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	<channel>
		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/palau/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>Palau environmental news</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/palau/</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>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>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>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>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-254826</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>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>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-183474</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>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>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-25169</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>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>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>]]>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-32599</doi>				</item>
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