In 2008, the United Nations recognized June 8 as World Oceans Day to spotlight the rising vulnerabilities facing the oceans that cover more than 70% of Earth’s surface.
Seventeen years later, average ocean temperatures have never been higher. Heat stress has hit 84% of the world’s coral reefs. In places as far as Antarctica, whales are competing with fishing boats for krill, and in the deepest parts of ocean floor, steps toward mining threaten deep-sea creatures we do not yet know.
At the same time, scientists are uncovering more about marine life than ever before, from new species in Chile’s deep trenches to insights into the behavior of marine animals that may help shape future conservation efforts.
On World Oceans Day 2025, we present two discoveries from the past year about life in our oceans:
Deep-sea predator identified in Chile’s Atacama Trench
In November 2024, scientists identified a large and active predatory crustacean at a depth nearing 8,000 meters (26,200 feet) in the Atacama Trench off Chile’s coast.
The Dulcibella camanchaca is considered huge for the nutrient-poor hadal zone in the deep sea, growing up to 4 centimeters (1.6 inches). Robotic landers that were adapted to withstand pressure 800 times greater than at sea level successfully captured four individuals of the newly identified species.
“DNA and morphological data suggest this is also a new genus, highlighting the Atacama Trench as an endemic hotspot,” Johanna Weston, a biologist with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, told Akhyari Hananto, a journalist with Mongabay Indonesia. “The discovery … underscores this uniqueness, indicating an evolutionary lineage found only in this trench.”
Whales sing more when there is more food
In a six-year study off California’s coast, scientists discovered that blue (Balaenoptera musculus), humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae) and fin whales (B. physalus) sing more when food is abundant, and that humpback whales may even be able to understand when a blue whale is announcing a krill swarm through song.
“This idea that information about the ecosystem can travel between species is very realistic,” John Ryan, an oceanographer with the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute, told Mongabay Newscast host Mike DiGirolamo. “These animals use the same frequency range … so that information should be available to their senses.”
The researchers also found that whales sang significantly less during a 2015 heat wave in the Northeast Pacific Ocean, when there was less food available. “They were hard times for whales,” Ryan said, adding that whales had to swim farther to forage and may have had less time and energy to sing. “All three whale species showed by far the lowest occurrence of whale song.”
This discovery, Ryan said, may give us some insight into how whales respond to warming oceans and sudden changes in climate.
Banner image: Humpback whales in Western Australia. Image courtesy of Emilie Ledwidge/Ocean Image Bank.
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