film documents her team’s …

Bangladesh has seen a sudden rise in illegal shark and ray fishing and consumption in recent years. A decrease in catch of traditionally consumed fish species and the lower prices …

In August 2025, Canada’s only entertainment park with cetaceans, Marineland of Canada, closed for good, prompting concern about the fate of 30 beluga whales and four dolphins remaining at the …

Türkiye has become a major destination for plastic waste recycling, notably from Europe and the U.K. Most of this scrap heads to the roughly 180 waste facilities handling plastic in …

Up to roughly 20% of aquatic products are intentionally mislabeled as the wrong species or otherwise fraudulent, posing environmental and health risks, according to a new report. Inaccurate representation of …

A new report from U.K.-based NGO the Environmental Justice Foundation draws on interviews with 81 fishers, mainly Indonesian sailors who worked between 2021 and 2025 on 60 Chinese vessels targeting …

Experts confirmed that seven young northern elephant seals on the beach at California’s Año Nuevo State Park carried a deadly form of avian influenza, H5N1, the first recorded infection in …

Researchers have developed an Ocean Equity Index that seeks to measure how equitable ocean initiatives are based on 12 criteria. The index, which was introduced alongside an academic study, can …

On Mexico’s Pacific coast, sea level rise and infrastructure projects have eroded 8.4 meters of coastline per year since 1967. In the community of Cuauhtémoc, San Mateo del Mar, at …

Unintentional catch is a major reason that more than a hundred shark species are threatened with extinction. A new study found that creating a small electric field around fishing hooks …

A law establishing the Azores Marine Protected Areas Network was approved in October 2024 and took effect recently, on Jan. 1 this year. The network now safeguards 30% of Azorean …

Black carbon emissions (colloquially known as soot) produced by marine shipping contribute to Earth’s warming climate and also reduce ice and snow cover. In the Arctic, those emissions are hastening …

A new review study examines the current research regarding the risks that various geoengineering approaches pose to marine ecosystems. The study looked particularly at a range of marine carbon dioxide …

On the outskirts of the coastal Kenyan city of Mombasa, a women’s organization in Jomvu Creek aims to transform livelihoods and the environment through mud crab farming. A blue economy …

A new study suggests an early way to detect ecological shifts during marine heat waves: Use fishing vessel tracking data. The study found that tracking data could provide early detection …

Tanzania’s boat modernization program aims to empower small-scale fishers with affordable, government-distributed vessels, but has instead left many struggling with unreliable vessels and unsustainable loans. In Kilwa district, fishers say …

Marking the midway point in the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development, 2025 was a key year for the ocean. The past 12 months brought landslide multilateral wins …

When compared with historical samples, corals show that the Salish Sea and California Current System are acidifying faster than anticipated because of greenhouse gas emissions. Models indicate that at this …

2025 has been a big whale tourism season in Timor-Leste; operators were fully booked during the peak season of September to December. But increasingly aggressive practices fueled by competition between …

Ahead of the recent CITES summit to hash out wildlife trade regulations, South Africa was expected to table a proposal that would have tightened the legal trade in South African …

A new study of major U.S.-based online retailers of marine fish bound for aquariums found that nearly 90% of traded species are sourced exclusively from the wild, including a number …

A new study has identified whale shark stranding hotspots in Indonesia and linked them to seasonal ocean conditions, offering scientists a clearer picture of when and where risks are highest. …

In September, Pakistan declared its third marine protected area, around Miani Hor Lagoon on the country’s central coast. The biodiversity-rich lagoon hosts a lush mangrove forest, numerous bird species and …

The ocean is losing its greenness, a new study has found: Global chlorophyll concentration, a proxy for phytoplankton biomass, declined over the past two decades, especially in coastal areas. Phytoplankton …

Between Oct. 1 and 21, a U.S government-funded vessel, the E/V Nautilus, conducted an expedition in the Cook Islands’ exclusive economic zone (EEZ), following an agreement between the U.S. and …

Marine experts at the Indonesian Seagrass Symposium in Bali warned that seagrass ecosystems — vital for carbon storage, biodiversity and coastal protection — remain largely overlooked in national policy and …

The annual meeting of the international body responsible for the conservation of Southern Ocean marine ecosystems concluded Friday with no progress on two contentious issues before it: the creation of …

A new environmental report warns that expanding nickel mining is placing Raja Ampat’s coral reefs, forests and Indigenous communities under intensifying threat. Using geospatial mapping and field evidence, researchers document …

The Commission for the Conservation of Southern Bluefin Tuna (CCSBT), a multilateral body that manages the stock of southern bluefin tuna, held its annual meeting Oct. 6-9 in Bali, Indonesia. …

The shipping sector was widely expected to become the first industry to adopt a binding set of global greenhouse gas emissions rules during an Oct. 14-17 meeting in London. Instead, …

A new study indicates that deep-sea mining could threaten at least 30 species of sharks, rays and chimaeras, many of which are already at risk of extinction. The authors found …

A rare sighting of a dugong calf in Alor, Indonesia, has renewed focus on the health of the region’s seagrass ecosystem and the species’ fragile future. Conservationists say the presence …

A new study looks at bird migration patterns over open ocean in an attempt to assess how much risk offshore wind turbines and other marine infrastructure might pose to them. …

Delegates at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi voted to adopt a motion urging precautionary measures to protect the ocean’s mesopelagic zone. The nonbinding motion calls for prospective …

Three Arctic seal species have been moved up to higher threat categories on the IUCN Red List, with one now endangered and two now near threatened. Global warming is melting …

Nearly a third of shark meat samples taken from products sold in Europe contained dangerously high methylmercury levels, with all tope shark and almost a quarter of blue shark samples …

Mauritius will soon be home to one of the largest projects in the Western Indian Ocean aimed at restoring corals through sexual propagation. The scientific research for the Odysseo coral …