Marine protected areas News

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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, 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
Marco Andres Vizcaino Garcia is a top naturalist guide in the Galápagos National Park and its adjacent marine reserve. Image by Erik Hoffner for Mongabay.

As Gálapagos ecotourism booms, top naturalist guide urges sustainability

Erik Hoffner 22 Jan 2025
A moray eel in the coral reefs of the Daymaniyat Islands, Oman.

2024’s top ocean news stories (commentary)

Alfredo Giron, Ana K. Spalding, Andrés Cisneros-Montemayor, Asha de Vos, Cinda P. Scott, Josheena Naggea, Juan José Alava, Olivia Milloway, Rita Maria el Zaghloul 8 Jan 2025
Narwhal image by Газпром нефть via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY-SA 4.0).

We need a North Pole Marine Reserve to secure a healthy future for Arctic waters (commentary)

6 Jan 2025
Banner image: A sea turtle swims over a coral reef off the coast of Australia. Image by Jordan Robins via Ocean Image Bank.

Marine protection efforts in 2024 were still a drop in the ocean

Bobby Bascomb 30 Dec 2024

‘These stories deserve to be told’: Shining a light on secretive fisheries managers

Mike DiGirolamo 23 Dec 2024
Banner image of Galaxea astreata coral colony in Nusa Penida in Bali, Indonesia, courtesy of Ocean Gardener.

Scientists in Bali find what could be the world’s largest coral colony

Kristine Sabillo 17 Dec 2024
Banner image of clownfish and coral reef in Indonesia, by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

44% of reef-building coral species at risk of extinction: IUCN

Kristine Sabillo 14 Nov 2024

Coral biodiversity hotspot at risk from fossil fuel expansion, report warns

Ashley Yeong 13 Nov 2024

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