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		<title>Conservation news</title>
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		<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/ocean-warming/</link>
		<description>Environmental science and conservation news</description>
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	<title>News on Ocean Warming</title>
	<link>https://news.mongabay.com/list/ocean-warming/</link>
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				<item>
					<title>Namibia greenlights controversial project to dredge phosphate from seabed</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/namibia-greenlights-controversial-project-to-dredge-phosphate-from-seabed/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/namibia-greenlights-controversial-project-to-dredge-phosphate-from-seabed/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Sep 2026 11:28:07 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jemima Beukes]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/09/01094118/19393956375_9d683b0734_o-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=328136</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Namibia, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Economics, Ecosystems, Environment, Governance, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Ocean Acidification, Ocean Warming, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Namibia has granted an environmental clearance to a controversial marine phosphate extraction project. The clearance allows the Sandpiper Project, operated by Namibian Marine Phosphate (NMP), to dredge the seabed off the coast of Walvis Bay for phosphate. Environmentalists are concerned about the impact on the country’s fisheries sector and the potential health impacts from consuming [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Namibia has granted an environmental clearance to a controversial marine phosphate extraction project. The clearance allows the Sandpiper Project, operated by Namibian Marine Phosphate (NMP), to dredge the seabed off the coast of Walvis Bay for phosphate. Environmentalists are concerned about the impact on the country’s fisheries sector and the potential health impacts from consuming fish that breed in the areas earmarked for dredging. The Environmental Clearance Certificate (ECC) granted to NMP by the Ministry of Environment, Forestry and Tourism (MEFT) on Aug. 5 allows industrial mining within concession 170 (ML 170) off the west coast of Namibia in country’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). The concession area covers roughly 2,234 square kilometers (863 square miles) of the Atlantic seabed, according to the company’s website. NMP plans to dredge phosphate-rich sediments present in the seafloor at depths of 180-250 meters. Dredging is the removal of sediments and debris from the bottom of lakes, rivers, harbors and other water bodies. Nonprofit Ocean Conservation Namibia (OCN) has strongly criticized the decision to issue the ECC, saying “that the large-scale development could have significant impacts on the Benguela marine ecosystem, Namibia’s fishing industry, and marine conservation.” Saltpans in Walvis Bay, Namibia. Image courtesy by David Stanley via Flickr (CC BY-NC-SA 2.0). The Benguela Marine ecosystem along the coast of southwestern Africa is one of the world’s most productive coastal upwelling zones, areas where deep, cold water rises to the surface, bringing nutrients to the surface. An area off the shores of southern Namibia is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/namibia-greenlights-controversial-project-to-dredge-phosphate-from-seabed/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/09/namibia-greenlights-controversial-project-to-dredge-phosphate-from-seabed/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-328136</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>&#8216;You can’t protect what you don’t know:&#8217; Interview with marine scientist Loyiso Dunga</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/you-cant-protect-what-you-dont-know-interview-with-marine-scientist-loyiso-dunga/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/you-cant-protect-what-you-dont-know-interview-with-marine-scientist-loyiso-dunga/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>31 Aug 2026 08:00:48 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alexandra Talty]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/28125637/3_Mapping_Loyiso-768x512.png" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327719</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, South Africa, and Southern Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Forests, Governance, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Research, and Science]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[CAPE TOWN — When scientist Loyiso Dunga began mapping the Great African Seaforest in 2016, he decided to go snorkeling. The South African section of the kelp forest stretches around 800 miles or 1,300 kilometers, straddling two coasts and two oceans. Dunga grew up in a coastal community, Nqabara, in South Africa’s Wild Coast. As [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[CAPE TOWN — When scientist Loyiso Dunga began mapping the Great African Seaforest in 2016, he decided to go snorkeling. The South African section of the kelp forest stretches around 800 miles or 1,300 kilometers, straddling two coasts and two oceans. Dunga grew up in a coastal community, Nqabara, in South Africa’s Wild Coast. As a member of the Xhosa nation, the ocean was kin or family to Dunga, and a sacred place. But that snorkeling trip was the first time he went into the ocean for fun. “That moment enchanted me,” said Dunga, who lives in Cape Town. Dunga’s research is now focused on evaluating kelp ecosystems. He works in South Africa as the executive director for the Seas of Good Hope program and globally with the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the Kelp Forest Alliance, a group that is dedicated to protecting over 9 million acres (3.6 million hectares) of kelp forests by 2040. But, for this conservation work to succeed, Dunga says that Indigenous wisdom, science and policy must be better connected. Dunga founded Asili Blue Renaissance, a nonprofit, to provide diverse, legitimate ocean conservation measures, including working with Indigenous communities. Dunga is now working on an initiative with the Kelp Forest Alliance to rename global kelp forests by their Indigenous names. Mongabay spoke with Dunga on the phone about his work. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. Loyiso Dunga. Image courtesy of Loyiso Dunga. Mongabay: How did you first become&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/you-cant-protect-what-you-dont-know-interview-with-marine-scientist-loyiso-dunga/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/you-cant-protect-what-you-dont-know-interview-with-marine-scientist-loyiso-dunga/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327719</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists discover 149 new deep-sea species at remote Indian Ocean seamounts</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/scientists-discover-149-new-deep-sea-species-at-remote-indian-ocean-seamounts/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/scientists-discover-149-new-deep-sea-species-at-remote-indian-ocean-seamounts/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Aug 2026 11:53:09 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Emma Smith]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/26081523/BANNER-IN2022-V08_170_Sponge-crab_Sphaerodromia-brizops_Museums-Victoria-Benjamin-Healley-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=327357</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Christmas Island, Global, Indian Ocean, and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation, Deep Sea, Deep Sea Mining, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Health, Mammals, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Mining, Natural Resources, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Overfishing, Pollution, Research, Saltwater Fish, Science, Sharks, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[The Indian Ocean accounts for about a fifth of global ocean area, with 90% of it reaching deeper than 1,000 meters (3,280 feet). Yet compared to the Pacific and Atlantic, its deep-sea biodiversity is relatively understudied — particularly the seamounts of the ocean’s central eastern region. An expedition that surveyed dozens of these volcanic underwater [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[The Indian Ocean accounts for about a fifth of global ocean area, with 90% of it reaching deeper than 1,000 meters (3,280 feet). Yet compared to the Pacific and Atlantic, its deep-sea biodiversity is relatively understudied — particularly the seamounts of the ocean’s central eastern region. An expedition that surveyed dozens of these volcanic underwater mountains around the Christmas and Cocos islands, located southwest of the Indonesian island of Jakarta between Australia and Sri Lanka, has revealed remarkable marine animal biodiversity along the Indian Ocean seafloor. Published in Deep-Sea Research Part II: Topical Studies in Oceanography in June, the resulting study details 149 new species, including a sea cucumber from the genus Oneirophanta, a new fish from the greeneye family (Chlorophthalmus), and a parasitic barnacle from the genus Rhizolepas. Researchers surveyed at depths ranging from 94 to 5,431 m (308 to 17,818 ft), mapping a dark abyssal seafloor punctuated by 40 to 120-million-year-old volcanic seamounts that can be up to 70 kilometers (43 miles) across. They had never been studied before, study lead author Tim O’Hara, a marine scientist at Museums Victoria in Melbourne, told Mongabay. “People had been around the islands in shallow water before, but no one had looked at life in the deep. It was a massive hole in the data,” O’Hara said. Mapping remote underwater mountains Getting to these sites required time. The islands are so remote that, leaving from Darwin on the northern coast of Australia, it took nearly seven days to arrive at Christmas&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/scientists-discover-149-new-deep-sea-species-at-remote-indian-ocean-seamounts/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/scientists-discover-149-new-deep-sea-species-at-remote-indian-ocean-seamounts/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-327357</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>On the Great Barrier Reef, management by Traditional Owners is growing</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-the-great-barrier-reef-management-by-traditional-owners-is-growing/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-the-great-barrier-reef-management-by-traditional-owners-is-growing/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>18 Aug 2026 18:35:11 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Cat Williams]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Latoya Abulu]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/08/18180055/a.-141891-2-768x512.jpeg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=326533</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Indigenous Peoples and Conservation]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Culture, Ecosystems, Environment, Governance, Indigenous Peoples, Indigenous Rights, Marine, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Protected Areas, Solutions, and Traditional Knowledge]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PERTH, Australia — “There’s this beautiful underwater garden out there,” says Mercy Singleton, referring to the vast network of colorful corals that make up the Great Barrier Reef off eastern Australia’s Queensland coast. “We’d like to see it safe and recovering.” Singleton is Yirrganydji and director of Research and Engagement Services at Dawul Wuru Aboriginal Corporation. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PERTH, Australia — “There’s this beautiful underwater garden out there,” says Mercy Singleton, referring to the vast network of colorful corals that make up the Great Barrier Reef off eastern Australia’s Queensland coast. “We’d like to see it safe and recovering.” Singleton is Yirrganydji and director of Research and Engagement Services at Dawul Wuru Aboriginal Corporation. Her people are one of 18 Traditional Owner groups helping steward the Great Barrier Reef, for them their Sea Country — with Traditional Use of Marine Resources Agreements (TUMRAs) in hand. These community-based plans for joint management of the Reef are part of a suite of conservation efforts at the iconic World Heritage Site that include Traditional Owners in management. While there are still gaps in the full inclusion of Indigenous communities in the stewardship of their traditional waters, big strides are being made, say Indigenous governance organizations and scientists. A recent decision by the World Heritage Committee has taken notice.  “The last 30 years have seen massive changes in how the Great Barrier Reef is managed, particularly for Traditional Owners,” says Allan Dale, professor of tropical regional development at James Cook University. “There&#8217;s been this great increase in the governing capability and the ability of those Traditional Owner groups to achieve their aspirations,” he tells Mongabay. “There&#8217;s been a real huge growth in the sort of capability of land and sea reservations and there&#8217;s an increasing number of rangers and leaders and planners and workers in that space.” Dr. Mercy Singleton, director of Research&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-the-great-barrier-reef-management-by-traditional-owners-is-growing/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/08/on-the-great-barrier-reef-management-by-traditional-owners-is-growing/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-326533</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>What will Africa’s story on ocean governance be? Interview with David Willima</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/what-will-africas-story-on-ocean-governance-be-interview-with-david-willima/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/what-will-africas-story-on-ocean-governance-be-interview-with-david-willima/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Jul 2026 05:04:34 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Victoria Schneider]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/10125120/5662409796_bd8f5d31ef_k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=323060</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Freshwater, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Protected Areas, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement, better known as the High Seas Treaty, entered into force, paving the way for protecting marine life in international waters. Countries in Latin America and West Africa are pushing to finalize proposals to establish their first marine protected areas, or MPAs, in the high seas. Still, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Earlier this year, the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction Agreement, better known as the High Seas Treaty, entered into force, paving the way for protecting marine life in international waters. Countries in Latin America and West Africa are pushing to finalize proposals to establish their first marine protected areas, or MPAs, in the high seas. Still, much about the practical implementation of the BBNJ treaty, as it’s also known, remains unclear: How are high seas protected areas going to be enforced? Who will be responsible? How they will interact with existing structures of marine governance? David Willima, maritime researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) in Pretoria, South Africa, routinely deals with such questions. Part of the ISS&#8217;s Climate Risk and Human Security Project, he focuses on maritime security, ocean governance, and the blue economy, working with governments, the African Union (AU), and other stakeholders to improve their capacity to deal with maritime issues. Willima started engaging more closely with BBNJ-related issues in 2022 and has since been involved in creating awareness and capacity building around the High Seas Treaty. More recently, he has supported the IUCN, the global nature conservation authority, in engaging with countries and the AU specifically in the Western Indian Ocean region. Mongabay’s Victoria Schneider spoke to Willima by phone about the current state of the treaty’s implementation, its significance for Africa, and the outstanding challenges, including the persistence of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. David Willima. Image courtesy of David Willima. Mongabay: West Africa&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/what-will-africas-story-on-ocean-governance-be-interview-with-david-willima/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-323060</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘The only possible transition is a just transition’: Interview with WEF’s Clemence Schmid</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/the-only-possible-transition-is-a-just-transition-interview-with-wefs-clemence-schmid/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/the-only-possible-transition-is-a-just-transition-interview-with-wefs-clemence-schmid/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>07 Jul 2026 11:37:47 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Jackson Ambole Okata]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/07112338/photo-4-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322752</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Freshwater Fish, Governance, Health, Marine Animals, Microplastics, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Plastic, Pollution, Research, Water Pollution, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[During the 11th Our Ocean Conference held in the coastal city of Mombasa, the Kenyan government, together with the World Economic Forum&#8217;s Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) and UNDP Kenya, formally launched the Kenya National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP Kenya). At least 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year making [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[During the 11th Our Ocean Conference held in the coastal city of Mombasa, the Kenyan government, together with the World Economic Forum&#8217;s Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) and UNDP Kenya, formally launched the Kenya National Plastic Action Partnership (NPAP Kenya). At least 14 million tons of plastic end up in the ocean every year making up 80% of all marine debris found in surface waters and deep-sea sediments. Kenya faces considerable challenges with plastic pollution, particularly in urban centers and along its coastline. Plastics account for 20% of the 22,000 tonnes of waste generated daily in Kenya, according to estimates. Only 27% of the plastic waste is collected, of which 8% is recycled and the remaining 19% disposed of in unsanitary landfills or dumpsites. The plastic waste not properly collected and managed often ends up in rivers and the ocean. It disrupts ecosystems, endangers wildlife, and impacts tourism and fisheries. In 2017, Kenya introduced a ban on the use, manufacture and importation of single-use plastic bags. In 2020, the ban was extended to single-use plastics in protected areas. NPAP Kenya will help accelerate the country’s transition to a circular plastics economy, according to Clemence Schmid, Director, Global Plastic Action Partnership (GPAP) at the World Economic Forum (WEF). Clemence Schmid, Director, Global Plastic Action Partnership, World Economic Forum during the formal launch of NPAP, Kenya at the Our Ocean conference in Mombasa. Image courtesy of NPAP Kenya. The GPAP launched by the WEF in 2018 is a multi-stakeholder initiative to tackle&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/the-only-possible-transition-is-a-just-transition-interview-with-wefs-clemence-schmid/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322752</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Australia’s seagrass meadows under pressure as climate change turns up the heat</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/australias-seagrass-meadows-under-pressure-as-climate-change-turns-up-the-heat/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/australias-seagrass-meadows-under-pressure-as-climate-change-turns-up-the-heat/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>03 Jul 2026 15:19:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/07/02094729/3-leafy-sea-dragon-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322342</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia, Great Barrier Reef, and Oceania]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Biodiversity, Climate, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Conservation Solutions, Ecosystem Engineers, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Warming, Habitat, Impact Of Climate Change, Marine, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Plants, Research, Restoration, Science, Seagrass, Solutions, Temperatures, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is renowned for its coral, but far less so for its expansive seagrass meadows. “People don&#8217;t dive on them, don&#8217;t snorkel on them, and don&#8217;t go rock pooling on them,” said Emma Jackson, director of the Coastal Marine Ecosystems Research Centre (CMERC) at Central Queensland University. She’s a self-confessed seagrass nerd. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Australia’s Great Barrier Reef is renowned for its coral, but far less so for its expansive seagrass meadows. “People don&#8217;t dive on them, don&#8217;t snorkel on them, and don&#8217;t go rock pooling on them,” said Emma Jackson, director of the Coastal Marine Ecosystems Research Centre (CMERC) at Central Queensland University. She’s a self-confessed seagrass nerd. One reason, she said, is because “they have this wealth of different ecosystem services.” Though they’re known as the “ugly cousins” of coral reefs, these flowering grass-like plants provide a home and foraging grounds for marine life, as well as habitat for commercial fish species. These meadows stabilize sediments, help cleanse the water column and sequester substantial amounts of carbon. “I think when people understand that, then they can share my nerdiness and share that passion for seagrass,” Jackson said. Emma Jackson, who directs CMERC (right), envisions large-scale restoration using many seagrass species, with the process as routine as seeding a lawn. Image courtesy CMERC. The Great Barrier Reef is home to around 3.5 million hectares (8.6 million acres) of seagrass, an area larger than Belgium, which accounts for about 11% of the world’s total. Australia is a global hotspot of seagrass biodiversity, hosting around half of the world’s 60 species of the plants. But as climate change ratchets up temperatures and triggers more frequent extreme weather events, Australia’s marine meadows are increasingly battered by intense storms and cyclones, flooding, and devastating marine heat waves. Algal blooms are also impacting seagrasses by blocking out sunlight&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/australias-seagrass-meadows-under-pressure-as-climate-change-turns-up-the-heat/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/australias-seagrass-meadows-under-pressure-as-climate-change-turns-up-the-heat/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322342</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Wildlife’s unpredictable movements make climate-change planning difficult</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/wildlifes-unpredictable-movements-make-climate-change-planning-difficult/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/wildlifes-unpredictable-movements-make-climate-change-planning-difficult/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>01 Jul 2026 10:40:42 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/30143313/6-Florida-panther-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=322109</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation, Adaptation To Climate Change, Animal Behavior, Animals, Big Cats, Biodiversity, Biology, Carnivores, Cats, Climate, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Critically Endangered Species, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Extreme Weather, Fragmentation, Habitat, Impact Of Climate Change, Mammals, Megafauna, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Protected Areas, Research, Science, Temperatures, Threatened species, Top Predators, Wildlife, and Wildlife Corridors]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[New England’s winters have long been a punishing force. Forests fade in and out of deep freezes. Animals pile on fat for warmth in anticipation of the harsh weather to come. Others flee south, seeking warmer refuges. However, over the past 50 years, winters there have become much milder. In the northeastern U.S., winters now [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[New England’s winters have long been a punishing force. Forests fade in and out of deep freezes. Animals pile on fat for warmth in anticipation of the harsh weather to come. Others flee south, seeking warmer refuges. However, over the past 50 years, winters there have become much milder. In the northeastern U.S., winters now average between 4 and 5 degrees Fahrenheit (2.2 and 2.7 degrees Celsius) warmer than in the 1970s. Snowfall can be sparse, and there are usually fewer days of extreme cold. For decades, ecologists have expected that animals living within narrow climate niches would adapt to rising temperatures by moving northwards or upslope to higher elevations. For example, they thought the American red squirrel (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) in the northeastern U.S. would move up into the mountains in search of cold. But in a study published last year, scientists found that despite warmer winters, the squirrels haven’t sought out higher elevations. Rather, they’ve relocated downslope, seemingly drawn by the return of red spruce forest following a period of dieback. The tiny forest critters, it seems, are prioritizing habitat over temperature. The red squirrel isn’t alone. Thousands of plants and animals that scientists thought would be on the move in response to rising global temperatures don’t yet seem to have hit the road. In a 2023 study in the journal Environmental Evidence, scientists reviewed the observed range movements of more than 12,000 species, both terrestrial and marine, to see whether they aligned with what ecologists had expected would&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/wildlifes-unpredictable-movements-make-climate-change-planning-difficult/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/07/wildlifes-unpredictable-movements-make-climate-change-planning-difficult/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-322109</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Our Ocean Conference in Kenya ends with $6.4 billion in pledges, review of past promises</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/our-ocean-conference-in-kenya-ends-with-6-4-billion-in-pledges-review-of-past-promises/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/our-ocean-conference-in-kenya-ends-with-6-4-billion-in-pledges-review-of-past-promises/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jun 2026 07:11:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/25121317/Mangroves-Kwale-Kenya-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321802</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, East Africa, and Kenya]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Conservation Finance, Ecosystems, Finance, Fish, Freshwater Fish, Marine, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[MOMBASA — Africa was front and center at the Our Ocean Conference in Kenya, the first time the annual gathering was held on the continent. The conference is built around voluntary commitments from a range of actors including governments, nonprofits, institutions and the private sector. The meeting in Mombasa, a port city on Kenya’s Indian [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[MOMBASA — Africa was front and center at the Our Ocean Conference in Kenya, the first time the annual gathering was held on the continent. The conference is built around voluntary commitments from a range of actors including governments, nonprofits, institutions and the private sector. The meeting in Mombasa, a port city on Kenya’s Indian Ocean coast, brought 6,000 delegates together under the theme &#8220;Our Ocean, Our Heritage, Our Future.” The focus was on expanding protections, strengthening marine security, developing sustainable blue economies and fisheries, and addressing problems such as marine pollution and climate change. A preliminary roundup showed that more than 104 players came forward to announce commitments that would mobilize $6.4 billion. “When we launched this conference in 2014, we wanted more than speeches, we wanted people to come to the table with an announcement of specifically what they will do and when and how much it will cost,” John Kerry, the former U.S. secretary of state who founded the conference, said at the opening ceremony on June 17. Turning ambition into action was a recurring theme across the three-day conference. “We did not come to Mombasa to add our names to a longer list of promises. We came to turn the tide,” Kenya’s President William Ruto said at the closing ceremony on June 18. “Let the measure of this conference not be what we pledged on the shore, but what we deliver in the waters.” The East African nation laid out more than 40 commitments backed by&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/our-ocean-conference-in-kenya-ends-with-6-4-billion-in-pledges-review-of-past-promises/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/our-ocean-conference-in-kenya-ends-with-6-4-billion-in-pledges-review-of-past-promises/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321802</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Africa’s community-led marine organizations on which 30&#215;30 depends</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/africas-community-led-marine-organizations-on-which-30x30-depends/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/africas-community-led-marine-organizations-on-which-30x30-depends/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Jun 2026 10:45:16 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Akana]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Malavikavyawahare]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/17102647/486611801_1125966072908240_4237381363299060798_n-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=321349</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[30x30 conservation target, Activism, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, climate finance, Conservation, Conservation Finance, Economics, Environment, Finance, Fish, Freshwater Fish, Mangroves, Marine Animals, Marine Mammals, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Plants, Research, Science, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[This week, thousands of delegates are gathered in Mombasa, Kenya, for the first Our Ocean Conference to be hosted on African soil. As expected, much of the conversation will focus on the global &#8220;30&#215;30&#8221; target — protecting 30% of the world&#8217;s land, freshwater and oceans by 2030. Yet, far from the conference halls, the big [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[This week, thousands of delegates are gathered in Mombasa, Kenya, for the first Our Ocean Conference to be hosted on African soil. As expected, much of the conversation will focus on the global &#8220;30&#215;30&#8221; target — protecting 30% of the world&#8217;s land, freshwater and oceans by 2030. Yet, far from the conference halls, the big pledges and state commitments, many of the people doing the daily work of marine conservation are community organizations operating on modest budgets along Africa’s coastlines. They often do so far from the spotlight, but their contribution is vital for the global ambition to conserve ocean spaces. The Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), under whose Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework the 2030 targets were adopted, highlights that success hinges heavily on community involvement. Across Kenya, Tanzania and Namibia, four such groups — Coastal and Marine Resource Development (COMRED), Action for Ocean, Mwambao Coastal Community Network and the Namibia Nature Foundation (NNF) — offer a window into what community-led marine conservation looks like in practice. Their work might be underfunded, uneven and sometimes slow, but are increasingly central to how marine protection is imagined on the continent. Marine ecosystems in Africa support fisheries, tourism, transport, carbon storage and coastal protection while sustaining millions of livelihoods from the Western Indian Ocean to Africa’s Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. In East Africa in particular, mangroves, coral reefs, seagrass meadows and nearshore fisheries underpin food systems and local economies even as they face pressure from overfishing, habitat degradation, climate change and pollution.&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/africas-community-led-marine-organizations-on-which-30x30-depends/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-321349</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>A year on, Australia’s biggest harmful algal bloom continues to wreak havoc</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-year-on-australias-biggest-harmful-algal-bloom-continues-to-wreak-havoc/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-year-on-australias-biggest-harmful-algal-bloom-continues-to-wreak-havoc/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2026 18:42:40 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Nick Rodway]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/08044105/1-d.-Algae-Bloom-Marine-Life-Washups-Stefan-Andrews_-12-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320708</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Australia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[algae, Animals, Biodiversity, Birds, Citizen Science, Climate, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Dolphins, Ecology, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Governance, Habitat, Health, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Monitoring, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Penguins, Rays, Research, Sharks, Water, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PORT HUGHES, Australia — Situated midway along the Great Southern Reef that spans Australia’s southern coastline, the waters off Port Hughes typically teem with life. The coastal hamlet northwest of Adelaide plays host to a multitude of coral, bivalve and fish species. But in late March, the largest and longest harmful algal bloom (HAB) in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PORT HUGHES, Australia — Situated midway along the Great Southern Reef that spans Australia’s southern coastline, the waters off Port Hughes typically teem with life. The coastal hamlet northwest of Adelaide plays host to a multitude of coral, bivalve and fish species. But in late March, the largest and longest harmful algal bloom (HAB) in Australian history arrived to Port Hughes, depleting its waters’ rich biodiversity. The bloom had first appeared elsewhere off the state of South Australia’s coast a year earlier, causing eye and skin irritation and respiratory symptoms among beachgoers. Then, along with waves of acrid-smelling sea foam, scores of dead marine animals began washing ashore. In Port Hughes, the HAB’s impacts were most visible below the surface. The town’s wooden jetty had previously been one of the most consistent locations in South Australia to observe temperate species, said Stefan Andrews, co-founder of the Great Southern Reef Foundation, a conservation advocacy group. But by mid-April, when Mongabay joined Andrews on a dive, the site was drab compared with vibrant photographs taken in February and March. Under the jetty, sponges and corals that had previously adorned its pylons in a brilliantly hued mosaic appeared colorless. Apart from a short-headed seahorse (Hippocampus breviceps) — a “sign of hope,” Andrews called it — little life was visible in the murky waters. The reef, he said, had become quieter, lacking the sounds of snapping shrimp and other creatures that once played in the underwater soundtrack. “There’s a sense of loss when you&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/a-year-on-australias-biggest-harmful-algal-bloom-continues-to-wreak-havoc/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320708</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>‘Slumping’ afflicted soft corals around a South Korean island in 2024. Will it return this year?</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/slumping-afflicted-soft-corals-around-a-south-korean-island-in-2024-will-it-return-this-year/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/slumping-afflicted-soft-corals-around-a-south-korean-island-in-2024-will-it-return-this-year/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jun 2026 15:43:38 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Claire Alberts]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Autumn Spanne]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/06/08085640/Dendronephthya-gigantea_P8140110_%ED%81%B0%EC%88%98%EC%A7%80%EB%A7%A8%EB%93%9C%EB%9D%BC%EB%AF%B8-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=320733</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, East Asia, and South Korea]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[JEJU ISLAND, South Korea — In April 2025, I zipped myself up into a thick wetsuit and inched down a steep, rocky ledge toward the gray-blue water encircling Beomseom, a small island off the southern coast of Jeju Island in South Korea. Then I leapt into the chilly sea and wriggled into my scuba gear [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[JEJU ISLAND, South Korea — In April 2025, I zipped myself up into a thick wetsuit and inched down a steep, rocky ledge toward the gray-blue water encircling Beomseom, a small island off the southern coast of Jeju Island in South Korea. Then I leapt into the chilly sea and wriggled into my scuba gear while floating on the surface. In the water with me was Sanghoon Yoon, an adviser for Paran Ocean Citizen Science Center, a South Korean civil society group that advocates for the protection of the ocean. That day, Yoon was my scuba dive buddy. Yoon and I sank beneath the dangling legs of snorkelers into a watery realm of rocks and kelp. Once in deeper water, I encountered gelatinous stalks of soft coral. The polyps appeared purple, pink, red, and even orange, depending on the light. The islet of Beomseom off South Korea’s Jeju Island hosts colorful gardens of soft coral. Image courtesy of Paran. Sanghoon Hoon, an adviser to the Paran Ocean Citizen Science Center, dives among  corals in the waters off Jeju, South Korea. Image courtesy of Paran. The soft corals I saw that day were healthy. But in 2024, soft corals around Beomseom Island and other parts of Jeju experienced what scientists are calling a “slumping” event — and what Yoon describes as “melting” — which saw soft corals losing their shape, drooping, and even dying. The event was widely reported in local media and attributed to marine heat as Jeju waters hovered&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/06/slumping-afflicted-soft-corals-around-a-south-korean-island-in-2024-will-it-return-this-year/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-320733</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Tropics take the brunt as hotter oceans drive large-scale humid heat waves: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/tropics-take-the-brunt-as-hotter-oceans-drive-large-scale-humid-heat-waves-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/tropics-take-the-brunt-as-hotter-oceans-drive-large-scale-humid-heat-waves-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>10 Apr 2026 14:01:20 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Adam Litchkofski]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/04/10120444/0-Sunset_over_the_Pacific_Ocean_from_Maui_Hawaii-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=317334</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, El Nino, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Health, Heatwave, Ocean Warming, Planetary Health, Public Health, and Temperatures]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As climate change intensifies, people around the world are learning firsthand how dangerous high temperatures can be. But prolonged heat becomes even more dangerous, and deadly, when paired with high humidity — a one-two punch known as a humid heat wave. Scientists report that humid heat waves have intensified rapidly over recent decades and are [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As climate change intensifies, people around the world are learning firsthand how dangerous high temperatures can be. But prolonged heat becomes even more dangerous, and deadly, when paired with high humidity — a one-two punch known as a humid heat wave. Scientists report that humid heat waves have intensified rapidly over recent decades and are projected to worsen, raising the risk of significantly more heat-related mortalities. But quantifying the origins of these extreme weather events has remained challenging. A new study published in Nature Geoscience has identified and quantified a likely cause. It traced a strong connection between coastal waters heated by climate change and the development of humid heat waves that spread out over large areas inland — an effect especially pronounced in the tropics. “Compared with mid-to-high latitudes, the tropics encompass most [humid heat wave] high-risk areas and exhibit stronger land-ocean linkages, highlighting the critical role of tropical oceans,” according to the study conducted by researchers from Germany’s Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), Princeton University in the U.S., and Sun Yat-sen University in China. Humid heat waves — periods when high temperatures couple with high humidity — are particularly dangerous for human survival, Fenying Cai, study lead author with PIK, told Mongabay in a phone interview. Previous research indicated that even young, healthy people can experience dangerous heat stress when a wet-bulb thermometer (measuring ambient temperature plus relative humidity) has readings exceeding 31° Celsius (87.8° Fahrenheit), a point at which the body can no longer effectively&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/04/tropics-take-the-brunt-as-hotter-oceans-drive-large-scale-humid-heat-waves-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-317334</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Penguins are breeding much earlier in a warming Antarctic, study finds</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/penguins-are-breeding-much-earlier-in-a-warming-antarctic-study-finds/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/penguins-are-breeding-much-earlier-in-a-warming-antarctic-study-finds/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>25 Feb 2026 17:55:17 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Ruth Kamnitzer]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2026/02/09200941/Tom-Camera-Credit-Katherine-Booth-Jones-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=313994</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Antarctica and Southern Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biology, Birds, cameras, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Global Warming, Ocean Warming, Penguins, Whales, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Penguins are dramatically shifting their breeding season as the Antarctic peninsula warms, a recent study finds. From 2012 to 2022, researchers used remote cameras to examine the timing of breeding for three penguin species across 37 colonies on the Antarctic peninsula and surrounding islands. They tracked their ‘settlement date’: when the penguins began continuously occupying [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Penguins are dramatically shifting their breeding season as the Antarctic peninsula warms, a recent study finds. From 2012 to 2022, researchers used remote cameras to examine the timing of breeding for three penguin species across 37 colonies on the Antarctic peninsula and surrounding islands. They tracked their ‘settlement date’: when the penguins began continuously occupying their nesting zones. The study, led by the citizen-science collective Penguin Watch at the University of Oxford and Oxford Brookes University, U.K., was published in the Journal of Animal Ecology. Over that 10-year period, gentoo penguins (Pygoscelis papua) began their breeding season an average of 13 days earlier in the year, though for some colonies, it was more than three weeks. Chinstrap (P. antarcticus) and Adélie (P. adeliae) penguins settled into their colonies an average of 10.4 and 10.2 days, respectively, ahead of their schedule a decade ago. These breeding changes are amongst the most extreme yet recorded for any bird — and likely any vertebrate — in response to climate change, the study notes. “This is a huge advance and an incredibly fast one … and that&#8217;s what surprised us,” says Ignacio Juarez Martínez, a biologist and the study’s lead author who conducted the research as part of his PhD at the University of Oxford. “It&#8217;s literally a world record.” Gentoo colony at Neko Harbour, on the Antarctic peninsula. Gentoo penguins are the least ice-tolerant of the three species studied — which also included Adélie and chinstrap penguins. They are expanding their range southwards&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/penguins-are-breeding-much-earlier-in-a-warming-antarctic-study-finds/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2026/02/penguins-are-breeding-much-earlier-in-a-warming-antarctic-study-finds/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-313994</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Top ocean news stories of 2025 (commentary)</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-ocean-news-stories-of-2025-commentary/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-ocean-news-stories-of-2025-commentary/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Dec 2025 20:39:43 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Alfredo GironAna SpaldingErin SkoczylasVanessa Constant]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/12/24154427/hammerheads-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=312029</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biocultural Diversity, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Commentary, Conservation, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Protected Areas, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Plastic, Pollution, Saltwater Fish, and Water Pollution]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[2025 was a key year for ocean policymaking, marking the midway point in the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The past 12 months brought landslide multilateral wins for ocean policy, unprecedented financial commitments for marine conservation, and increasing momentum to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. Here, marine scientists, policy [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[2025 was a key year for ocean policymaking, marking the midway point in the U.N. Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. The past 12 months brought landslide multilateral wins for ocean policy, unprecedented financial commitments for marine conservation, and increasing momentum to protect 30% of the world’s oceans by 2030. Here, marine scientists, policy experts and a communications expert lay out the key ocean stories from the past year. 1. Multilateral breakthroughs reshape ocean governance In a rare breakthrough for ocean governance, two multilateral treaties reached enough ratifications by member states in 2025 to trigger their legal entry into force. The Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Treaty, known commonly as the High Seas Treaty, reached the milestone of 60 ratifications in September, triggering its entry into force in January 2026. The treaty is a legally binding international agreement safeguarding marine life in areas beyond the jurisdiction of any nation. Making up two-thirds of the ocean, these regions play a critical role in the planet&#8217;s life support system, regulating the climate and providing oxygen, and host critical ecosystems and species. Following the milestone, in November the High Seas Treaty won the Earthshot Prize in the “Revive Our Seas” category, celebrating two decades of advocacy and international cooperation to make the treaty a reality. The World Trade Organization’s treaty to ban harmful fisheries subsidies also came into force in September this year, after 24 years of negotiations. The treaty, called Fish One, bans government subsidies that support the fishing of already-overfished&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-ocean-news-stories-of-2025-commentary/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/12/top-ocean-news-stories-of-2025-commentary/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-312029</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Mauritius rethinks coral restoration as reefs suffer from another mass bleaching</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mauritius-coral-reef-restoration-mass-bleaching-ocean-warming/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mauritius-coral-reef-restoration-mass-bleaching-ocean-warming/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>30 Oct 2025 06:21:44 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Malavika Vyawahare]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/27130327/bacf0df4-e3e6-4fb2-a3ae-ff5969540b0d-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308347</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa and Mauritius]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Marine, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Restoration]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PORT LOUIS, Mauritius — Seeing coral reefs can color one’s monochrome view of the ocean forever. In the pink of health — and red, blue, green and purple — corals resemble underwater fireworks, forming glorious landscapes pulsating with marine life. But the latest episode of mass coral bleaching, starting in 2023 and stretching into 2025, [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PORT LOUIS, Mauritius — Seeing coral reefs can color one’s monochrome view of the ocean forever. In the pink of health — and red, blue, green and purple — corals resemble underwater fireworks, forming glorious landscapes pulsating with marine life. But the latest episode of mass coral bleaching, starting in 2023 and stretching into 2025, has left much of the coral world gasping for life. Mass bleaching occurs when an oceanic heat wave sweeps across the planet, leaving dead and damaged corals in its wake. Such events are amplified by the climate crisis. The island nation of Mauritius, off the east coast of Africa, is home to nearly 250 kinds of corals, and it wasn’t spared. This March, ocean heat waves bleached 80% of corals in Mauritian waters, according to Pierre Edgard Daniel Marie, director of the Mauritius Oceanography Institute (MOI). Coral reef systems may have already reached a point of no return. Scientists estimate that warm-water corals, like those found in Mauritius, reach their tipping point when the temperature rises by 1.2° Celsius (nearly 2.2° Fahrenheit). The planet has seen an average increase of 1.4°C (2.5°F), according to the 2025 Global Tipping Points report. Scientists say humans could be one generation away, by the year 2050, from losing nearly all healthy coral reefs due to climate change. With them, entire ecosystems would disappear; coral reefs shelter a quarter of all marine species. To save them, conservationists have often turned to restoration, painstakingly helping decimated coral colonies recover. But the&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mauritius-coral-reef-restoration-mass-bleaching-ocean-warming/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/mauritius-coral-reef-restoration-mass-bleaching-ocean-warming/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308347</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Arctic seals edge closer to extinction as sea ice vanishes</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/arctic-seals-edge-closer-to-extinction-as-sea-ice-vanishes/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/arctic-seals-edge-closer-to-extinction-as-sea-ice-vanishes/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>23 Oct 2025 16:07:21 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Keith Anthony Fabro]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/22070521/harp-seal-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=308080</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic and Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Endangered Species, Extinction, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Sea Ice, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Three Arctic seal species have moved closer to extinction, as rapid sea ice loss continues to erode their breeding and feeding grounds, according to the latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The update, released Oct. 10 during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, &#8220;uplists&#8221; the hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Three Arctic seal species have moved closer to extinction, as rapid sea ice loss continues to erode their breeding and feeding grounds, according to the latest update of the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. The update, released Oct. 10 during the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Abu Dhabi, &#8220;uplists&#8221; the hooded seal (Cystophora cristata) from vulnerable to the higher-threat category of endangered, and the bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus) and harp seal (Pagophilus groenlandicus) from least concern to near threatened. Arctic seals depend on stable sea ice to breed, raise their pups, rest and access feeding areas. As temperatures climb globally, they are rising about four times faster in the Arctic than elsewhere and sea ice is thinning and melting earlier every year. This loss has undermined reproduction across multiple species. “The major driver of the declines that we are seeing is breeding habitat deterioration as a direct result of climate change,” Kit Kovacs, co-chair of IUCN’s Species Survival Commission Pinniped Specialist Group, told Mongabay. Kovacs participated in the uplisting decision. When sea ice melts or breaks apart too soon, pups may drown, freeze or be killed by predators or collapsing ice. “Sea ice is disappearing and ice-dependent species of all sorts are threatened by these losses,” said Kovacs, a marine mammal biologist who lives in Tromsø, Norway, and travels regularly to the country’s Svalbard archipelago for fieldwork and to teach at the University Centre in Svalbard. “Recruitment of youngsters into the populations are failing.” Moreover, she said, the retreating&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/arctic-seals-edge-closer-to-extinction-as-sea-ice-vanishes/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/arctic-seals-edge-closer-to-extinction-as-sea-ice-vanishes/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-308080</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Losing Nemo: In the Red Sea, clownfish vanish as anemones bleach</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/losing-nemo-in-the-red-sea-clownfish-vanish-as-anemones-bleach/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/losing-nemo-in-the-red-sea-clownfish-vanish-as-anemones-bleach/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Oct 2025 20:16:33 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Liz Kimbrough]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/10/14195038/SAD_MorganBennetSmith-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=307639</guid>

					
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Charismatic Animals, Climate Change, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Environment, Fish, Green, Ocean Warming, Oceans, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[When Morgan Bennett-Smith descended to a familiar reef in the central Red Sea in September 2023, he expected to find the same tagged anemones and resident clownfish he had been monitoring for months. Instead, he found a ghostly landscape: every anemone had turned white, and most of the bright-orange fish that had been sheltering in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[When Morgan Bennett-Smith descended to a familiar reef in the central Red Sea in September 2023, he expected to find the same tagged anemones and resident clownfish he had been monitoring for months. Instead, he found a ghostly landscape: every anemone had turned white, and most of the bright-orange fish that had been sheltering in protective tentacles just weeks earlier were gone. By the following spring, the reef looked even worse. Of the 168 clownfish Bennett-Smith and his colleagues had counted in December 2022, only seven remained. A juvenile Red Sea Clownfish looks out from a bleaching anemone.When sea temperatures remain high, anemone expel their symbiotic algal partners, which can result in death.  Photo courtesy of Morgan Bennett-Smith. A new study, published in npj Biodiversity, documents the effects of a marine heat wave across three reefs in the Red Sea. First, all the anemones bleached. Then, 94-100% of the clownfish disappeared. Finally, 66-94% of the anemones died. The events represent the near-total local collapse of a mutualism that had endured for millions of years. Between 2022 and 2024, researchers tracked 168 Red Sea clownfish (Amphiprion bicinctus) and 143 host magnificent sea anemones (Radianthus magnifica) through a 2023 marine heat wave that peaked at approximately 22 degree heating weeks, a measure of accumulated heat stress. The findings challenge a long-held belief that the Red Sea might be a thermal refuge, or safe haven, from the impacts of climate change. Scientists thought that because Red Sea organisms already live in naturally hot&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/losing-nemo-in-the-red-sea-clownfish-vanish-as-anemones-bleach/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/10/losing-nemo-in-the-red-sea-clownfish-vanish-as-anemones-bleach/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-307639</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists weigh giant sea curtain to shield ‘Doomsday Glacier’ from melting</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/scientists-weigh-giant-sea-curtain-to-shield-doomsday-glacier-from-melting/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/scientists-weigh-giant-sea-curtain-to-shield-doomsday-glacier-from-melting/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>24 Sep 2025 15:34:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/23122921/Thwaites_Glacier-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306412</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Antarctica and Arctic]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Environment, Fossil Fuels, Geoengineering, Glaciers, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Ice Shelves, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Sea Ice, Sea Levels, Temperatures, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Thwaites Glacier rises above the Amundsen Sea in the Antarctic, a towering white cliff abutting cerulean waters. Roughly the size of Great Britain and spanning 120 kilometers (80 miles) across, Thwaites — part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet — may seem all but invincible. But among scientists, it’s known as the “Doomsday Glacier” for [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Thwaites Glacier rises above the Amundsen Sea in the Antarctic, a towering white cliff abutting cerulean waters. Roughly the size of Great Britain and spanning 120 kilometers (80 miles) across, Thwaites — part of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet — may seem all but invincible. But among scientists, it’s known as the “Doomsday Glacier” for its potential to raise global sea levels. Now, as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, some polar researchers are investigating a radical geoengineering plan to install seabed curtains that could protect Thwaites from melting down. Thwaites Glacier is rapidly shedding ice as the world warms from climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels. Thwaites is losing about 50 billion metric tons of ice every year, contributing to about 4% of present-day sea-level rise worldwide. But if Thwaites were to melt down entirely, it could raise the average global sea level by more than 0.6 meters (2 feet) over the next few centuries. This would inundate coastal cities around the world and force hundreds of millions of people to migrate. Some scientists think it could be even worse. Thwaites may act as a natural dam for the rest of ice contained within West Antarctica. If it collapses, it could destabilize other glaciers, potentially pushing global sea level rise to as high as 3 m (10 ft). In a 2024 briefing, the International Thwaites Glacier Collaboration, a group of polar scientists closely studying the glacier’s fate, said a worst-case meltdown scenario can’t be ruled out,&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/scientists-weigh-giant-sea-curtain-to-shield-doomsday-glacier-from-melting/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306412</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>24 years on, part one of WTO treaty curbing fisheries subsidies takes effect</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/24-years-on-part-one-of-wto-treaty-curbing-fisheries-subsidies-takes-effect/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/24-years-on-part-one-of-wto-treaty-curbing-fisheries-subsidies-takes-effect/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>17 Sep 2025 18:57:41 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Elizabeth Fitt]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Food systems]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/17163647/20351613932_41fd7d540a_3k-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=306156</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate Change, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Environmental Law, Environmental Policy, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Law, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Overfishing, Poverty, and Saltwater Fish]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Part one of the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s treaty to ban harmful fisheries subsidies finally came into force Sept. 15. WTO member states adopted the treaty in June 2022 following a grueling 21-year negotiation. The agreement, dubbed “Fish One,” aims to improve ocean sustainability by banning government subsidies that support the fishing of already-overfished stocks [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Part one of the World Trade Organization (WTO)’s treaty to ban harmful fisheries subsidies finally came into force Sept. 15. WTO member states adopted the treaty in June 2022 following a grueling 21-year negotiation. The agreement, dubbed “Fish One,” aims to improve ocean sustainability by banning government subsidies that support the fishing of already-overfished stocks and curbing those that contribute to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. “There are weaknesses and gaps, and there’s still work to be done, but this is the start of the WTO trying to have a positive impact on environmental sustainability,” Daniel Skerritt, a senior analyst at U.S.-based conservation NGO Oceana, told Mongabay via email. The WTO had to split its effort to ban harmful fisheries subsidies into two parts in order to reach any agreement at all. The body requires full consensus to strike any deal, and its member states could not iron out their differences over subsidies that contribute to building fleets with capacity to fish unsustainably and other forms of overfishing. They decided in 2022 to leave these crucial issues for later in the interest of breaking the deadlock to agree on part one. It took the required two-thirds, or 111 of 166 member states, more than three years to ratify Fish One — a milestone achieved when Brazil, Kenya, Tonga and Vietnam submitted their acceptances to the WTO on Sept. 15. A special meeting of the WTO general council in Geneva marked the occasion. The WTO had previously failed to seal&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/24-years-on-part-one-of-wto-treaty-curbing-fisheries-subsidies-takes-effect/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/24-years-on-part-one-of-wto-treaty-curbing-fisheries-subsidies-takes-effect/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-306156</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>No new record low for Arctic sea ice loss in 2025</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/no-new-record-low-for-arctic-sea-ice-loss-in-2025/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/no-new-record-low-for-arctic-sea-ice-loss-in-2025/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>16 Sep 2025 17:11:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Gloria Dickie]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Glenn Scherer]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/11095256/lone-walrus-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305786</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Arctic and Arctic Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Climate, Climate Change, Climate Science, Conservation, Earth Science, Environment, Extreme Weather, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Ice Shelves, Impact Of Climate Change, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Permafrost, Planetary Boundaries, Research, Science, and Sea Ice]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Sea ice floating atop the Arctic Ocean reached its minimum extent for 2025 on Sept. 10, covering 4.602 million square kilometers (1.78 million square miles) concluding this year’s summer melt-out. That’s far from a record low and represents a recovery, in some ways, from where things stood earlier this year. At the winter maximum in [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Sea ice floating atop the Arctic Ocean reached its minimum extent for 2025 on Sept. 10, covering 4.602 million square kilometers (1.78 million square miles) concluding this year’s summer melt-out. That’s far from a record low and represents a recovery, in some ways, from where things stood earlier this year. At the winter maximum in March 2025, the Arctic ice was in bad shape. That’s the month in which sea ice, encouraged by freezing temperatures and 24-7 darkness, annually reaches its greatest extent. Ice cover in the region then barely topped 14.3 million square kilometers (5.5 million square miles) — the smallest extent at the winter maximum observed in the 47-year satellite record, and more than 1 million km2 (386,000 mi2) below the 1981 to 2010 average winter maximum. Much of 2025 followed a similar downward sloping path; throughout June and into early August, Arctic sea ice cover was tracking close to, if not at, a record low for the time of year. But things swung around in the latter half of August, as ice melt stagnated. “You get to August and the sun is setting in the Arctic, so things start to slow down,” said Walt Meier, a senior research scientist with the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) in Colorado. “You need a lot of momentum to keep going, some kind of unusual winds or a big storm like we had in 2012,” the record low sea ice minimum year. “We haven’t really seen that this summer.”&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/no-new-record-low-for-arctic-sea-ice-loss-in-2025/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305786</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Indonesia’s giant Java seawall plan sparks criticism &#038; calls for alternatives</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesias-giant-java-seawall-plan-sparks-criticism-calls-for-alternatives/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesias-giant-java-seawall-plan-sparks-criticism-calls-for-alternatives/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>11 Sep 2025 01:30:34 +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/20/2025/09/10115229/6-Indonesian-village-rising-tidal-floodwaters-768x512-1.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305716</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Java, East Java, Indonesia, Java, Southeast Asia, Tropics, and West Java]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Climate, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Deforestation, Disasters, Environment, Erosion, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Flooding, Forestry, Forests, Global Environmental Crisis, Impact Of Climate Change, Nature-based climate solutions, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Overfishing, Sea Levels, Solutions, Tropical Deforestation, Tropical Forests, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has set up a new authority to build a massive seawall along the north coast of Java, a project aimed at shielding millions of residents from flooding and sinking land, but observers reject it as a true solution while highlighting risks, elite bias and lack of consultation. The president on Aug. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has set up a new authority to build a massive seawall along the north coast of Java, a project aimed at shielding millions of residents from flooding and sinking land, but observers reject it as a true solution while highlighting risks, elite bias and lack of consultation. The president on Aug. 25 officiated the formation of the North Java Coast Management Authority to oversee the construction of a 700-kilometer (435-mile) seawall from Banten to Gresik, aimed at protecting 20 million coastal residents from erosion, tidal flooding and land subsidence. The $80 billion project will cover planning, financing and construction, with officials hoping to attract investors while addressing environmental and social impacts. Prabowo appointed retired Vice Admiral Didit Herdiawan Ashaf, who’s currently the vice fisheries minister, to lead the new government agency, with Darwin Djajawinata and Suhajar Diantoro serving as vice chairs. The agency will oversee planning, financing and construction of the seawall, addressing environmental and social considerations, and its head can adjust plans as needed. “Why two vice chairs? Because managing the North Coast (Pantura) will inevitably involve investment. One vice chair was appointed from Danantara. The other represents the government, specifically the Ministry of Home Affairs, given that this project will span five provinces on Java Island,” State Secretary Prasetyo Hadi told reporters in Jakarta as quoted by local media Tempo. &nbsp; Tidal floodwaters engulf Timbulsloko village. Image by Nuswantoro/Mongabay Indonesia. A 2023 study found that major northern Javan cities, including Jakarta, Pekalongan, Semarang and&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesias-giant-java-seawall-plan-sparks-criticism-calls-for-alternatives/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/indonesias-giant-java-seawall-plan-sparks-criticism-calls-for-alternatives/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305716</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Post-Blob, California’s kelp crisis isn’t going away</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/post-blob-californias-kelp-crisis-isnt-going-away/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/post-blob-californias-kelp-crisis-isnt-going-away/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Sep 2025 14:44:35 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[David Helvarg]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Sharon Guynup]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/09/18153613/kelp-in-california-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305387</guid>

											<reporting-project>
							<![CDATA[Planetary Boundaries]]>
						</reporting-project>
					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[California, North America, Pacific Ocean, and United States]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Coastal Ecosystems, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Habitat, Habitat Loss, Invertebrates, Law, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Marine Mammals, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Plants, Reintroductions, Research, Restoration, Temperatures, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[FORT BRAGG, U.S. — In 2024, I was scuba diving in Northern California’s Casper Cove where the Watermen’s Alliance, a group of ex-abalone sports divers, has been culling purple urchins since 2020. It had been six years since abalone season shut down, following the region’s kelp forest collapse. About 4 meters (13 feet) down, I [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[FORT BRAGG, U.S. — In 2024, I was scuba diving in Northern California’s Casper Cove where the Watermen’s Alliance, a group of ex-abalone sports divers, has been culling purple urchins since 2020. It had been six years since abalone season shut down, following the region’s kelp forest collapse. About 4 meters (13 feet) down, I spotted a few surviving red abalones, their thick-muscled feet showing from under their single shells as they clung to the bottom of boulders. Purple urchins (Strongylocentrotus purpuratus) clustered near them. I also spotted a single white anemone (Diadumene leucolena) and a spiny, bulbous-eyed Cabezon fish (Scorpaenichthys marmoratus) amid scattered stalks of remnant kelp. A short distance away, it was all bare rock and purple pin-cushion-like urchins. It’s different than watching videos of urchin barrens: Aside from being wet and cold and breathing underwater, I was taken by the scale: it’s so expansive, even with only 2 m (6 ft) of visibility in the murky water. As far as you go along the northern rim of the cove, there are purple urchins, thousands and tens of thousands, where a kelp forest once thrived. I spread my arms to measure what I guesstimated was a square meter and counted some 120 urchins. To bring kelp back, that number would have to drop to 2 per square meter. That’s when kelp spores can take hold again. This requires a lot of urchin-smashing, which these divers were carrying out with rock hammers. To clear one acre (less than half&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/09/post-blob-californias-kelp-crisis-isnt-going-away/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305387</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Climate change is driving fish stocks from countries’ waters to the high seas: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/climate-change-is-driving-fish-stocks-from-countries-waters-to-the-high-seas-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/climate-change-is-driving-fish-stocks-from-countries-waters-to-the-high-seas-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>29 Aug 2025 17:14:00 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/29130818/school-of-barracuda-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=305135</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Biodiversity, Climate, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Marine, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Fish and other marine organisms, though deeply affected by human activities, don’t respect human borders. The ranges of many commercially important species in fact straddle the borders of countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and international waters, known as the high seas. This arrangement, which makes fisheries management difficult, is set to get even more complicated [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Fish and other marine organisms, though deeply affected by human activities, don’t respect human borders. The ranges of many commercially important species in fact straddle the borders of countries’ exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and international waters, known as the high seas. This arrangement, which makes fisheries management difficult, is set to get even more complicated as climate change continues to heat up the ocean, a new study says. The study, published July 30 in the journal Science Advances, found that more than half of the world’s straddling stocks will shift across the maritime borders between EEZs and the high seas by 2050. Most of these shifts will be into the high seas, where fisheries management is much more challenging and stocks are more likely to be overexploited. “It&#8217;s an important issue and an important paper that I think should make anyone concerned about fisheries or the seafood on their plate sit up and pay attention,” Malin Pinsky, an associate professor of biology at the University of California, Santa Cruz, who wasn’t involved with the study, told Mongabay. “The shift towards the high seas that they document would have some really serious consequences, in part because fisheries management tends to be much less effective in the high seas,” added Pinsky, an expert on climate-driven fisheries distribution shifts. “Climate change is sending a whole bunch of fisheries out into the lion’s den because the high seas doesn&#8217;t have a great reputation for sustainable fisheries management.” Among the most serious potential consequences is&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/climate-change-is-driving-fish-stocks-from-countries-waters-to-the-high-seas-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-305135</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Scientists warn ocean-based climate fixes lack rules and oversight</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/scientists-warn-ocean-based-climate-fixes-lack-rules-and-oversight/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/scientists-warn-ocean-based-climate-fixes-lack-rules-and-oversight/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>27 Aug 2025 17:04:23 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/26145537/Green-Sea-Turtle-Swims-Over-Great-Barrier-Reef-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304929</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Dioxide, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Marine, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, and Oceans]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[A growing number of oceans-based solutions to the climate crisis have been tried or devised in recent years, thanks largely to an influx of funding. These range from replanting lost mangroves, to modifying the genome of corals, to pumping nutrient-rich deep water to the surface, to engineering clouds to be more reflective. While many of [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[A growing number of oceans-based solutions to the climate crisis have been tried or devised in recent years, thanks largely to an influx of funding. These range from replanting lost mangroves, to modifying the genome of corals, to pumping nutrient-rich deep water to the surface, to engineering clouds to be more reflective. While many of these projects and ideas may be well-intentioned, marine-climate interventions, as they’re called, are generally not subject to strong governance or oversight, a new paper says. The lack of accountability in the field creates risks of serious harm and could accelerate a “social-ecological crisis,” according to the paper, published in the journal Science on July 31. “As a group of interdisciplinary marine and climate scientists, we all started thinking, ‘hang on, what&#8217;s going on here?’” Tiffany Morrison, a professor of geography at the University of Melbourne in Australia and lead author of the paper, told Mongabay. “This is actually problematic. The field is moving so fast.” Morrison and co-authors write that “the pace of interventions is outstripping capacity to prevent unintended consequences because governance systems to ensure responsible transformation of marine systems are not yet in place.” They call for local, national and global rules that will make interventions “safe, equitable and effective.” A mangrove forest near a coral reef in Indonesia. Both ecosystems have increasingly been subject to marine-climate interventions, including “blue carbon” projects for mangroves and bioengineering and relocation projects for corals. Image courtesy of Alex Mustard/Ocean Image Bank. What’s a marine-climate intervention? Marine-climate&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/scientists-warn-ocean-based-climate-fixes-lack-rules-and-oversight/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/scientists-warn-ocean-based-climate-fixes-lack-rules-and-oversight/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304929</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Belize project seeks out heat-resilient corals to protect its reefs</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/belize-project-seeks-out-heat-resilient-corals-to-protect-its-reefs/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/belize-project-seeks-out-heat-resilient-corals-to-protect-its-reefs/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Aug 2025 19:10:27 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marco Lopez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/19191745/shark-coral-banner-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304503</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Belize, Caribbean, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Green, Invertebrates, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Research, Temperatures, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[HOPKINS, Belize — Heaters, pumps and computerized meters rigged to an everyday picnic icebox may seem like a high school science project. But this heat stress tank may hold the key to finding the most heat-resilient corals in Belize’s waters. As climate change and other human-caused stressors continue to push these rainforests of the sea [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[HOPKINS, Belize — Heaters, pumps and computerized meters rigged to an everyday picnic icebox may seem like a high school science project. But this heat stress tank may hold the key to finding the most heat-resilient corals in Belize’s waters. As climate change and other human-caused stressors continue to push these rainforests of the sea closer toward collapse, finding and protecting coral with the highest chance of surviving in the world to come has become a key method to ensuring marine life and the ecosystem services they provide are preserved. This is what the multinational collaborative effort known as the Super Reefs program hopes to help Belize achieve. The initiative is helmed by experts from the U.S.-based Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), Stanford University and The Nature Conservancy (TNC), along with officials from the Belize government and other Belizean stakeholders. “Not all corals are born the same,” Anne Cohen, a tenured scientist at WHOI, who started the Super Reefs program in 2017, told Mongabay. In 2015, Cohen witnessed how extreme heat killed off 98% of the coral in the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument, west of Hawai‘i. “That’s just one example of the kinds of things that have been happening since the mid-1990s,” Cohen said. “So, we were in the Pacific, along with many other coral reef groups around the world, we were monitoring these events and the impact on the reefs, but I also noticed that there were some coral reefs and some parts of coral reefs that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/belize-project-seeks-out-heat-resilient-corals-to-protect-its-reefs/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/belize-project-seeks-out-heat-resilient-corals-to-protect-its-reefs/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304503</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Ocean-based carbon storage ramps up, bringing investment and concern</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/ocean-based-carbon-storage-ramps-up-bringing-investment-and-concern/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/ocean-based-carbon-storage-ramps-up-bringing-investment-and-concern/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>19 Aug 2025 16:11:52 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Sean Mowbray]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/19154011/sperm-whale-deep-blue-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304547</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Carbon Dioxide, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Geoengineering, Marine, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Saltwater Fish, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Capturing carbon to ship or funnel it offshore for storage in depleted marine oil and gas wells is gaining momentum as a proposed climate solution, even as it faces criticism. Across the globe, plans are afoot to launch multiple projects — such as in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and Southeast Asia — [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Capturing carbon to ship or funnel it offshore for storage in depleted marine oil and gas wells is gaining momentum as a proposed climate solution, even as it faces criticism. Across the globe, plans are afoot to launch multiple projects — such as in the North Sea, the Gulf of Mexico, and Southeast Asia — backed by government funding in many cases. This form of carbon capture and storage, or CCS, involves collecting carbon (often directly from polluting industries such as cement factories or steelworks) and altering it into supercritical form, the highest density of CO2. It’s then moved via ship or pipeline to offshore infrastructure. Once there, the CO2 is pumped into a former well and capped. “These same formations held oil and gas for millions of years before they were extracted — this means we know the CO2 can be stored permanently on the same timescale, and we have detailed data and a strong understanding of their geology and how much they can store,” Chris Consoli, the Global CCS Institute’s principal for storage, told Mongabay in an email. But this proposed climate solution, which aims to piggyback on the fossil fuel industry’s existing infrastructure and workforce, has been slammed by critics as a means to justify continued exploitation of fossil fuels using a method riddled with underperformance and failure. For critics, this simple picture of using the ocean subsurface as a carbon storehouse belies the need for masses of new green infrastructure, energy and finance, while also being&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/ocean-based-carbon-storage-ramps-up-bringing-investment-and-concern/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304547</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Microbiomes may be corals’ secret weapon against climate change: Study</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/microbiomes-may-be-corals-secret-weapon-against-climate-change-study/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/microbiomes-may-be-corals-secret-weapon-against-climate-change-study/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>14 Aug 2025 17:00:32 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marlowe Starling]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/12094137/fish-coral-reef-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304039</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Central America, Pacific Ocean, and Panama]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Adaptation To Climate Change, Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Conservation Technology, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Microorganisms, Ocean Warming, Temperatures, and Wildtech]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[As ocean temperatures set new heat records, coral reef scientists are on a mission to identify which species and reefs can tolerate heat stress the best. But how and why do some corals cope with heat extremes better than others? A research team led by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama investigated this question [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[As ocean temperatures set new heat records, coral reef scientists are on a mission to identify which species and reefs can tolerate heat stress the best. But how and why do some corals cope with heat extremes better than others? A research team led by the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama investigated this question by studying not just corals’ genes and environment, but also their microbiomes. By running a series of heat stress tests on two populations of Pocillopora corals — one from the Gulf of Panama and the other from the Gulf of Chiriquí, both on Panama’s Pacific coast — they found that corals exposed to upwelling in the Gulf of Panama were better able to withstand higher temperatures, thanks in part to their microbiomes. The study was published in June in the journal Current Biology. A coral’s microbiome is made up of microorganisms such as algae and bacteria, some of which are considered “symbionts” that co-evolved to live within a host coral. Collectively, the microbiome, symbionts and host are called the holobiont. The new study is the first in the Eastern Pacific to assess coral heat tolerance by looking at the entire holobiont, said Victoria Marie Glynn, an evolutionary biologist and lead author of the study, who at the time was earning her doctorate at McGill University in Canada. “You cannot separate what the host is doing from what its microbiome is doing,” Glynn said. Microbiomes can influence gene expression and adaptation, for example. “All of that&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/microbiomes-may-be-corals-secret-weapon-against-climate-change-study/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
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										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/microbiomes-may-be-corals-secret-weapon-against-climate-change-study/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304039</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>How will fisheries change in a hotter world? Experts share</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-will-fisheries-change-in-a-hotter-world-experts-share/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-will-fisheries-change-in-a-hotter-world-experts-share/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>13 Aug 2025 20:40:24 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Claudia Geib]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Jeremy Hance]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/08/13104006/Banc_de_thons_albacores_Thunnus_albacares_Ifremer_00568-68027_-_25195-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=304197</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Africa, Cameroon, Central Africa, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, Pacific Islands, and Pacific Ocean]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Aquaculture, Climate Change, Climate Justice, Conservation, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Hunger, Marine Protected Areas, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Overfishing, Poverty, Saltwater Fish, Tuna, and Water]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Lake Chad is nearly 1,130 kilometers (700 miles) from the ocean, but Nwamaka Okeke-Ogbuafor fears it is a preview of what’s ahead for African and other tropical fisheries. Straddling four countries on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, Lake Chad began drying up dramatically during a series of droughts in the 1970s and ‘80s. [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Lake Chad is nearly 1,130 kilometers (700 miles) from the ocean, but Nwamaka Okeke-Ogbuafor fears it is a preview of what’s ahead for African and other tropical fisheries. Straddling four countries on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert, Lake Chad began drying up dramatically during a series of droughts in the 1970s and ‘80s. While the lake stopped shrinking in the 1990s — and it appears to be stable or even growing over the last 20 years — many fishing communities on the lake never recovered. Facing poverty and starvation, some former fishers and their families live in U.N.-funded camps for displaced people, which are running out of aid. Some struck out for a new life in other countries. Others joined Boko Haram, an Islamic insurgency organization, in a final act of desperation. “Communities are no longer cohesive — it’s a total disaster,” says Okeke-Ogbuafor, a marine social scientist focusing on tropical African fisheries. “It’s not just about food poverty, it’s the erosion of community and cultural knowledge.” Fish provide essential protein for an estimated 3.2 billion people across the world. In some developing tropical countries, fish can make up some 70% of the diet. But over the next 50 years, warming waters are certain to upend fishing communities — and rewrite the rules of ecosystems and industries worldwide. Mongabay asked five experts how fisheries will change by 2075, and what solutions could help prevent the worst outcomes. Women in Sierra Leone selling fish at the market in Mama&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-will-fisheries-change-in-a-hotter-world-experts-share/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
										<wfw:commentRss>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/08/how-will-fisheries-change-in-a-hotter-world-experts-share/feed/</wfw:commentRss>
					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-304197</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Batang coal plant’s seawater permit imperils marine life, fishing communities</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/batang-coal-plants-seawater-permit-imperils-marine-life-fishing-communities/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/batang-coal-plants-seawater-permit-imperils-marine-life-fishing-communities/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>26 Jul 2025 03:39:55 +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/20/2025/07/25085441/ba9-IMG_8776.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=303177</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Asia, Central Java, Indonesia, Java, and Southeast Asia]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Activism, Climate, Climate Change, Coal, Coastal Ecosystems, Corporate Environmental Transgressors, Ecosystems, Energy, Environment, Fish, Fisheries, Fishing, Fossil Fuels, Global Environmental Crisis, Infrastructure, Land Grabbing, Marine, Ocean Warming, Politics, Sea Levels, and Social Conflict]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s marine ministry has approved one of Java’s largest coal plants to use vast amounts of seawater for cooling, prompting concerns from marine experts over the impact of heated discharge on coastal ecosystems and fisheries. The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries on July 22 issued a permit for the utilization of seawater for non-energy [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Indonesia’s marine ministry has approved one of Java’s largest coal plants to use vast amounts of seawater for cooling, prompting concerns from marine experts over the impact of heated discharge on coastal ecosystems and fisheries. The Ministry of Marine Affairs and Fisheries on July 22 issued a permit for the utilization of seawater for non-energy purposes (ALSE) to PT Bhimasena Power Indonesia (BPI), the operator of the Batang coal-fired power plant in Central Java. The permit makes the Batang facility the first power plant in Java and the second in Indonesia to be legally authorized to manage seawater for industrial activities, the ministry said in a statement. The ministry said the Batang plant utilized approximately 3 billion cubic meters (106 billion cubic feet) of seawater annually, primarily for cooling purposes, and such large-scale seawater use requires accountable management in accordance with government regulations. The ALSE permit regulates the use of seawater for non-energy industrial purposes, such as cooling, potable water production or other uses, according to the ministry. “This effort also supports transparency and accountability in sustainable marine industries,” Frista Yorhanita, the ministry’s director of marine resources, said in the statement. Unfavorable coastal conditions in Batang, Central Java, have made it increasingly difficult for fishers to operate. Image by Wulan Yanuarwati/Mongabay Indonesia. The Batang thermal coal plant began full operations in 2022 with a 2,000-megawatt capacity. As one of Java’s main power sources, it was built to boost Indonesia’s energy supply and support local economic growth. However, instead of improving&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/batang-coal-plants-seawater-permit-imperils-marine-life-fishing-communities/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-303177</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Restoration, protection aim to save Belize’s coral reef from extreme heat and disease</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/restoration-protection-aim-to-save-belizes-coral-reef-from-extreme-heat-and-disease/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/restoration-protection-aim-to-save-belizes-coral-reef-from-extreme-heat-and-disease/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>09 Jul 2025 04:48:57 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Marco Lopez]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Rebecca Kessler]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/08101002/fish-belize-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302027</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Atlantic Forest, Belize, Caribbean, and North America]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Diseases, Ecosystems, Environment, Global Environmental Crisis, Invertebrates, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Temperatures, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[PLACENCIA, Belize — After Hurricane Iris decimated the coral reef at Laughing Bird Caye National Park in 2001, many wrote off the UNESCO World Heritage site as a coral graveyard. But a small group from the coastal village of Placencia, Belize, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the island, saw hope. In 2006, the park [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[PLACENCIA, Belize — After Hurricane Iris decimated the coral reef at Laughing Bird Caye National Park in 2001, many wrote off the UNESCO World Heritage site as a coral graveyard. But a small group from the coastal village of Placencia, Belize, about 18 kilometers (11 miles) from the island, saw hope. In 2006, the park had just 6% live coral cover. By 2023, it had reached approximately 60% — the result of the group planting more than 92,000 fragments of coral within the 1-hectare (2.5-acre) shallow fringing reef. The group, Fragments of Hope (FOH), is a Belize-based nonprofit organization focused on restoring coral reef habitats. Their work at Laughing Bird Caye is widely regarded as the best example of reef restoration in the Caribbean. But while the park stands as a beacon of hope for coral restoration, it has not been immune to the onslaught of record-breaking temperatures occurring globally. “2024 was the worst bleaching event since we’ve been recording around 2008,” Lisa Carne, FOH’s founder, said during an interview with Mongabay. Many of the corals planted at Laughing Bird have succumbed to extreme heat stress and disease. At Moho Caye, another restoration site, live coral cover dropped from more than 50% to less than 5%, “likely reflecting similar declines at Laughing Bird,” Carne said. It’s not just Laughing Bird and Moho. Unprecedented coral bleaching, a relatively new illness called stony coral tissue loss disease (SCTLD), and other threats to corals are negatively impacting reef health across Belize, and it&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/restoration-protection-aim-to-save-belizes-coral-reef-from-extreme-heat-and-disease/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302027</doi>				</item>
						<item>
					<title>Will temperate seas act as refuge for coral reefs? Not in time, study says</title>
					<link>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/will-temperate-seas-act-as-refuge-for-coral-reefs-not-in-time-study-says/</link>
					<comments>https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/will-temperate-seas-act-as-refuge-for-coral-reefs-not-in-time-study-says/#respond</comments>
					<pubDate>08 Jul 2025 16:55:02 +0000</pubDate>
											<dc:creator>
							<![CDATA[Edward Carver]]>
						</dc:creator>
										<author>
						<![CDATA[Morgan Erickson-Davis]]>
					</author>
							<category><![CDATA[Uncategorized]]></category>
										<enclosure url="https://imgs.mongabay.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/20/2025/07/08110449/paddleboarders-coral-reef-768x512.jpg" type="image/jpeg" />
					<guid isPermaLink="false">https://news.mongabay.com/?p=302039</guid>

					
											<locations>
							<![CDATA[Global]]>
						</locations>
					
											<topic-tags>
							<![CDATA[Animals, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Conservation, Coral Bleaching, Coral Reefs, Ecosystems, Environment, Fish, Global Environmental Crisis, Global Warming, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Marine, Marine Animals, Marine Conservation, Ocean Warming, Oceans, Temperatures, and Wildlife]]>
						</topic-tags>
					
					
											<description>
							<![CDATA[Climate change has already caused significant declines in coral reef coverage globally and is expected to do much further damage in coming decades. Some scientists have held out hope that tropical corals could improve their viability by expanding their range — by finding refuge in more temperate seas. But a new study throws cold water [&#8230;]]]>
						</description>
																					<content:encoded>
							<![CDATA[Climate change has already caused significant declines in coral reef coverage globally and is expected to do much further damage in coming decades. Some scientists have held out hope that tropical corals could improve their viability by expanding their range — by finding refuge in more temperate seas. But a new study throws cold water on the idea. Coral reef decline will far outpace expansion into temperate waters, the study finds. Most of the damage to corals will be done in the next 40 to 80 years, but expansion will take centuries, according to the study, which was published in the journal Science Advances on June 6. The “mismatch between the timescales,” as the authors call it, could spell bad news for corals and the ecosystems that depend on them, though the severity of the loss will depend on levels of greenhouse gas emissions in coming decades. “The main finding is that we’re probably talking about centuries plus, in terms of how long it takes them to move to high latitudes,” Noam Vogt-Vincent, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Hawai’i at Mānoa and lead author of the study, told Mongabay. This finding shows “the urgent need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” the study says. Coral reef and reef fish in Marsa Alam, Egypt. Image by Pascal van de Vendel via Unsplash (Public domain). It’s well understood that coral reefs are at risk from rising temperatures. They’re currently facing the fourth mass bleaching event since 1998. Bleaching involves corals expelling&hellip;This article was originally published on <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2025/07/will-temperate-seas-act-as-refuge-for-coral-reefs-not-in-time-study-says/" data-wpel-link="internal">Mongabay</a>]]>
						</content:encoded>
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					<slash:comments>0</slash:comments>
										<doi>https://doi.org/10.66709/news-302039</doi>				</item>
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