Marine protected areas News

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A new treaty comes into force to govern life on the high seas

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Jan 2026
A Samoan coral reef from the air. Image courtesy of Andy Estep.

Marine protected areas expanded in 2025, but still far from 30% goal

Shanna Hanbury 8 Jan 2026
Sperm whales inside Azores MPA Network. Image courtesy of Andy Mann/National Geographic.

Azores must respect its exceptional network of marine protected areas (commentary)

Enric Sala 5 Jan 2026
Scalloped hammerhead sharks (Sphyrna lewini), photographed in Yonaguni, Japan.

Top ocean news stories of 2025 (commentary)

Alfredo Giron, Ana Spalding, Erin Skoczylas, Vanessa Constant 24 Dec 2025
Healthy reef off the coast of Panaon Island. Image courtesy of Danny Ocampo / Oceana.

Philippines’ newest marine protected area ‘sets inspiring example’ (commentary)

Antha Williams, Loren Legarda 16 Dec 2025

Seafloor survey in Cambodia finds simple anti-trawling blocks help seagrass recover

Keith Anthony Fabro 15 Dec 2025
Fishing gear. Image courtesy of Thomas Merritt via Unsplash.

‘Myopic’ fisheries managers toy with a new ‘tragedy of the commons’ (commentary)

Charles Clover 9 Dec 2025
A breaching northern bottlenose soars out of the water. Image by Sanna Isojunno via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

A rare bright spot for whales: Decades of conservation pay off for endangered population in Canada

Stella Mayerhoff 5 Dec 2025

Abrolhos: A South Atlantic marine treasure in need of protection

Elizabeth Oliveira 24 Nov 2025

Offshore fossil fuel exploration jeopardizes Brazil’s climate leadership, study says

Lucas Berti 18 Nov 2025

Pakistan declares its third marine protected area, but has a long way to go

Ayaz Khan 17 Nov 2025
Corals and fish in Lighthouse Reef atoll, Belize.

Are Belize’s fisheries policies delivering?

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Nov 2025
Satellite images of the chemical spill in Bais Bay. Images courtesy of Sentinel-2L2A.

Ethanol plant spills harmful wastewater into Philippine marine reserve

Mongabay.com 5 Nov 2025
A humpback whale fluke.

Antarctic conservation summit closes with stalemate on MPAs & krill fishing rules

Francesco De Augustinis 4 Nov 2025
Trawlers docked outside Sihanoukville. Screenshot from ‘Illegal fishing and land grabs push Cambodian coastal communities to the brink’ by Andy Ball / Mongabay.

Chaos on Cambodia’s Coast

Mongabay.com 3 Nov 2025
Corals and fish in Lighthouse Reef atoll, Belize.

Belize’s blue reputation vs. reef reality: Marine conservation wins, and what’s missing (commentary)

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Oct 2025
Antarctic krill (Euphausia superba). Image by Dr. Wayne Trivelpiece via Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

Norway’s proposal to double krill harvests raises tension at Antarctic conservation summit

Francesco De Augustinis 30 Oct 2025
Deforestation for nickel mining in Gag Island, Raja Ampat, Indonesia. Image courtesy of Auriga Nusantara.

Nickel mining threatens Raja Ampat ecosystems, communities & conservation: Report

Basten Gokkon 16 Oct 2025
Seabed after bottom trawling. Image courtesy of Howard Wood/Oceana UK.

UK rejects total ban on bottom trawling in offshore marine protected areas

Shanna Hanbury 7 Oct 2025

Philippines protects coral hotspot

Shreya Dasgupta 7 Oct 2025
Rainbow over Raja Ampat, West Papua, Indonesia. Photo credit: Rhett Ayers Butler.

Just as Raja Ampat fetches UNESCO Biosphere Reserve title, nickel mining looms

Hans Nicholas Jong 2 Oct 2025

Study spotlights West Papua habitat as whale sharks face increased pressures

Basten Gokkon 28 Sep 2025
An oceanic white tip shark (Carcharhinus longimanus) with pilot fish (Naucrates ductor). Image courtesy of Renata Romeo/Ocean Image Bank.

‘Super big deal’: High seas treaty reaches enough ratifications to become law

Edward Carver 23 Sep 2025
Fishers with their canoes in São Tomé.

São Tomé and Príncipe commits to creating a marine protected area network

Victoria Schneider 19 Sep 2025
Marine life off Panaon Island in the Philippines. Image courtesy of Oceana/Danny Ocampo.

Philippines protects huge coral hotspot off the coast of Panaon Island

Shanna Hanbury 3 Sep 2025
Dust on the floors of residents’ houses in Teluk Sepang, Bengkulu.

Censured Sumatra coal plant blamed for sickening children in Indonesia’s Bengkulu

Elviza Diana 1 Sep 2025
False killer whales in the Mediterranean. Image by Vincent Kneefel / Ocean Image Bank.

Why the BBNJ treaty on marine biodiversity matters more in the Mediterranean (commentary)

Camille Loth, Giuseppe Di Carlo 25 Aug 2025
Banner image: Corals and fish within the Bitaug MPA. Image © Dean Apistar/WCS Philippines.

Community efforts yield new marine protected area in the Philippines

Kristine Sabillo 20 Aug 2025

Argentina pushes pipeline exports through protected Patagonian waters

Rodolfo Chisleanschi 18 Aug 2025
Yellowfin tuna, one of the seven major commercial tuna species, attempt to outswim a seine net in the Seychelles. Fishing is the second largest industry on this small Pacific Island, and like many other Pacific Islands, it faces major revenue losses as tuna shift their migration patterns into the high seas due to climate change.

How will fisheries change in a hotter world? Experts share

Claudia Geib 13 Aug 2025
Banner image of a school of grunts (Pomadasys incisus) in the Teno-Rasca Marine Strip by Diego Delso via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

Goldman Prize winner’s shift from engineer to activist in Tenerife, Canary Islands

Mongabay.com 13 Aug 2025
A fisher “foot fishing” on the reef flat of Anjouan at low tide.

Encouraging signs from a no-fishing zone in Comoros could inspire others

Malavika Vyawahare 6 Aug 2025

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