KONO, Papua New Guinea — News of apparent renewed interest in deep-sea mining came as a shock to Jonathan Mesulam in late 2022. Looking out over the Bismarck Sea that…
Kamy Yeung said she wanted to do more scuba diving. So in 2014, she signed up to be a volunteer diver for a newly launched reef fish survey project in…
JAKARTA — The Indonesian government’s efforts to tackle illegal fishing in its vast waters have had the unintended consequence of driving an increase in maritime piracy, according to a new…
With their tooth-packed jaws, dinosaur-slit eyes, and stealthy ability to emerge without warning through the surface of muddy-brown waters, saltwater crocodiles are indisputably one of the world’s most revered top…
JAKARTA — Indonesians are set to vote in presidential and legislative elections on Feb. 14 in a landmark moment for the world’s largest archipelagic country. But maritime observers say none…
Sea otters are slowing down the erosion of salt marshes, thanks to their rapacious appetite for crabs, according to new research. But it took some sleuthing to figure this out.…
KARACHI — His sandaled feet drenched in black mud, Rashid Rasheed points to one of the mangrove nurseries he’s been looking after for the past few years. With wooden walls…
PHNOM PENH — In late December 2023, on a remote island in Preah Sihanouk province, off the southwest coast of Cambodia, a team of conservationists uncovered nine nests belonging to…
A powerful strain of the avian flu has swept through seal colonies in southern Argentina, wiping out many juveniles and raising concern about a spread to other species. The flu,…
CENTRAL ARU, Indonesia — One afternoon last November, Natanel Ginobal, 67, drove his motorboat to check the mud crabs caught by the traps he had installed earlier the day. He…
Despite enacting different laws and regulations, both old and new, Bangladesh has faced a decline in marine fish stocks and diversity over the years, thanks to the rampant use of…
JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has invited Turkish investors to help develop an offshore tuna farm in the country’s eastern Papua region, which it aims to turn into a major…
The Caribbean spiny lobster is a coveted delicacy. But its flourishing trade comes at the expense of the Indigenous Miskito community living along the Atlantic coast of Honduras, according to…
The ancient Sanskrit epic Ramayana has it that Hanuman was a mighty ape god who marshaled an army to build a bridge linking northern Sri Lanka’s Mannar region with South…
MUNJE, Kenya — From the middle of 2023, a favored octopus fishing ground just offshore from the village of Munje was strangely empty. Members of the village’s beach management unit…
PEKALONGAN, Indonesia — For decades, Sobirin provided for his family by picking flowers here on the north coast of Indonesia’s Java Island. Now in his 70s, much of the farmer’s…
1. Record heat in 2023 2023 is widely regarded as the hottest year on record, with monthly, seasonal and annual records spiking in the ocean and atmosphere, and repeated headlines…
JAKARTA — Indonesia is offering resume direct exports of lobster larvae to Vietnam in exchange for investment in lobster farming and easing up on Vietnamese boats fishing illegally in its…
Otters, with their gleeful yikkering, playful presence and sinuous underwater grace, are emblematic of the joy and resilience of nature in many parts of the world. But they aren’t among…
JAKARTA — Small-scale fishers who have better access to financing, the support of a peer group, and a general awareness of environmental problems tend to be more likely to adopt…
TACLOBAN, Philippines — “I can’t walk but I can fish,” says 68-year old Rodolfo Deliva, a lifelong fisherman. For nearly two decades he’s relied on his crutches to get around…
JAKARTA — The Indonesian government has postponed the enforcement of a new fisheries policy that drew little support from fishers and widespread criticism from experts and watchdogs. The quota-based fisheries…
JAKARTA — As the 2024 start date looms for Indonesia’s controversial new quota-based fisheries policy, experts and watchdogs continue to flag what they say are fundamental inadequacies in the strategy.…
KINGSTON — “All of this was mangroves,” says marine scientist Mona Webber, pointing toward a line of ghostly gray boulders separating the road from the sea. We’re standing on the…
POLEWALI MANDAR, Indonesia — Over the past three decades, the residents of Mampie village have watched their homes and farmland vanish from the west coast of Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island. A…
WHATCOM COUNTY, Washington — "Some mornings, the sun's hitting that reef net just right and it’s like I know it's talking to me,” said Ellie Kinley, a member of the…
JAKARTA — Indonesia has launched a climate mitigation plan focusing on the country’s seagrass meadows, an overlooked ecosystem that ranks among the most efficient carbon sinks on the planet. The…
One after another, salmon leapt out of the water and hurtled themselves at the falls, propelled by instinct to move upriver. They, like all Pacific salmon, were born in freshwater,…
JAKARTA — Indonesian fisheries authorities have welcomed as “better than nothing” a new policy by neighboring Singapore that should in theory help stem the smuggling of lobster larvae out of…
Between spring and fall each year in coastal British Columbia, when salmon migrate upstream, the region’s First Nations manually count the number of fish passing through to get a sense…