Marine protected areas News

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King penguin in Antarctica. Photo by N Butler / Mongabay

Antarctic coalition wins €1m prize for safeguarding a fragile frontier

Mongabay.com 9 Jul 2025
Small islands in Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia. Photo credit: Rhett Ayers Butler. 

Listings of Indonesian islands renew fears of privatization for coastal communities

Basten Gokkon 8 Jul 2025
Churna Island as seen from the mainland.

With coral-rich Churna Island now an MPA, Pakistan takes baby steps on ocean protection

Ayaz Khan 1 Jul 2025
Banner image of a whale shark in Tubbataha Reefs by © Steve De Neef.

Countries seek urgent CITES protection of more than 70 sharks and rays

Kristine Sabillo 1 Jul 2025
Every humphead wrasse has unique facial markings with distinctive black lines around the eyes and squiggly patterns on the face.

Vanishing giants: The Indian Ocean’s biggest fish need saving (commentary)

Melita Samoilys 25 Jun 2025
Coral reef in Vietnam.

Major coral loss in Vietnam’s first marine protected area: Study

Keith Anthony Fabro 20 Jun 2025
Industrial trawlers and small-scale fishers compete for space near the port of Dakar in Senegal.

UN Ocean Conference makes progress on protecting marine waters

Edward Carver 19 Jun 2025
Split shot in the waters of San Benedicto, Mexico. Credit: Enric Sala/National Geographic Pristine Seas

The ocean is in crisis. A new effort is betting on coastal communities to save it.

Rhett Ayers Butler 19 Jun 2025
Off Ulawa Island, Solomon Islands, a circle of Indigenous fishermen catch scad by forming a circle, honoring the ocean’s gift. Image courtesy of Su'umoli village, Makira-Ulawa province, Solomon Islands.

Pacific island nations launch plan for world’s first Indigenous-led ocean reserve

Shreya Dasgupta 13 Jun 2025

Coral reefs and seagrass get new protections off Tanzania’s Pemba Island

Malavika Vyawahare and Rebecca Kessler 12 Jun 2025
Sailboat at night. Image by Johannes Plenio via Unsplash.

Stars & lighthouses: Marine conservation that blends Pacific Islander wisdom and Western knowledge (commentary)

Angelo Villagomez 11 Jun 2025

Indonesia halts most nickel mining in Raja Ampat, but allows one controversial permit

Hans Nicholas Jong 10 Jun 2025
Fish in Samoa.

Samoa’s new marine spatial plan protects 30% of the country’s ocean

Claire Turrell 4 Jun 2025

UK signs deal handing over Chagos to Mauritius, but tensions remain

Malavika Vyawahare 30 May 2025
2025 Goldman Prize winner Carlos Mallo Molina (Photo: Goldman Environmental Prize)

How a road engineer became an ocean activist & won the world’s top environmental prize

Mike DiGirolamo 13 May 2025
A school of hammerhead sharks, Mikimoto, Japan. Masayuki Agawa / Ocean Image Bank

Annual ocean conference nets $9.1 billion for initiatives, despite US absence

Elizabeth Claire Alberts 5 May 2025
Split shot in the waters of San Benedicto, Mexico. Credit: Enric Sala/National Geographic Pristine Seas

Protecting coastal waters may be the best investment you’ve never heard of, says Kristin Rechberger

Rhett Ayers Butler 29 Apr 2025
A squat lobster in the deep sea.

With deep-sea mining plans in limbo, Norwegian companies fold or dig in

Elizabeth Claire Alberts 22 Apr 2025
A school of fish in the Palmyra Atoll in the Pacific. Image courtesy of Bryce Groark.

Trump opens massive marine protected area to commercial fishing

Shreya Dasgupta 18 Apr 2025

Even in death, Indigenous Fijians protect the sea

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Apr 2025
Dugong in Thailand

Dugong numbers plummet amid seagrass decline in Thailand’s Andaman Sea

Carolyn Cowan 10 Apr 2025
Banner image of deep-sea corals on the ocean floor via NOAA (Public domain).

Global seabed regulator concerned by mining company’s unilateral actions

Kristine Sabillo 2 Apr 2025
Fishing vessel. Image courtesy of Nicolas Job / Ocean Image Bank.

Panama conducts large illegal fishing bust in protected Pacific waters

Edward Carver 28 Mar 2025

Community-based conservation cuts thresher shark fishing by 91% in Indonesia: Study

Basten Gokkon 28 Mar 2025
Fishermen in the ocean near Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Image by UN Photo/Milton Grant via Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).

Tanzania’s marine reserves offer long-term benefits to communities, study finds

Mark DeGraff 24 Mar 2025

Rep from American Samoa calls for opening protected Pacific waters to tuna fishing

Edward Carver 19 Mar 2025
Fishers in Ghana carry their nets on the beach.

USAID funding cuts jeopardize creation of Ghana’s first Marine Protected Area

Victoria Schneider 13 Mar 2025

A bird last seen by Darwin 190 years ago reappears on a Galápagos island

Bobby Bascomb 11 Mar 2025
A yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares). Experts debate the impact of marine protected areas (MPAs) on tuna populations. Image by Ellen Cuylaerts / Ocean Image Bank.

Study finds signs of tuna abundance outside marine protected areas

Edward Carver 3 Mar 2025
Fishing in Fiji. Image courtesy of Tom Vierus/WCS.

Funerary practices in Fiji protect marine areas while honoring the deceased

Sonam Lama Hyolmo 28 Feb 2025
Banner image: A sea turtle swims over a coral reef off the coast of Australia. Image by Jordan Robins via Ocean Image Bank.

The U.S. terminated its 30×30 conservation plan but this also presents an opportunity (commentary)

Angelo Villagomez, Dr. Alia Hidayat 26 Feb 2025

Marshall Islands protects ‘pristine’ Pacific corals with first marine sanctuary

Shanna Hanbury 28 Jan 2025

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