Last week, President Barack Obama of the United States of America announced the creation of the world’s largest marine reserve off Hawaii. Obama expanded the size of Papahānaumokuākea Marine National…
Forests are vital ecosystems that provide crucial habitat to wildlife and help regulate everything from regional hydrological cycles to the global climate. But conservationists, forestry officials, and other decisionmakers often…
Cambodia’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has approved the country’s first-ever marine protected area in the waters of the Koh Rong Archipelago. The 405-square-kilometer (about 156-square-mile) Marine Fisheries Management…
rotected waters contain more sharks than open-access fishing zones, concluded a recently released study based in the waters of West Papua, Indonesia. The research adds to mounting evidence that “spatial…
Last week, Malaysia formally established its largest marine park — the Tun Mustapha Park — off Sabah Province in Borneo. The park is the result of more than 13 years…
Indonesia: a vast archipelago, the world's largest maritime nation, home to the richest marine biodiversity — but in danger of being wrecked by overfishing and other unsustainable practices. That’s why the country…
The International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has released a new map intended to call attention to the potential benefits of conservationists and governments working together with Indigenous…
Natural World Heritage Sites represent areas that have some of the richest biodiversity, natural beauty and geology in the world. But these sites of “outstanding universal value”, that cover only…
f you go more than 200 miles off the coast anywhere on Earth, you end up in the high seas, the largely ungoverned portion of the ocean that covers 43…
Under the UN Convention on Biological Diversity, 168 signatory countries committed to the creation of marine protected areas encompassing 10 percent of the world’s oceans by 2020. Given that just…
inety nine percent of 500 coral reefs surveyed in the Australian Great Barrier Reef’s pristine north are being hit by a global bleaching event that’s already slammed reefs in the…
The Peruvian Tropical Pacific Sea (Mar Pacífico Tropical Peruano) is a paradise where cold and warm currents come together, making this a biodiversity hotspot along Peru's coast. The local ecosystem is…
Indonesian President Joko "Jokowi" Widodo’s plan to establish Indonesia as a "global maritime axis" took a step forward last month, as U.S. ambassador Robert Blake announced a partnership program to…
Approximately 120,000 fishing vessels sail the oceans at any given moment, many fishing illicitly. Globally, one in five marine fish caught ends up on a $23.5 billion black market. Unrecorded…
overnments have been establishing enormous marine protected areas (MPAs) spanning hundreds of thousands of square kilometers where fishing is restricted. And the United Nations last June began work developing an…
Douglas McCauley began his career as a fisherman but later transitioned to marine science. He now serves as an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara and a Sloan…
eef fish may take longer to recover from overfishing than previously thought. While smaller fish with short life spans tend to rebound quickly in protected reefs, larger, slow growing fish…
o offshore oil exploration will be permitted along the Belize Barrier Reef or within the country's seven World Heritage Site areas, the government of Belize announced this month. The UNESCO…
A hodgepodge of laws protects roughly 15 percent of Earth’s land, but safeguards for the ocean lag behind. Today, laws shelter a meager 3.6 percent of the planet’s liquid blue…
This is the second story in a three-part series exploring changes in Indonesia’s network of marine protected areas through the lens of Wakatobi National Park. Read the first one here.…
This is the first story in a three-part series exploring changes in Indonesia's network of marine protected areas through the lens of Wakatobi National Park. Read the second story here.…
Already known the world over for its famous moai statues, Easter Island might soon become just as recognized for ocean conservation. Chilean president Michelle Bachelet has announced a new marine…
Belize's Great Blue Hole, part of a UNESCO World Heritage Site that would be included in areas opened to oil and gas drilling under a new proposal from the Belizean…
Hanging an octopus to dry. Courtesy of the Skoll Foundation. A program that helps restore overfished areas through community-based marine conservation has won the Skoll Foundation's top prize for social…
Zebra Shark (Stegastoma fasciatum). Photo credit: Jürg Brand The government of Madagascar has established the Indian Ocean island's first shark sanctuary in an area famous for its marine biodiversity, reports…
Can alternative income programs save Fiji's reef fish? If a country's residents, historically, didn't fret about their coastal resources or concern themselves with starvation, what happens when those previously abundant…
A small-scale fisher in Sri Lanka. [Credit: Nishan Perreira/Project Seahorse]. Do you know how that tuna sashimi got to your dinner plate? Probably not—and chances are, the restaurant that served…
A pair of bottlenose dolphins frolic in the waters of Mayumba National Park, previously Gabon's only national park dedicated to the protection of marine species. Photo credit: Peadar Brehony /…
An Antarctic krill. Photo by: Uwe Kils/Creative Commons 3.0. Another year, another failed attempt to protect a significant chunk of the Ross Sea, which sits off the coast of Antarctica.…
Sylvia Earle is one of the ocean's staunchest defenders. A National Geographic Society Explorer in Residence and former chief scientist with NOAA, Earle has spent a lifetime documenting the rapid…
