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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/micronesia/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>Micronesia environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/micronesia/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>The ocean’s enforcement gap</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-oceans-enforcement-gap/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-oceans-enforcement-gap/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Mar 2026 22:33:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Rhett Ayers Butler]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/03/09225852/greenpeace-GP1SXQFJ-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=315393</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Founder's briefs]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global, Indonesia, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Palau]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Analysis, data, Environment, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Infrastructure, Marine, Marine Protected Areas, Monitoring, Oceans, Ports, Protected Areas, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, and Technology]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[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 now circulate widely. Yet the reality offshore often looks much the same as before. Industrial vessels still trawl through restricted waters, longliners set gear near [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[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 now circulate widely. Yet the reality offshore often looks much the same as before. Industrial vessels still trawl through restricted waters, longliners set gear near vulnerable habitats, and sanctions for violations are sporadic. The problem is not a shortage of rules. It is the unevenness of enforcement. Creating an MPA is politically attractive. It signals ambition at relatively modest cost, especially when the protected waters lie far offshore. Policing those areas is harder. Patrol vessels are expensive to operate, legal cases can drag on, and fisheries agencies are rarely flush with funds. In many countries, officials face a dilemma: announce new protections and earn international praise, or spend scarce resources enforcing existing ones and risk confrontation with powerful domestic interests. Frozen tuna are transferred from the Hung Hwa 202, a Taiwanese longliner, to the Hsiang Hao, a Panama-flagged reefer operating out of Tokyo, Japan, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. The Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise and crew are investigating distant water fishing fleet practices in the Mid-Atlantic during September and October 2019. Photo credit: © Tommy Trenchard Evidence presented in a widely-cited 2014 Nature paper suggests that compliance depends less on the size of protected areas than on whether rules are visible and credible. Studies comparing MPAs across regions consistently find that ecological benefits correlate with enforcement capacity. A&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-oceans-enforcement-gap/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/03/the-oceans-enforcement-gap/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-315393</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pacific fisheries summit gives a boost to albacore &#038; seabirds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pacific-fisheries-summit-gives-a-boost-to-albacore-seabirds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pacific-fisheries-summit-gives-a-boost-to-albacore-seabirds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Dec 2025 19:56:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/16193919/BANNER-2-a.-AP24050529396021-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=311477</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Cook Islands, Japan, Marshall Islands, Micronesia, Pacific Ocean, Polynesia, South Korea, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Governance, Oceans, Overfishing, Politics, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Much of the world’s albacore tuna catch, which usually ends up in a can, comes from the southwestern Pacific Ocean, where fishery managers just passed a new set of conservation rules. The parties to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), a multilateral body that sets fishing rules for an area that covers nearly [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Much of the world’s albacore tuna catch, which usually ends up in a can, comes from the southwestern Pacific Ocean, where fishery managers just passed a new set of conservation rules. The parties to the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC), a multilateral body that sets fishing rules for an area that covers nearly 20% of the planet, adopted a harvest strategy for South Pacific albacore at their annual meeting, held Dec. 1-5 in Manila, the Philippines. Harvest strategies set near-automatic scientifically advised catch limits or other control measures in response to fluctuating fish stock levels; they’re considered a best practice in fisheries management because they reduce commercial or political influence. South Pacific albacore is one of two albacore (Thunnus alalunga) stocks in the WCPFC; the other is North Pacific albacore, which isn’t fished as much. “This is a great move for the WCPFC,” Dave Gershman, a senior officer for international fisheries at The Pew Charitable Trusts, a U.S.-based think tank, told Mongabay after attending the meeting. “This is a critical step to ensure the sustainability and stability of the top Pacific albacore fisheries.” Gershman noted that the harvest strategy was a “long time in the making” and had been “discussed for many, many years.” The parties discussed, but didn’t adopt, new rules on transshipment, or the ship-to-ship transfer of fish and other goods at sea, a practice that’s been linked to illegal and unsustainable fishing and other illicit activity. Glen Joseph, director of the fishing ministry of the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pacific-fisheries-summit-gives-a-boost-to-albacore-seabirds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/pacific-fisheries-summit-gives-a-boost-to-albacore-seabirds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-311477</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Fatal Watch’: Interview with documentary makers on fisheries observer deaths</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/fatal-watch-interview-with-documentary-makers-on-fisheries-observer-deaths/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/fatal-watch-interview-with-documentary-makers-on-fisheries-observer-deaths/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>20 Mar 2025 20:47:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/20155919/7-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=296195</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Beyond the screen: DCEFF]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[China, Fiji, Ghana, Global, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Pacific Ocean, Panama, Papua New Guinea, and Taiwan]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[data, Environment, Fisheries, Illegal Fishing, Marine Conservation, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Fisheries observers hold a job little known by the general public but essential to the health of the oceans: monitoring the work on industrial fishing vessels. The sector has its share of illegal fishing and even other illicit activity, so the job comes with risks. A new documentary shows just how dangerous it is. Fatal [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Fisheries observers hold a job little known by the general public but essential to the health of the oceans: monitoring the work on industrial fishing vessels. The sector has its share of illegal fishing and even other illicit activity, so the job comes with risks. A new documentary shows just how dangerous it is. Fatal Watch, co-directed by Katie Carpenter and Mark Benjamin, focuses on four unsolved cases in which fisheries observers died or disappeared during the last decade. There have been at least a dozen more worldwide since 2009. The film also casts a critical eye on the industry as a whole, touching on management and transparency issues that the filmmakers see as intertwined with the observer safety problem. The heroes of Fatal Watch are investigators and campaigners seeking justice for harmed observers and fighting for marine conservation more broadly. Elizabeth Mitchell-Rachin, a board member of the Association for Professional Observers, a nonprofit based in the U.S. state of Oregon, is featured as a leading advocate for observer rights. Mitchell-Rachin herself worked as an observer from 1983 until 2008 and knows the dangers firsthand: A captain once threatened to throw her overboard. Fisheries observers are biological technicians who collect scientific data and report on vessels’ compliance with a range of rules, including, for example, those dealing with protected species. They are subject to many of the same dangers and discomforts that fishers face at sea, and then some. As a fisheries observer, “you’re living with the people that you’re reporting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/fatal-watch-interview-with-documentary-makers-on-fisheries-observer-deaths/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/fatal-watch-interview-with-documentary-makers-on-fisheries-observer-deaths/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-296195</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Study finds signs of tuna abundance outside marine protected areas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/study-finds-signs-of-tuna-abundance-outside-marine-protected-areas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/study-finds-signs-of-tuna-abundance-outside-marine-protected-areas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Mar 2025 22:58:29 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/03/03212656/3.jpg-768x512-1.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=295235</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Galapagos, Hawaii, Indian Ocean, Kiribati, Mexico, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Fisheries, Fishing, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, and Tuna]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There&#8217;s solid evidence that well-enforced marine protected areas (MPAs) that prohibit fishing benefit a wide variety of species within their borders. However, the impact outside their borders is a matter of debate, especially when it comes to highly sought tuna species. Experts differ about how much tuna can “spill over” from an area closed to [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There&#8217;s solid evidence that well-enforced marine protected areas (MPAs) that prohibit fishing benefit a wide variety of species within their borders. However, the impact outside their borders is a matter of debate, especially when it comes to highly sought tuna species. Experts differ about how much tuna can “spill over” from an area closed to industrial fishing and be caught in the sea beyond. Recent research published in the journal Science indicates that large-scale MPAs do generate spillover. The study found that purse seiner fishing vessels catch 12-18% more tuna per unit of effort in the 100 nautical miles (185 kilometers) surrounding large MPAs than they would if the areas hadn’t been closed to fishing. “There&#8217;s some arguments that protected areas are kind of ineffectual compared to other forms of fisheries management,” John Lynham, a marine economist at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa who co-authored the study, told Mongabay. “So, I think we&#8217;re contributing to some of that debate. And then really big picture, I think what we&#8217;ve found certainly provides evidence in favor of one day trying to have large MPAs on the high seas.” The next few years could see an expansion of MPAs not just in national but also in international waters once a 2023 international agreement known as the High Seas Treaty takes effect. The effort is fueled largely by a separate 2022 agreement to scale up MPA coverage to 30% of the oceans’ surface area by 2030 — “30&#215;30,” as it’s known. Fully enacting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/study-finds-signs-of-tuna-abundance-outside-marine-protected-areas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/03/study-finds-signs-of-tuna-abundance-outside-marine-protected-areas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-295235</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The ocean ‘belongs to all of us’: Interview with Palau President Whipps</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/the-ocean-belongs-to-all-of-us-interview-with-palau-president-whipps/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/the-ocean-belongs-to-all-of-us-interview-with-palau-president-whipps/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>05 Sep 2024 20:35:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/09/05165747/clown-fish-and-anemone-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=287005</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Oceania, Pacific Islands, and Palau]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Conservation, Deep Sea Mining, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Interviews, Islands, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Politics]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[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, also called seabed mining, aims to extract sought-after minerals like copper, cobalt and rare earth metals from the deep seabed. As global interest in deep-sea [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[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, also called seabed mining, aims to extract sought-after minerals like copper, cobalt and rare earth metals from the deep seabed. As global interest in deep-sea mining grows, nations have been divided on whether to allow the industry to proceed. Advocates say the industry could procure critical minerals for “green” technologies like electric batteries and provide economic benefits for Pacific nations dealing with sea level rise and other impacts of climate change. Critics say it would cause large-scale and irreparable destruction of the seabed and surrounding marine environment, and that seafloor minerals aren’t necessary for renewable energy technologies and other commodities. At the U.N. Ocean Conference in Lisbon in 2022, Whipps, who had taken office a year earlier, became one of the first world leaders to officially call for a moratorium on deep-sea mining, along with leaders from Fiji, Samoa, Tuvalu, and Guam. Additionally, Palau and Fiji announced the formation of an alliance of nations calling for similar measures. Since then, a total of 32 nations have called for a moratorium or precautionary pause on deep-sea mining — both positions stipulating an official pause, albeit with different terminology. At one point, France even called for an outright ban. However, these calls have not been enough to stop the industry from moving forward. While commercial-scale exploitation of the seabed has not yet&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/09/the-ocean-belongs-to-all-of-us-interview-with-palau-president-whipps/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-287005</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Marshallese worries span decades — first nuclear tests, now sea-level rise</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/marshallese-worries-span-decades-first-nuclear-tests-now-sea-level-rise/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/marshallese-worries-span-decades-first-nuclear-tests-now-sea-level-rise/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 May 2024 11:05:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Amélie David]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2024/05/29105500/Alson-at-end-of-runway-Enue-photo-by-Mark-Klett-Cape-Farewell-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=282580</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Marshall Islands, Oceania, and Pacific Islands]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Impact Of Climate Change, Indigenous Peoples, Land Rights, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Sea Levels, and Social Justice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[BIKINI ATOLL, Marshall Islands — “I felt so many emotions during my trip to Bikini,” said Victoria Jamore. “I asked myself questions like: How many times have we been moved? How many times will we be moved? When will we get to live on our islands again?” For Jamore, a Marshallese artist, Bikini is more [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[BIKINI ATOLL, Marshall Islands — “I felt so many emotions during my trip to Bikini,” said Victoria Jamore. “I asked myself questions like: How many times have we been moved? How many times will we be moved? When will we get to live on our islands again?” For Jamore, a Marshallese artist, Bikini is more than just an atoll lost in the Pacific. It’s the land of her ancestors where she feels deeply rooted. The sprawling array of remote atolls and islands that make up the Marshall Islands holds an immensely rich biodiversity and coral reefs intricately tied to their culture and identity. The atolls were also once a testing ground for nuclear warfare. Displaced once because of nuclear testing in the 20th century, some communities are now at risk of evacuation and seeing their lands disappear if sea-level rise continues at its current rate. In one of the world’s lowest-lying island nations, researchers say communities will face threats to livability over the next 70 years with just a 50 -centimeter (20-inch) sea-level rise. Some projections say this will happen by 2090. In the government’s national adaptation plan to address the issue, almost half of people surveyed said they already observed waters rising. For many Marshallese people, their connection to the land is deeply rooted in their mind, body and soul. For elder Alson Kelen, it’s part of his identity: It is where he comes from and where his knowledge is rooted. “Land, our clan and culture is our identity;&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/05/marshallese-worries-span-decades-first-nuclear-tests-now-sea-level-rise/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-282580</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Palau is the first nation to ratify treaty to protect high seas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/palau-is-the-first-nation-to-ratify-treaty-to-protect-high-seas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/palau-is-the-first-nation-to-ratify-treaty-to-protect-high-seas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Jan 2024 21:16:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/29131311/Palau-archipelago-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=278162</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Palau]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Palau has become the first nation to ratify the high seas treaty, a legally binding international agreement that seeks to protect and manage ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction. Other countries, including Chile and the Maldives, are engaged in their ratification processes, pushing the treaty closer to becoming international law. The high seas treaty, also known [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Palau has become the first nation to ratify the high seas treaty, a legally binding international agreement that seeks to protect and manage ocean areas beyond national jurisdiction. Other countries, including Chile and the Maldives, are engaged in their ratification processes, pushing the treaty closer to becoming international law. The high seas treaty, also known as the BBNJ (biodiversity beyond national jurisdiction) agreement, will provide a legal framework for governing the high seas. This vast marine area covers two-thirds of the world’s oceans, but only 1% of it is currently protected. While there are many aspects of the treaty, three central components are a mandate to establish marine protected areas (MPAs) and other managed areas on the high seas, guidance on conducting environmental impacts and obligations for parties to share genetic material from any plant, animal or microbe that could benefit humanity. The establishment of the high seas treaty has been under debate for nearly two decades, but U.N. member states finally reached a consensus to approve the treaty in March 2023. Then, in September, it opened for state signatures. As of this month, 85 countries have signed the agreement. Golden Jellyfish (mastigias papua) in jellyfish lake in the Rock Islands, Palau. Image © Ian Shive. The next step is for signatories to ratify the treaty. This involves individual countries integrating the treaty goals into their national legislation, then depositing the instrument of ratification with the U.N. as a way of informing other parties. Once 60 countries have ratified the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2024/01/palau-is-the-first-nation-to-ratify-treaty-to-protect-high-seas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-278162</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Hope, but no free pass, as Pacific corals show tolerance to warming oceans</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/hope-but-no-free-pass-as-pacific-corals-show-tolerance-to-warming-oceans/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/hope-but-no-free-pass-as-pacific-corals-show-tolerance-to-warming-oceans/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Aug 2023 14:29:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2023/08/30135104/pacific-coral-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=272763</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Palau]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Deep Sea, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As climate change raises global sea temperatures, coral bleaching events are becoming more frequent and intense around the world. Yet researchers say some coral reefs may have found a way to cope with this thermal stress, offering a “glimmer of hope” for the future. In a new study published in Nature Communications, a team of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As climate change raises global sea temperatures, coral bleaching events are becoming more frequent and intense around the world. Yet researchers say some coral reefs may have found a way to cope with this thermal stress, offering a “glimmer of hope” for the future. In a new study published in Nature Communications, a team of international researchers used temperature data and field observations to find that a remote coral reef system in Palau, a Pacific nation of more than 300 islands, has become increasingly tolerant to thermal stress. They noted that Palau’s coral reefs increased their thermal tolerance by 0.1° Celsius (0.2° Fahrenheit) each decade since the late 1980s. However, according to the research, it’s unclear if this rising tolerance rate will match the pace of ocean warming. Palau’s reefs experienced powerful marine heat waves in 1998, 2010 and 2017, yet each successive event led to less coral bleaching, the study found. Similar events have previously been recorded on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, the coral reefs of Southeast Asia, and in Mo‘orea in French Polynesia. The researchers say there could be several explanations for the Palauan corals growing tolerant to heat. One possibility is that the reefs are becoming dominated by hardier coral species while more sensitive corals are disappearing. A second explanation is genetic adaptation — that is, natural selection may favor the genes in corals that are more likely to survive heat stress. A third suggestion is that coral reefs acclimate to thermal stress, managing to withstand high-level thermal&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2023/08/hope-but-no-free-pass-as-pacific-corals-show-tolerance-to-warming-oceans/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-272763</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A ‘super reef’ recovery raises hopes — but also questions about its resilience</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/a-super-reef-recovery-raises-hopes-but-also-questions-about-its-resilience/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/a-super-reef-recovery-raises-hopes-but-also-questions-about-its-resilience/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>12 Oct 2022 13:49:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/10/12133815/NationalGeographic_2795514-2-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=261415</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Kiribati and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Marine, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Research, Restoration, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In April 2009, ocean explorer Enric Sala and a team of marine biologists dove into the waters around the southern Line Islands, an uninhabited archipelago in the central Pacific that belongs to Kiribati, to find something increasingly rare in a world dominated by humans: a seemingly pristine coral reef. The reefs surrounding the islands teemed [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In April 2009, ocean explorer Enric Sala and a team of marine biologists dove into the waters around the southern Line Islands, an uninhabited archipelago in the central Pacific that belongs to Kiribati, to find something increasingly rare in a world dominated by humans: a seemingly pristine coral reef. The reefs surrounding the islands teemed with fish, including species like the endangered Napoleon wrasse (Cheilinus undulatus). The number of sharks and other predators even seemed to outnumber their prey, which was quite unusual to see on a coral reef, Sala noted. “The southern Line Islands changed our understanding of coral reefs,” Sala wrote in an article published in in National Geographic. “Scientists like me had no idea what pristine reefs looked like.” In 2015 and 2016, a strong El Niño event in the Pacific exposed the southern Line Islands to 15 weeks of warmer-than-usual temperatures that led to coral bleaching. When a research team went back to the area in 2017, they found that half of the corals had died from the heat stress— mainly the cauliflower corals in the Pocillopora genus and the stony corals in the Acropora genus. But Sala was encouraged to see that the damaged corals had not been quickly overtaken by brown algae, which often happens after bleaching events. He hypothesized that an abundance of herbivorous fish, such as parrotfish and surgeonfish, is what helped keep the coral free of this algae. He also saw that the corals were covered by crustose coralline algae that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/a-super-reef-recovery-raises-hopes-but-also-questions-about-its-resilience/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/10/a-super-reef-recovery-raises-hopes-but-also-questions-about-its-resilience/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-261415</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scaling Palauan tradition to regional fisheries: Q&#038;A with Noah Idechong</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/scaling-palauan-tradition-to-regional-fisheries-qa-with-noah-idechong/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/scaling-palauan-tradition-to-regional-fisheries-qa-with-noah-idechong/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Apr 2022 15:09:36 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Shreya Dasgupta]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/29132750/fishing-at-koror-palau-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=255314</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Micronesia, Oceania, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Palau]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Biodiversity, Community Development, Community-based Conservation, Conservation, Conservation leadership, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Illegal Fishing, Indigenous Peoples, Interviews, Interviews with conservation players, Islands, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, NGOs, Oceans, Overfishing, Politics, Saltwater Fish, Traditional Knowledge, Traditional People, and Tuna]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[There’s no one way to describe Noah Idechong. Born in the small Pacific island country of Palau, Idechong has donned different hats over the past 40 years. He’s been a government official, an activist, a politician, a legislator, and the founder of a domestic conservation NGO. Currently, he’s the executive director for Micronesia and Polynesia [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[There’s no one way to describe Noah Idechong. Born in the small Pacific island country of Palau, Idechong has donned different hats over the past 40 years. He’s been a government official, an activist, a politician, a legislator, and the founder of a domestic conservation NGO. Currently, he’s the executive director for Micronesia and Polynesia at the international conservation NGO The Nature Conservancy. In all of these roles, Idechong has focused on one main thing: championing the traditional systems the communities of Palau employ to protect and conserve the archipelago’s rich marine biodiversity and domestic fisheries. Idechong’s list of achievements is long. Early in his career, for example, he helped reinstate a traditional system of fishing closures, locally known as bul, to reinvigorate declining fish stocks. For this he was awarded a 1995 Goldman Environmental Prize. He then worked with the fishermen to frame a law that put restrictions on certain destructive fishing practices. As a member of congress, he conceived the Palau Protected Areas Network Act, which offered a framework for communities to designate and manage protected areas along with government. He helped design a sustainable funding mechanism to ensure that tourists who visit Palau pay a “green” fee that communities can use to manage protected areas. And in his current role, he’s helping build more sustainable regional tuna fisheries that benefit the Pacific island nations in whose waters the tuna swim, rather than foreign fishing enterprises. At a panel on Indigenous-led conservation at the Our Oceans 2022 Conference&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/scaling-palauan-tradition-to-regional-fisheries-qa-with-noah-idechong/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/scaling-palauan-tradition-to-regional-fisheries-qa-with-noah-idechong/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-255314</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Oceans conference comes up with $16b in pledges to safeguard marine health</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/oceans-conference-comes-up-with-16b-in-pledges-to-safeguard-marine-health/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/oceans-conference-comes-up-with-16b-in-pledges-to-safeguard-marine-health/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 Apr 2022 16:51:25 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Carolyn Cowan]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Hayat Indriyatno]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/04/15162943/OceanImageBank_AlexMustard_07-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254826</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, Palau, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Governance, Illegal Fishing, Indigenous Peoples, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Overfishing, and Protected Areas]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[International delegates representing governments, businesses, academic and research institutions, civil society, youth leaders and philanthropic organizations announced major commitments worth more than $16 billion to protect ocean health at the seventh Our Ocean Conference in Koror, Palau, on April 13 and 14. A total of 410 commitments were made at the event, hosted jointly by [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[International delegates representing governments, businesses, academic and research institutions, civil society, youth leaders and philanthropic organizations announced major commitments worth more than $16 billion to protect ocean health at the seventh Our Ocean Conference in Koror, Palau, on April 13 and 14. A total of 410 commitments were made at the event, hosted jointly by the Republic of Palau and the United States. The conference is an annual event initiated in 2014 by then-U.S. secretary of state John Kerry, who is now the U.S. special presidential envoy for climate. The conference was envisioned as a platform to mobilize support and funding for ocean initiatives to address the world’s most pressing ocean issues. As such, it’s a key milestone event for leaders to ensure global commitments on ocean heath are upheld and backed by robust financing. To date, the seven OOC events have accrued more than 1,800 commitments worth more than $108 billion and protected at least 13 million square kilometers (5 million square miles) of ocean. “We’re starting now finally to act with the urgency that the moment demands,” Kerry said in his closing remarks on April 14, “even as we understand that we have to accelerate even more.” Heads of government and representatives from businesses, academic and research institutions, civil society, youth leaders and philanthropic organizations took part in the seventh Our Ocean conference in Koror, Palau. Image courtesy of Our Ocean Conference The conference, titled “Our Ocean, Our People, Our Prosperity,” focused on six areas of action: combating&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/oceans-conference-comes-up-with-16b-in-pledges-to-safeguard-marine-health/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/04/oceans-conference-comes-up-with-16b-in-pledges-to-safeguard-marine-health/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254826</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ships sunk in nuclear tests host diverse corals, study says. But do we need them?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/ships-sunk-in-nuclear-tests-host-diverse-corals-study-says-but-do-we-need-them/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/ships-sunk-in-nuclear-tests-host-diverse-corals-study-says-but-do-we-need-them/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Mar 2022 11:36:28 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Elizabethalberts]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2022/03/23112400/Bikini-Atoll-coral-diversity-3-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=254038</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Marshall Islands and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Environment, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Marine, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On May 25, 1946, the United States detonated the first underwater nuclear bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands to see what kind of damage it would cause. This particular bomb, known by the codename “Baker,” sank eight warships that had been deliberately positioned around the atoll, and produced a giant mushroom cloud that [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On May 25, 1946, the United States detonated the first underwater nuclear bomb at Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands to see what kind of damage it would cause. This particular bomb, known by the codename “Baker,” sank eight warships that had been deliberately positioned around the atoll, and produced a giant mushroom cloud that inundated the sea and sky. While Bikini Atoll is still radioactive, the surrounding ocean hasn’t become the nuclear wasteland one might expect. Many coral species have proved to be resilient to this large-scale anthropogenic disturbance, and corals have also settled on the sunken warships that have been rusting on the seafloor for more than 70 years. In 2018, ecologist Greg Asner and a team of divers began a survey of the coral on the warships at Bikini Atoll as well as the sunken Japanese fleet of Truk (Chuuk) Lagoon in Micronesia, in an effort to answer a question: could these reefs act as biodiversity havens? This question has become particularly relevant as the global oceans heat up as a result of climate change, causing widespread coral bleaching from which many natural reefs are unable to recover. Ecologists are trying to find out if the coral reefs formed on sunken ships can act as biodiversity havens. Image courtesy of Greg Asner. Asner and his team undertook a series of deep dives to survey the stony coral species on 29 warships at Bikini Atoll and Chuuk Lagoon, most of them at a depth of about 55 meters&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2022/03/ships-sunk-in-nuclear-tests-host-diverse-corals-study-says-but-do-we-need-them/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254038</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Conservation nation: How Palau protects its reefs and waters (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/conservation-nation-how-palau-protects-its-reefs-and-waters-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/conservation-nation-how-palau-protects-its-reefs-and-waters-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>06 Mar 2020 14:01:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ed Warner]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Erik Hoffner]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2020/03/05164704/Ed-Warner-commentary-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=227592</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Micronesia, Oceania, Pacific Islands, and Palau]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Commentary, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Happy-upbeat Environmental, Marine, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Overfishing]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In 2012 I spent 3 weeks in Palau as part of the ‘Micronesia Challenge,’ a conservation approach sponsored by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in conjunction with Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) and the University of Guam. TNC’s lead scientist, Rod Salm, had asked me, a geologist, to be his dive buddy to experiment in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In 2012 I spent 3 weeks in Palau as part of the ‘Micronesia Challenge,’ a conservation approach sponsored by The Nature Conservancy (TNC) in conjunction with Palau International Coral Reef Center (PICRC) and the University of Guam. TNC’s lead scientist, Rod Salm, had asked me, a geologist, to be his dive buddy to experiment in this citizen science. Palau is made up of some 400 islands: mostly underwater limestone plateaus in the south, basaltic volcanos in the middle, and limestone atolls in the north. The governance mimics the USA: both federal and states (ten of them). The population is not much over 14,000, 2/3 of whom live in the capital and state of Koror. Having just returned from revisiting Palau diving as a tourist this time, I spent a day with the director of TNC, Steven Victor, and Palau’s Assistant Attorney General, Orion Cruz. I was curious to dive on some of the same sites as the 2012 research project, where we had discovered that many of the reefs that were badly bleached in 1998 and had subsequently turned to rubble by tide and storm waves, had made rapid, remarkable recoveries. How had they fared in the eight years between my visits, I wondered? Branching Acropora corals in 2012. Photo courtesy of Rodney Salm. You may have read about the imminent destruction of the world’s coral reefs, both from increased ocean temperatures and acidification. “What if,” Dr. Salm had mused, “we found the places around the tropics where reefs are&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/03/conservation-nation-how-palau-protects-its-reefs-and-waters-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-227592</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Guns, Corals and Steel: Are Nuclear Shipwrecks a Biodiversity Hotspot?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/guns-corals-and-steel-are-nuclear-shipwrecks-a-biodiversity-hotspot/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/guns-corals-and-steel-are-nuclear-shipwrecks-a-biodiversity-hotspot/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Apr 2019 22:58:05 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Greg Asner]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2019/04/26111131/saratoga-bow-with-coral-garden-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=217849</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Reefscape]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Marshall Islands, Pacific Islands, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[In our last Reefscape story, we explored the northern Marshall Islands in search of answers about the long-term effects of nuclear fallout on coral reefs. We visited Rongelap and Ailinginae atolls, where Cesium-137 and other highly radioactive material from 1954’s Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test on Bikini Atoll had drifted downwind, falling like snow on [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[In our last Reefscape story, we explored the northern Marshall Islands in search of answers about the long-term effects of nuclear fallout on coral reefs. We visited Rongelap and Ailinginae atolls, where Cesium-137 and other highly radioactive material from 1954’s Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb test on Bikini Atoll had drifted downwind, falling like snow on the people, lands, and reefs. Baker nuclear bomb test at Bikini in 1946. Courtesy of the DOE. Sixty-four years later, in 2018, our coral reef findings at Rongelap and Ailinginae were double-edged: on the one hand, we discovered pristine shallow and deep-water reefs teeming with corals, fish, invertebrates and predators. There was seemingly no sign that these reefs had once been exposed to a nuclear winter. On the other hand, we found recent coral bleaching caused by an ocean heat wave in 2014 that generated vast stretches of undersea desert with relatively little life. Our findings were a shock, challenging our understanding of how much a reef can take before it disappears, and confronting us with the possibility that climate change may be worse for coral reefs than nuclear fallout. Google Earth image showing Bikini atoll The voyage to Rongelap and Ailinginae also drew new questions about the repeated atom bomb tests, which occurred 100 kilometers (60 miles) west of Rongelap on the famous Bikini Atoll. It was the Castle Bravo hydrogen bomb that famously caused a massive downwind radiation plume that engulfed Rongelap. But eight years before it, in 1946, there were another two&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2019/04/guns-corals-and-steel-are-nuclear-shipwrecks-a-biodiversity-hotspot/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-217849</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Women in small-island states exposed to high levels of mercury: study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/women-in-small-island-states-exposed-to-high-levels-of-mercury-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/women-in-small-island-states-exposed-to-high-levels-of-mercury-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Nov 2018 11:03:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Basten Gokkon]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/08/31112250/MANUEL-SALDARRIAGA.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=212644</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Barbados, Caribbean, Comoros, Cook Islands, Dominican Republic, Fiji, Grenada, Marshall Islands, Pacific Islands, and Sweden]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Animals, Coal, Environment, Environmental Policy, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Gold Mining, Health, Marine, Marine Animals, Mercury, Oceans, Pollution, Public Health, Renewable Energy, Saltwater Fish, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
											<grant>
							<![CDATA[CBO2017]]>
						</grant>
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Women of childbearing age from small-island states and countries have been found to have toxic levels of mercury, a potent neurotoxin that can harm unborn children, a new report shows. The study took hair samples from 757 women between the ages of 18 and 44 years from across the Pacific, the Caribbean and the Indian [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Women of childbearing age from small-island states and countries have been found to have toxic levels of mercury, a potent neurotoxin that can harm unborn children, a new report shows. The study took hair samples from 757 women between the ages of 18 and 44 years from across the Pacific, the Caribbean and the Indian Ocean. Nearly 60 percent of them were found to have mercury levels of more than one part per million, or 1 ppm — the threshold above which brain damage, IQ loss, and kidney and cardiovascular damage can occur, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The mercury level associated with the onset of fetal neurological damage is lower, at 0.58 ppm, and the number of women whose hair samples exceeded that level for mercury was 75 percent, the study found. The researchers used hair samples from women ages 18 to 44 to analyze the mercury levels in their bodies. Image courtesy of IPEN. The study, published Nov. 19, was carried out by scientists from the nonprofit Biodiversity Research Institute (BRI) and IPEN, a global coalition of health and environmental groups. They took hair samples from women in 21 countries and territories — including Fiji, Barbados, Comoros, Sri Lanka, and the U.S. islands of Molokai in Hawaii and Saint Lawrence in Alaska — where industrialization remains low and the population relies on local fisheries as a major source of dietary protein. “The highest level found in the sampling that can be confirmed was over 20&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/women-in-small-island-states-exposed-to-high-levels-of-mercury-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/11/women-in-small-island-states-exposed-to-high-levels-of-mercury-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-212644</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>The search for survivors in a post-nuclear reefscape</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/the-search-for-survivors-in-a-post-nuclear-reefscape/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/the-search-for-survivors-in-a-post-nuclear-reefscape/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Sep 2018 09:46:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Clare LeDuffGreg Asner]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2018/09/09191323/Image-8-patrolling-sharks-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=210115</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Reefscape]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Marshall Islands, Pacific Islands, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[On the morning of March 1, 1954, the United States tested its largest thermonuclear bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Code-named “Castle Bravo”, the explosion was more than 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs that had ended World War II a decade earlier. The Castle Bravo test surprised its [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[On the morning of March 1, 1954, the United States tested its largest thermonuclear bomb over Bikini Atoll in the Marshall Islands. Code-named “Castle Bravo”, the explosion was more than 1,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs that had ended World War II a decade earlier. Explosion of the Castle Bravo atomic bomb at Bikini Atoll in 1954. Photo: United States Department of Energy. The Castle Bravo test surprised its engineers, yielding twice as much power as had been predicted, and a massive fireball that destroyed three neighboring islands and contaminated 18,000 square kilometers (7,000 square miles) of ocean with radioactive fallout to the east of Bikini. Directly in the path of the Castle Bravo fallout was Rongelap Atoll, where radioactive debris up to 2.5 centimeters (1 inch) deep was deposited on the atoll’s small islands and extensive coral reefs. The tragic impact of the nuclear fallout on the people of Rongelap is well documented, involving hundreds of deaths from radiation poisoning and cancer, and lingering health effects that plagued several generations of survivors. The Rongelapese were eventually evacuated south to Kwajalein Atoll, but the damage to their community and the surrounding environment was devastating and could not be undone. Visiting Rongelap Atoll is no quick day trip. Few ships run that far north in the Marshall Islands, and doing so requires open-ocean transits fraught with potentially rough seas. We entered the country via the U.S. Army’s base on Kwajalein Atoll, then boarded a trawler converted for&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/the-search-for-survivors-in-a-post-nuclear-reefscape/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2018/09/the-search-for-survivors-in-a-post-nuclear-reefscape/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-210115</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Kiribati confronts climate upheaval by preparing for ‘migration with dignity’</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/kiribati-confronts-climate-upheaval-by-preparing-for-migration-with-dignity/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/kiribati-confronts-climate-upheaval-by-preparing-for-migration-with-dignity/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Jul 2017 05:42:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Kayla Walsh]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Maria Angeles Salazar]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2017/07/11051121/kiribati-768x433.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=197181</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Kiribati and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate Change, Extreme Weather, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Human Migration, Impact Of Climate Change, Islands, Overpopulation, and Research]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[High tide keeps getting higher on the islands of the Republic of Kiribati – 33 coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean that rest only a few feet above sea level. In Kiribati culture, Nareau the Creator scattered stones to the north and south to create this mosaic of coral and rock. But, today, the effects [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[High tide keeps getting higher on the islands of the Republic of Kiribati – 33 coral atolls in the Pacific Ocean that rest only a few feet above sea level. In Kiribati culture, Nareau the Creator scattered stones to the north and south to create this mosaic of coral and rock. But, today, the effects of climate change are closing in and there’s no higher land to move to. Even as the atolls shrink, Kiribati’s population grows. The country is experiencing baki-aba: “land hunger.” In 2014, Kiribati president, Anote Tong purchased 20 square kilometers on Vanua Levu, a Fiji island making this the first international land purchase intended for climate refugees. For Kiribati, adapting to climate change might mean relocating entirely. Pacific islanders’ identities are very much tied to their ancestral land, the physical islands on which they live. Migration may mean a national and cultural loss, especially when most traditions are preserved orally. “They worry about the new country and if the people of that country will accept them,” Anterea Claire Anterea, co-founder of Kiri-CAN (Kiribati Climate Action Network International) and well-known climate activist in the country, said. Pacific island nations are some of the most vulnerable spots on Earth from climate change. According to the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report, small islands emit less than one percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, but they disproportionately suffer the effects of rising tides, drought, and extreme storms. Today, small island states are often allocating their scarce resources&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2017/07/kiribati-confronts-climate-upheaval-by-preparing-for-migration-with-dignity/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-197181</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Watching for Illegal Fishing with Eyes on the Seas</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/watching-for-illegal-fishing-by-keeping-our-eyes-on-the-seas/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/watching-for-illegal-fishing-by-keeping-our-eyes-on-the-seas/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Mar 2016 16:24:26 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Julia John]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Martin K]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/03/01221154/world-flat-bathy-520x293.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Easter Island, Palau, and United Kingdom]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Illegal Fishing, Marine Protected Areas, Monitoring, Satellite Imagery, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Approximately 120,000 fishing vessels sail the oceans at any given moment, many fishing illicitly. Globally, one in five marine fish caught ends up on a $23.5 billion black market. Unrecorded unregulated fishing has depleted fisheries to critical levels and prompted projections that all fisheries will collapse by 2048 if business continues as usual. Yet industrial [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Approximately 120,000 fishing vessels sail the oceans at any given moment, many fishing illicitly. Globally, one in five marine fish caught ends up on a $23.5 billion black market. Unrecorded unregulated fishing has depleted fisheries to critical levels and prompted projections that all fisheries will collapse by 2048 if business continues as usual. Yet industrial pirate fishing off the shores of developing nations and in far ocean recesses persists surreptitiously, as authorities cannot survey all corners of the seven seas to stop the plunder and protect marine species worldwide. Large-scale fishing, much of it unlawful, has fully exploited 53% of world fisheries; 32% are overexploited, depleted, or recovering from depletion. Photo credit: C. Ortiz Rohas. Project Eyes on the Seas is a surveillance platform that helps law enforcers at port swiftly detect and counter fisheries violations in expansive remote marine reserves through a centralized virtual watch room (VWR). It synthesizes and analyzes layers of information from different maritime tracking systems, real-time satellite images, proprietary databases, international fishing and marine reserve borders and environmental and oceanic data including depth and temperature. The system analyzes the compiled data and alerts analysts of suspicious activity, so that government enforcement action can focus on areas historically or currently exhibiting illicit fishing. It allows law enforcers to share information regarding illegal fishing operations, substantiate a case against them with evidence from analysts, track them into a port or enforcement vessels’ reach and prosecute them. The platform aims to protect tuna, marlin, swordfish and other highly&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/watching-for-illegal-fishing-by-keeping-our-eyes-on-the-seas/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/watching-for-illegal-fishing-by-keeping-our-eyes-on-the-seas/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-183474</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Want to end illegal fishing? Make all ships trackable, say researchers</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/want-to-end-illegal-fishing-make-all-ships-trackable-say-researchers/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/want-to-end-illegal-fishing-make-all-ships-trackable-say-researchers/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Mar 2016 11:42:50 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay.com]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2016/03/01221309/skytruth-gfw-russian_trawler-520x293.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Ecuador, Galapagos, Global, Kiribati, Latin America, and South America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Cetaceans, Conservation, data, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Policy, Illegal Fishing, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Oceans, Overfishing, Protected Areas, Remote Sensing, Satellite Imagery, Technology, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Governments have been establishing enormous marine protected areas (MPAs) spanning hundreds of thousands of square kilometers where fishing is restricted. And the United Nations last June began work developing an international treaty to manage biodiversity on the high seas, the vast stretches of ocean subject to no nation’s law. But how will we enforce paper protections [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Governments have been establishing enormous marine protected areas (MPAs) spanning hundreds of thousands of square kilometers where fishing is restricted. And the United Nations last June began work developing an international treaty to manage biodiversity on the high seas, the vast stretches of ocean subject to no nation’s law. But how will we enforce paper protections over areas far too big and remote to patrol by boat or plane? Make vessels, especially fishing vessels, trackable by satellite and the resulting data publicly available, says a group of researchers writing today in the journal Science. Then law enforcement will be able to see in real time which vessels are in a given area and intercept any that appear to be involved in illegal fishing or other activities. Each year, illegal fishers are estimated to net up to 26 million tons of seafood worth up to $23.5 billion annually, according to a 2009 study. Illegal fishing undermines conservation efforts and is associated with slave labor and human trafficking. The world’s oceangoing vessels are already part way there. Many carry automatic identification systems (AIS) — devices that transmit data about the vessel’s identity, position, and course that is intended to prevent collisions. Until recently transmission occurred via VHF radio, but recently satellites have begun picking up the job, transmitting mass AIS data to anyone interested in reviewing it, anywhere on the globe. Image based on satellite data shows the track of a Russian trawler off Namibia. Image courtesy of SkyTruth and Global Fishing Watch. Groups&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2016/03/want-to-end-illegal-fishing-make-all-ships-trackable-say-researchers/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-183123</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>2015&#8217;s top 10 developments for the ocean</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/12/the-top-10-ocean-developments-of-2015/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/12/the-top-10-ocean-developments-of-2015/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Dec 2015 06:57:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Douglas McCauley]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2015/12/02224954/1231_DMcCauley_Oceans2015_9_DeepwaterWind_Big-499x330.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Chile, Europe, Global, North America, Oceania, Pacific Ocean, Palau, South America, United Kingdom, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Energy, Environment, Fish, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine Protected Areas, Ocean Acidification, Oceans, Renewable Energy, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Douglas McCauley began his career as a fisherman but later transitioned to marine science. He now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Sloan Research Fellow in the Ocean Sciences. McCauley studies how marine ecosystems function and what management practices best support ocean health. Earlier this year, he and [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Douglas McCauley began his career as a fisherman but later transitioned to marine science. He now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Sloan Research Fellow in the Ocean Sciences. McCauley studies how marine ecosystems function and what management practices best support ocean health. Earlier this year, he and several colleagues reviewed the past and future of marine life in the global oceans. &nbsp; &nbsp; &nbsp; Aquaculture for rearing salmon in the Faroe Islands. Photo courtesy of Erik Christensen. 1. The end of wild fish? For the first year in history, the people of the world ate more farmed-raised fish than wild fish, according to a report by the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization. On land, the balance between the consumption of wild meat and farmed meat shifted thousands of years ago in most areas. Caution is needed to ensure that this new shift doesn’t mean that the oceans lose their capacity to serve up free-range fish for dinner, as happened long ago in many of our forests, prairies, and savannas. &nbsp; 2. Undersea gold rush In 2015 companies staked mining claims in more than 1 million square kilometers of deep-sea ecosystems in international waters. Contractors from countries like China, India, the United Kingdom, the Cook Islands, and Russia participated in the rush to claim areas from which they hope to extract gold, manganese, copper, and rare earth metals. This year a group of international scientists called for a halt in the authorization of&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/12/the-top-10-ocean-developments-of-2015/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-172415</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Papua fires send haze to Micronesia; Indonesia elections commission hints at environment debate</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/10/papua-fires-send-haze-to-micronesia-indonesia-elections-commissions-hints-at-environment-debate/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2015/10/papua-fires-send-haze-to-micronesia-indonesia-elections-commissions-hints-at-environment-debate/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Oct 2015 13:32:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Mongabay Haze Beat]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Mongabay Haze Beat]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Borneo, Central Kalimantan, Federated States Of Micronesia, Indonesia, Jambi, Kalimantan, Malaysia, Papua, Papua New Guinea, Riau, Singapore, South Sumatra, Southeast Asia, Sumatra, and West Papua]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Air Pollution, Conservation, Environment, Forests, Palm Oil, Peatlands, Plantations, and Rainforests]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Focus on potentially fatal smog from Indonesia’s wildfires shifted eastward on Monday as meteorologists registered light haze reaching as far as Micronesia. Burning in Papua, Indonesia’s easternmost region, has become increasingly fierce in recent days, canceling flights, damaging air quality for the local population and pushing light pollution into the Pacific. “Multiple wildfires across Indonesia [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Focus on potentially fatal smog from Indonesia’s wildfires shifted eastward on Monday as meteorologists registered light haze reaching as far as Micronesia. Burning in Papua, Indonesia’s easternmost region, has become increasingly fierce in recent days, canceling flights, damaging air quality for the local population and pushing light pollution into the Pacific. “Multiple wildfires across Indonesia and Papua New Guinea and southwest winds across western Micronesia have pushed diffuse haze into the Marianas,” the Guam Department for Homeland Security said in a statement on Monday. “As a precaution, those with respiratory issues should limit their time outdoors.” Flights in several parts of West Papua and Papua provinces, including in Jayapura, Manokwari and Timika, were canceled after visibility dropped to as little as 150 meters in places. “Almost 80 percent of the smog in Manokwari is coming from fires in Merauke,&#8221; Yulson Sinery at the local office of Indonesia’s meterology agency told Mongabay. Yulson said local pilots had spotted several fires burning in the Arfak mountains. Sem Padamma, the meteorology agency’s chief in the provincial capital, said smoke was easily visible in Bintuni, the Gulf of Berauw, Manokwari and South Sorong on Sunday. As fires in Papua brought greater scrutiny on the region, a petition against a vast agricultural development spanning 1.2 million hectares reached more than 122,000 signatures. “The Merauke Integrated Food and Energy Estate (MIFEE), an industrial-scale agricultural project, has been taking shape since 2010,” the petition reads. “In only four to five years, more than one million hectares –&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2015/10/papua-fires-send-haze-to-micronesia-indonesia-elections-commissions-hints-at-environment-debate/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-152617</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Trawling: destructive fishing method is turning seafloors to &#8216;deserts&#8217;</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/05/trawling-destructive-fishing-method-is-turning-seafloors-to-deserts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/05/trawling-destructive-fishing-method-is-turning-seafloors-to-deserts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 May 2014 20:52:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/05/trawling-destructive-fishing-method-is-turning-seafloors-to-deserts/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Ocean, Iceland, Italy, Pacific Ocean, Palau, Spain, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Environment, Fishing, Green, Habitat Loss, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Bottom trawling is a practice used by commercial fisheries around the world in which a large, heavy net is dragged along the ocean floor to scoop up everything in its path. Previous research has linked trawling to significant environmental impacts, such as the harvest of large numbers of non-target species, collectively termed “bycatch,” as well [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Bottom trawling is a practice used by commercial fisheries around the world in which a large, heavy net is dragged along the ocean floor to scoop up everything in its path. Previous research has linked trawling to significant environmental impacts, such as the harvest of large numbers of non-target species, collectively termed “bycatch,” as well as destruction of shallow seabeds. Now, a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences finds this method is also resulting in long-term, far-reaching consequences in the deeper ocean and beyond. Trawling dates back to the 1300s, and it became widespread in coastal areas around the world after the industrialization of commercial fishing in the late-1800s. Bottom trawling targets commercially valuable species that live near the sea floor, such as cod, rockfish, and various kinds of squid and shrimp. Gear varies depending on the fishing outfit, but nets can be nearly as large as a city block and scoop thousands of fish and other marine animals in a single drag. In bottom trawling, a large net is dragged by a boat along the seafloor. Bottom trawling has one of the highest bycatch rates of all commercial fishing practices. In the North Pacific, the practice accounts for 18 percent of annual groundfish harvests, and 82 percent of the region’s discarded by-catch. At times, bycatch accounts for upwards of 90 percent of a net’s total catch. In addition to directly killing many fish and other marine species, studies have shown that bottom trawling is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/05/trawling-destructive-fishing-method-is-turning-seafloors-to-deserts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/05/trawling-destructive-fishing-method-is-turning-seafloors-to-deserts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-25169</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Extinction crisis: rising sea levels will submerge thousands of islands</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/04/extinction-crisis-rising-sea-levels-will-submerge-thousands-of-islands/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/04/extinction-crisis-rising-sea-levels-will-submerge-thousands-of-islands/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Apr 2014 17:44:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Bobbie Edwards]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/04/extinction-crisis-rising-sea-levels-will-submerge-thousands-of-islands/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Marshall Islands, New Caledonia, Pacific Islands, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Environment, Extinction, Global Warming, Green, Oceans, and Sea Levels]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sea levels are rising at the highest rate in thousands of years, putting at risk low-lying islands around the world. In a new study published in Nature Conservation, researchers found that projected rises in sea level stand to swamp more than 10,000 islands, displacing human communities and wiping many unique species off the face of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sea levels are rising at the highest rate in thousands of years, putting at risk low-lying islands around the world. In a new study published in Nature Conservation, researchers found that projected rises in sea level stand to swamp more than 10,000 islands, displacing human communities and wiping many unique species off the face of the earth. Climate change is leading to rising oceans in a two-fold way. First, increasing temperatures at the poles are melting ice-sheets, discharging more and more water into the sea every year. Second, while climate change is causing cooling in some areas of the world, the overall temperature of the ocean is increasing; as the water heats up, its molecules need more space and it expands in volume. These effects are contributing to sea-level rises of around three millimeters every year, with studies projecting an overall 0.5 to 2.3-meter increase by the end of this century. The importance of predicting what might happen when sea levels rise serves several purposes, such as helping scientists and policy makers design and implement proactive strategies to curb impacts. “Sea-level rise is one of the most certain consequences of global warming, yet it remains the least studied,” the study states. “Potential effects of sea-level rise are of considerable interest because of its potential impact on biodiversity and society.” The Republic of the Marshall Islands is made up of numerous small islands in the western Pacific. At only two meters above sea level, much the nation of about 63,000 people&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/04/extinction-crisis-rising-sea-levels-will-submerge-thousands-of-islands/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-25411</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Corals thriving despite acidified conditions in remote Pacific bay</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/02/corals-thriving-despite-acidified-conditions-in-remote-pacific-bay/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2014/02/corals-thriving-despite-acidified-conditions-in-remote-pacific-bay/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Feb 2014 23:12:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Tanya Dimitrova]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rhett Butler]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2014/02/corals-thriving-despite-acidified-conditions-in-remote-pacific-bay/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Palau]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Emissions, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Environment, Green, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Impact Of Climate Change, Marine Conservation, Ocean Acidification, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Palau&#8217;s Rock Islands. Courtesy of Google Earth. Scientists have discovered a small island bay in the Pacific which could serve as a peephole into the future of the ocean. Palau&#8217;s Rock Island Bay harbors a naturally occurring anomaly – its water is acidified as much as scientists expect the entire ocean to be by 2100 [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Palau&#8217;s Rock Islands. Courtesy of Google Earth. Scientists have discovered a small island bay in the Pacific which could serve as a peephole into the future of the ocean. Palau&#8217;s Rock Island Bay harbors a naturally occurring anomaly – its water is acidified as much as scientists expect the entire ocean to be by 2100 as a result of rising carbon dioxide emissions. Surprisingly, though, the bay is home to one of the healthiest coral reefs in the Pacific. Anywhere else in the world, water acidification results in decline and death of the corals. Just not on Rock Island. “I was shocked that coral cover, richness, and diversity were so high despite high levels of acidification,” says Katie Shamberger, one of the co-authors of a recently published research paper, which reported the unusual finding. Ocean acidification is a well-known effect of climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. More CO2 in the atmosphere causes the ocean to absorb more carbon. This process reduces calcium carbonate in the water – the element that corals use to build their bodies. It makes them weak and prone to dissolving into the water. So far, the ocean’s pH (a measure of acidity) has dropped by 0.1 units since pre-industrial times, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The scientists calculated that by the end of the century, ocean’s pH might drop further down by 0.25 units below the current average. Accidentally, that level is exactly the acidity in the Palau bay today. Yet the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2014/02/corals-thriving-despite-acidified-conditions-in-remote-pacific-bay/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-25642</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>First study of little-known mammal reveals climate change threat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/10/first-study-of-little-known-mammal-reveals-climate-change-threat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/10/first-study-of-little-known-mammal-reveals-climate-change-threat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>28 Oct 2013 13:40:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/10/first-study-of-little-known-mammal-reveals-climate-change-threat/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Federated States Of Micronesia, Micronesia, Pacific Islands, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Bats, Climate Change, Conservation, Endangered Species, Environment, Extinction, Global Warming, Green, Islands, Mammals, Saving Species From Extinction, Science, Solutions, Strange, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[One of the world&#8217;s least-known flying foxes could face extinction by rising seas and changing precipitation patterns due to global warming, according to a new study in Zookeys. The research, headed by Donald Buden with the College of Micronesia, is the first in-depth study of the resident bats of the remote Mortlock Islands, a part [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[One of the world&#8217;s least-known flying foxes could face extinction by rising seas and changing precipitation patterns due to global warming, according to a new study in Zookeys. The research, headed by Donald Buden with the College of Micronesia, is the first in-depth study of the resident bats of the remote Mortlock Islands, a part of the Federated States of Micronesia. Currently considered Critically Endangered, the bats, known as Chuuk flying foxes (Pteropus pelagicus), were threatened by commercial hunting for export in the late Twentieth Century. However, international protection appears to have helped the species stabilize. According to the first ever formal survey, Buden and his team estimated around 900 to 1,200 bats surviving on the tiny, low-lying Mortlock islands. Another important discovery has boosted the population even more, however. After careful study, Buden and his team contend that the flying foxes on the Mortlock Islands are the same species as those found on nearby Chuuk Lagoon islands (though a different subspecies). This essentially expands the range of the species and raises hopes that the species can avoid extinction. However, that may well depend on how quickly humans take action to mitigate climate change. &#8220;For those bats inhabiting the Mortlocks and other low lying coralline islands, which are barely above sea level, there will likely be a major negative impact [from global warming]. Aside from the loss of land on islands that are already very small in size, sea water encroachment into the water table along with more frequent total&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/10/first-study-of-little-known-mammal-reveals-climate-change-threat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-26194</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Pacific islanders are the &#8216;victims of industrial countries unable to control their carbon dioxide emissions&#8217;</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/05/pacific-islanders-are-the-victims-of-industrial-countries-unable-to-control-their-carbon-dioxide-emissions/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/05/pacific-islanders-are-the-victims-of-industrial-countries-unable-to-control-their-carbon-dioxide-emissions/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>15 May 2013 14:36:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudine Wéry]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/05/pacific-islanders-are-the-victims-of-industrial-countries-unable-to-control-their-carbon-dioxide-emissions/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Kiribati, Micronesia, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, Papua New Guinea, and Solomon Islands]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Agriculture, Animals, Climate Change, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Farming, Fish, Fishing, Food, Global Warming, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Islands, Marine, Marine Animals, Ocean Acidification, Oceans, Politics, and Sea Levels]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[With islands and atolls scattered across the ocean, the small Pacific island states are among those most exposed to the effects of global warming: increasing acidity and rising sea level, more frequent natural disasters and damage to coral reefs. These micro-states, home to about 10 million people, are already paying for the environmental irresponsibility of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[With islands and atolls scattered across the ocean, the small Pacific island states are among those most exposed to the effects of global warming: increasing acidity and rising sea level, more frequent natural disasters and damage to coral reefs. These micro-states, home to about 10 million people, are already paying for the environmental irresponsibility of the great powers. &#8220;Pacific islands are the victims of industrial countries unable to control their carbon dioxide emissions. The truth of the matter is that we have no option but to accept this and adapt,&#8221; says Dr Jimmie Rodgers, the head of the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC), a regional development organization. At the initiative of France&#8217;s Research on Development Institute (IRD) and New Caledonia University, 30 or so scientists from the Pacific basin spent a week at the end of April discussing the design of a sustainable development model suited to local conditions&#8212;in particular, pressure from the climate on ways of life that reach back several millennia. In a study published by the journal Nature Climate Change, the SPC and IRD draw attention to the considerable impact of global warming on food security on these islands. Fish stocks, the main source of protein for islanders and the basis for development, will be particularly affected. Currently about 1m tonnes of tuna and tuna-like fishes are caught every year in the region. As a tiny island nation makes a big sacrifice, will the rest of the world follow suit? (09/15/2010) Kiribati, a small nation consisting&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/05/pacific-islanders-are-the-victims-of-industrial-countries-unable-to-control-their-carbon-dioxide-emissions/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-29008</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>U.S. Admiral: climate change, not North Korea, biggest threat in the Pacific</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/03/u-s-admiral-climate-change-not-north-korea-biggest-threat-in-the-pacific/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2013/03/u-s-admiral-climate-change-not-north-korea-biggest-threat-in-the-pacific/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Mar 2013 16:59:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2013/03/u-s-admiral-climate-change-not-north-korea-biggest-threat-in-the-pacific/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Kiribati, Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Environment, Environmental Refugees, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, and Sea Levels]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Rising sea levels may force inhabitants of Tarawa to abandon the island by the end of century. The island is home to over 45,000 people. Photo by: NASA. This week, Admiral Samuel J. Locklear II, the head of U.S. military forces in the Pacific, told The Boston Globe that climate change was the gravest threat [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Rising sea levels may force inhabitants of Tarawa to abandon the island by the end of century. The island is home to over 45,000 people. Photo by: NASA. This week, Admiral Samuel J. Locklear II, the head of U.S. military forces in the Pacific, told The Boston Globe that climate change was the gravest threat in the region. While such an assessment may be surprising, given North Korea&#8217;s recent nuclear tests, the U.S. military has long viewed climate change as a massive destabilizing force on global security. &#8220;You have the real potential here in the not-too-distant future of nations displaced by rising sea level,&#8221; Locklear said. &#8220;Certainly weather patterns are more severe than they have been in the past. We are on super typhoon 27 or 28 this year in the Western Pacific. The average is about 17.&#8221; Locklear pointed to plans for Tarawa Island in Kiribati to possibly move the entire population as rising sea levels continues to swamp the low-lying island. Already some people have been relocated from the Carteret Islands due to rising sea levels, and a larger relocation effort is planned. Burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrialized agriculture has raised global temperatures about 0.8 degrees Celsius (1.4 degrees Celsius) in the last century. While the world&#8217;s nations have committed to keep temperatures from rising 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, this will likely still mean that many low-lying islands and coastal areas will become uninhabitable. Worse still, nations are far from keeping their&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2013/03/u-s-admiral-climate-change-not-north-korea-biggest-threat-in-the-pacific/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-29409</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Marshall Islands creates world&#8217;s biggest shark park</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/10/marshall-islands-creates-worlds-biggest-shark-park/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/10/marshall-islands-creates-worlds-biggest-shark-park/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Oct 2011 17:50:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2011/10/marshall-islands-creates-worlds-biggest-shark-park/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Marshall Islands, Pacific Islands, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Endangered Species, Environment, Fishing, Green, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, Overfishing, Saving Species From Extinction, Sharks, and Solutions]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Republic of the Marshall Islands has created the world&#8217;s biggest shark reserve: so large that all of Mexico could fit comfortably inside. With new legislation, commercial shark fishing is now completely banned in Marshall Islands&#8217; 768,547 square miles (1,990,530 square kilometers) of ocean. The new shark sanctuary not only bans commercial fishing, but deems [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Republic of the Marshall Islands has created the world&#8217;s biggest shark reserve: so large that all of Mexico could fit comfortably inside. With new legislation, commercial shark fishing is now completely banned in Marshall Islands&#8217; 768,547 square miles (1,990,530 square kilometers) of ocean. The new shark sanctuary not only bans commercial fishing, but deems that sharks caught as by-catch must be released. In addition any sale of sharks or shark parts on the islands is now prohibited. After several species of shark have been decimated by over-fishing, this year has seen unprecedented movement towards protecting sharks by establishing massive no-kill zones for sharks. &#8220;The Marshall Islands have joined Palau, the Maldives, Honduras, the Bahamas and Tokelau in delivering the gold standard of protection for ensuring shark survival,&#8221; said Matt Rand, director of global shark conservation for the Pew Environment Group, in a press release. Rand adds that &#8220;as leaders recognize the importance of healthy shark populations to our oceans, the momentum for protecting these animals continues to spread across the globe.&#8221; Over the past few decades some shark populations have fallen by over 90 percent. Rising demand for shark-fin soup is partially to blame. An increasingly popular Asian delicacy, shark-fin soup is exactly what its name suggests. Sharks are caught, their fins sawed off, and often the animals&#8217; bodies&#8212;sometimes still alive&#8212;are thrown back into the water. Shark-finning, as the practice is known, is estimated to have killed an average of 38 million sharks per year between 1996 and 2000.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2011/10/marshall-islands-creates-worlds-biggest-shark-park/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-31926</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>New species is eel-equivalent of the coelacanth</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/08/new-species-is-eel-equivalent-of-the-coelacanth/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/08/new-species-is-eel-equivalent-of-the-coelacanth/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Aug 2011 18:07:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2011/08/new-species-is-eel-equivalent-of-the-coelacanth/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Palau]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Caves, Environment, Fish, Green, Marine, Marine Animals, Oceans, Species Discovery, Strange, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Protoanguilla palau: &#8216;first eel&#8217;. Photo by: Jiro Sakaue. The ocean holds endless surprises still. In an underwater cave off the Pacific island nation of Palau, reachers have made an astounding discovery: an eel species unknown to science that harkens back 200 million years. The new species, described in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Protoanguilla palau: &#8216;first eel&#8217;. Photo by: Jiro Sakaue. The ocean holds endless surprises still. In an underwater cave off the Pacific island nation of Palau, reachers have made an astounding discovery: an eel species unknown to science that harkens back 200 million years. The new species, described in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B as an &#8216;enigmatic, small eel-like fish&#8217;, sports anatomical features that differentiate it from the over 800 known species of eel surviving today. &#8220;The equivalent of this primitive eel, in fishes, has perhaps not been seen since the discovery of the coelacanth in the late 1930s,&#8221; says Dave Johnson, ichthyologist at the Smithsonian&#8217;s National Museum of Natural History and lead author of the team&#8217;s research, in a press release. Before its discovery in the 1930s, the coelacanth was only known from fossils dating back 70 million years. However, even the eel fossil record has never shown anything quite like this. The new species, named Protoanguilla palau, sports a second upper jaw bone and less than 90 vertebrate. These two features have only been seen in fossil eels going going to the Cretaceous. But another feature breaks all the rules: the animal has a complete set of &#8216;rakers&#8217; in its gill arches, which has only been seen in bony fish, never before in eels either alive or fossilized. To determine its truly relationship to eels and bony fish, the researchers analyzed the animal&#8217;s mitochondrial DNA and found that it is a &#8216;true eel&#8217;. The animal likely appeared&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2011/08/new-species-is-eel-equivalent-of-the-coelacanth/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-32123</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Environmental law landmark: island nation challenges faraway coal plant for climate impact</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/05/environmental-law-landmark-island-nation-challenges-faraway-coal-plant-for-climate-impact/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/05/environmental-law-landmark-island-nation-challenges-faraway-coal-plant-for-climate-impact/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 May 2011 01:31:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2011/05/environmental-law-landmark-island-nation-challenges-faraway-coal-plant-for-climate-impact/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Federated States Of Micronesia, Micronesia, Pacific Islands, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Coal, Energy, Environment, Environmental Law, Green, Impact Of Climate Change, Islands, Law, and Sea Levels]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The far-flung Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), located in the Pacific Ocean, has created legal history by challenging the decision to extend the life of a massive coal plant in the Czech Republic. The over 600-island nation, Micronesia, argues that greenhouse gas emissions from the Czech plant are impacting the way of life in Micronesia, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The far-flung Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), located in the Pacific Ocean, has created legal history by challenging the decision to extend the life of a massive coal plant in the Czech Republic. The over 600-island nation, Micronesia, argues that greenhouse gas emissions from the Czech plant are impacting the way of life in Micronesia, many of whose islands are facing submersion under rising sea levels. Constituting a legal landmark, in January Micronesia called for a transboundary environmental impact study (EIA) on the Prunéřov II Czech plant. While such transboundary EIAs are common for neighboring nations, this is the first time that a far away nation (and you couldn&#8217;t get much further away) has challenged this type of a project. A paper on the legal precedent, drafted by FSM, Greenpeace and the Environmental Law Service, was presented this week at the Threatened Island Nations Climate Conference at Colombia University in New York City. &#8220;The very real impacts of climate change are happening on our disappearing shores,&#8221; said Maketo Robert, Secretary of the Department of Justice and the Attorney General of FSM, in a press release. &#8220;This legal tool demonstrates that nations on the frontline of climate change are now supported by, and must prepare to invoke, the international law in making meaningful and more effective inputs into energy decisions.&#8221; While the Czech Ministry of Environment still approved the coal power plant in April in spite of the transboundary EIA, they did relent, in part, by stating that Micronesia was an&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2011/05/environmental-law-landmark-island-nation-challenges-faraway-coal-plant-for-climate-impact/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/05/environmental-law-landmark-island-nation-challenges-faraway-coal-plant-for-climate-impact/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-32495</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Left alive and wild, a single shark worth $1.9 million</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/05/left-alive-and-wild-a-single-shark-worth-1-9-million/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2011/05/left-alive-and-wild-a-single-shark-worth-1-9-million/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>02 May 2011 20:34:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
															<enclosure url="" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">http://news.mongabaydev.co.uk/2011/05/left-alive-and-wild-a-single-shark-worth-1-9-million/</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Pacific Islands, Pacific Ocean, and Palau]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Economics, Ecosystem Services, Endangered Species, Environment, Environmental Services, Fish, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Islands, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Oceans, and Sharks]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Tourism in Palau makes sharks worth more alive than dead finds a new study. Here a diver in Palau swims with five reef sharks. Photo by: Todd Essick. For the Pacific island nation of Palau, sharks are worth much more alive than dead. A new study by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) has [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Tourism in Palau makes sharks worth more alive than dead finds a new study. Here a diver in Palau swims with five reef sharks. Photo by: Todd Essick. For the Pacific island nation of Palau, sharks are worth much more alive than dead. A new study by the Australian Institute of Marine Science (AIMS) has found that one reef shark during its full life is worth $1.9 million to Palau in tourism revenue. Sold for consumption the shark is worth around $108. In this case a shark is worth a stunning 17,000 times more alive than dead. &#8220;Sharks can literally be a &#8216;million-dollar&#8217; species and a significant economic driver,&#8221; explained Mark Meekan, principal research scientist at AIMS, in a press release. &#8220;Because of their low rates of reproduction and late maturity, shark populations have been driven into a global decline due to fishing. Yet our study shows that these animals can contribute far more as a tourism resource than as a catch target.&#8221; In total, the study found that shark tourism brings in $18 million to the island nation a year (8% of the country&#8217;s gross domestic product), making each shark worth around $180,000 annually. A reef shark glides above a marine turtle in the waters of Palau. Photo by: Todd Essick. Due to overfishing, bycatch, and the demand for shark-fin soup, shark populations have been decimated around the world. Some species&#8217; populations have fallen by over 90% An increasingly popular Asian delicacy, shark-fin soup is exactly what its name&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2011/05/left-alive-and-wild-a-single-shark-worth-1-9-million/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-32599</doi>				</item>
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