New evidence lays out the intricate trade in animal body parts that conservation groups say are driving two marine species in Mexico’s Gulf of California closer to extinction. The battle…
Whales, dolphins, sea turtles and fish living off the coast of Gabon now enjoy similar protections to those designed to safeguard the Central African nation’s gorillas, elephants and other land-dwelling…
For the first time ever, scientists have been able to observe what life is really like for dolphins beneath the ocean’s surface. Using custom-made, noninvasive underwater cameras that they attached…
Research released last month suggested that the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster and oil spill caused $17.2 billion in damages to the Gulf of Mexico’s natural resources — and a slew…
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we speak with Leah Barclay, a sound artist, acoustic ecologist, and researcher with Griffith University in South East Queensland, Australia, for our latest…
Wildlife crime plagues nearly half of the world's natural UNESCO World Heritage sites, according to a new WWF report. Illegal harvesting -- poaching, illegal logging and illegal fishing -- of…
On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we’re thrilled to feature a conversation with the one and only Paul Simon, who's just announced he's going to tour in support of the…
On the latest episode of the Mongabay Newscast, we welcome journalist Sue Branford, a regular contributor to Mongabay who has been reporting from Brazil since 1979 when she was with…
The vaquita continues to earn its title as “the world’s most endangered cetacean species.” According to a recent report by the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA),…
Greenpeace has released the first-ever underwater photos of a coral reef discovered at the mouth of the Amazon River last year. Extending from French Guiana to Maranhão State in northern…
This being the last Mongabay Newscast of the year, we’re doing it a little different. Instead of the top news, we’re bringing you the top new species discoveries of the…
This past July, U.S. President Barack Obama hosted Mexico’s President Peña Nieto at the White House to discuss bilateral cooperation on a range of issues, including several environmental matters. The…
Last week, 24 countries and the European Union unanimously agreed to create the world’s largest marine protected area off Antarctica. The deal was brokered at the meeting of the Commission…
Marine scientists at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Benioff Ocean Initiative have developed a web-based tool, Deep Sea Mining Watch, to allow anyone to watch vessels engaged in deep…
ad news came in three for critically endangered North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) in late September. On Thursday, September 22, an 8-year-old female whale tangled up in hundreds of…
There were as many as 570 vaquita in the world back in 1997, but now there are fewer than 60 left — and the species is facing extinction in the…
Last Thursday, U.S. President Barrack Obama announced the creation of the first national marine monument in the Atlantic Ocean. The announcement was made at the ongoing Our Ocean Conference at…
Marine protected areas just got a huge boost. At the ongoing U.S. State Department’s Our Ocean 2016 Conference, in Washington, D.C., the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the Waitt Foundation, the blue moon…
Global warming is changing Earth’s oceans and those impacts will last for decades even if we rein in greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, according to new research. A report…
Exporters of fish and fish products to the United States must now follow the same protective rules for marine mammal bycatch as domestic fishing operations. The U.S. National Oceanic and…
In 2009, two marine biologists -- Robert Pitman and John Durban -- observed a series of strange events enroute to the Antarctic Peninsula: humpback whales would rush in to rescue seals that…
In the beginning of the 20th century, over-hunting wiped out all west Indian manatees from the waters of the French Caribbean Islands of Guadeloupe located in the eastern Caribbean sea.…
From September, Mexico will permanently ban the use of gillnets throughout the range of vaquita porpoise (Phocoena sinus) in the upper Gulf of California. With just 60 individuals remaining in…
Marine biologist Carl Safina is a noted author and research professor at Stony Brook University, where he focuses on ocean sciences and is co-chair of the Alan Alda Center for…
The world’s most endangered cetacean is quickly inching towards extinction. In 1997, about 570 vaquita porpoises (Phocoena sinus) were estimated to occur in the world. Now, only about 60 vaquitas…
Between 2010 and 2014, more than a thousand common bottle-nosed dolphins washed ashore on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. These dolphin strandings were the “largest and longest cetacean…
China’s demand for swim bladders from a giant Mexican fish called the totoaba is putting the species at risk. It’s also pushing a small porpoise known as the vaquita, one…
Japan’s whaling ships kill hundreds of whales almost every year. This year too, Japan has returned with a harvest of 333 Antarctic Minke whales (Balaenoptera bonaerensis), including 200 pregnant females.…
Yet another coal-laden ship has capsized in the Sundarbans, the world’s largest mangrove forest. On Saturday, “MV Sea Horse-1”, a cargo vessel carrying 1,235 metric tons of coal, sank in the…
An illegal trade in the swim bladder of the rare totoabas has placed both these fish and the world’s smallest and rarest marine mammal -- the vaquita -- at risk of extinction,…