Marine Protected Areas News

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…

Southern elephant seals battle for mating rights. Photo by: G. Harris/WCS. Conservationists are celebrating the announcement that UNESCO has dubbed Argentina's Península Valdés a biosphere reserve under the Man and…

A U.S. State Department conference on the oceans raised an impressive $800 million for marine conservation this week. The conference was also notable for the announcement by President Obama of…

President Obama announced yesterday he intends to drastically expand the Pacific Remote Islands Marine National Monument making what will likely be the largest marine protected area (MPA) on the planet.…

Pacific mackerel (Scomber japonicus) . Photo by Rhett A. Butler. Protecting large, isolated areas of no-take zones for over 10 years with strong enforcement is the key to effective Marine…

Commercial fishing allowed in 97 percent of the world-famous Phoenix Islands marine protected area In 2010 President Anote Tong of Kiribati made a historic pledge, committing to protect the waters…

Mongabay.org announces new $20,000 environmental reporting grant: the state of marine fisheries in Indonesia. After kicking off the Special Reporting Initiatives program last month, Mongabay.org is announcing a call for…

Four unarmed bombs dropped by the US military into the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park pose a low risk to wildlife and a joint mission will aim for their "rapid…

As the most pristine marine ecosystem on the planet, Antarctica's Ross Sea has become dubbed the world's "last ocean." Home to an abundance of penguins, whales, orcas, seals, and massive…

The federal government insists it is striving to avoid the Great Barrier Reef being listed "in danger" ahead of a crunch UN meeting, after rejecting a Senate recommendation to block…

Plant’s carbon emissions will top that of entire country of Myanmar and will threaten local livelihoods, environmental groups say. Indonesia will go ahead with construction of what is set to…

Vieques Island. Photo by: USFWS. Life in the ocean require nutrient, but too much of a good thing can be hugely detrimental. Nutrient pollution from agricultural and industrial runoff causes…

Made up of ten islands off the coast of northern Mozambique, this coastal marine reserve in the Primeiras and Segundas Archipelago will cover more than 4020 square miles. Photo by:…

This post is an expanded version of an article that appeared in August on Yale e360: Easing The Collateral Damage Fisheries Inflict on Seabirds.

Outbreaks of the coral eating crown of thorns starfish have been responsible for 42 percent of the decline in coral cover on the Great Barrier Reef between 1985 and 2012.…

Adelie penguins hunting for food. Photo by: J. Weller. Click to enlarge. Pablo Garcia Borboroglu will be speaking at the Wildlife Conservation Network Expo in San Francisco on October 13th,…

Hector's dolphin, the parent species of the Maui's dolphin. Photo by: James Shook. The New Zealand government's recent efforts to protect the world’s smallest dolphin have come under scrutiny from…

Brent Stewart tags a whale shark with a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag in Indonesia. Photo: © CI/Mark Erdmann. Researchers have a caught a juvenile—though still massive—whale shark on camera sucking…