Ocean Crisis News

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.…

Fan coral off the coast of Belize. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Only 8 percent of the Caribbean's reefs today retain coral, according to a new report by the International…

Calcification rates by reef-building coral communities on Australia's Great Barrier Reef have slowed by nearly half over the past 40 years, a sign that the world's coral reefs are facing…

Purple coral off the coast of Maui, Hawaii. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. In an unprecedented show of concern, 2,600 (and rising) of the world's top marine scientists have released…

A Malagasy girl. While Madagascar faces widespread deforestation and erosion, it is estimated that 70 percent of its people suffer from malnutrition. The Rio+20 Summit is attempting to tackle both…

Industrial tuna fishing has pushed some species to the edge of extinction. Photo by: Alex Hoffard/Greenpeace. Despite a slew of past pledges and agreements, the world's governments have made little…

A new video by Google Earth and the World Resources Institute (WRI) highlights the world's many endangered coral reefs. A part of the WRI's Reefs at Risk program, the video…

Ocean acidification growing at a rate faster than anytime in 300 million years. To the left a discoaster of marine plankton before an ocean acidification event 56 million years ago,…

Washing synthetic clothes—such as nylon, polyester, and acrylic—is polluting the oceans with billions of microplastics: plastics that measure less than one millimeter. It may sound innocuous, but research has shown…

"History does not crawl, it jumps."- Nassim Nicholas Taleb "This is an opportunity for greatness which has never been offered to any civilization… in human history before - to act…

Climate and The Oceans by Dr. Geoffrey K. Vallis provides a coherent, well-articulated primer on how the oceans impact the Earth's climate. This easy-to-read illustrated book, filled with both data…

Emissions of carbon over the last two centuries have raised the acidity of the oceans to the highest levels in 21,000 years and likely beyond, according to a new study…

WARNING: video is graphic. A Greenpeace video, using footage from a whistleblower, shows disturbing images of the tuna industry operating in the unregulated waters of the Pacific Ocean. Using fish…

Victories won by activists around the world tops our list of the big environmental stories of the year. In this photo: a young woman is placed in handcuffs and arrested…

Menhaden species in Chesapeake Bay: Brevoortia tyrannus. Photo by: Brian Gratwicke. The Atlantic State Marine Fisheries Commission (ASMFC) has slashed the allowable catch of a tiny fish named menhaden by…

Researchers with the Smithsonian have catalogued almost as many crab species on tropical coral reef bits measuring just 20.6 square feet (6.3 square meters) as in all of Europe's seas,…

Singa betina mempertahankan wildebeest yang terbunuh di Tanzania. Foto oleh: Rhett A. Butler. Populasi serigala di seluruh dunia telah turun sekitar 99 persen dari jumlah populasi yang pernah ada dalam…

Oil pollution doesn't have to kill fish to have a long-term impact, according to a recent study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). Researchers found that…

The coastline of the 'Patagonian Sea' covered with seabirds and seals. Photo by: W. Conway. Claudio Campagna will be speaking at the Wildlife Conservation Network Expo in San Francisco on…

Lioness defends wildebeest kill in Tanzania. Photo by: Rhett A. Butler. Worldwide wolf populations have dropped around 99 percent from historic populations. Lion populations have fallen from 450,000 to 20,000…

A new report finds that the oceans are facing a mass extinction. One day many of the world's marine species may only be found in aquariums, if at all, such…

A new analysis estimates that longline fisheries are still decimating seabirds, even after years of efforts to mitigate deaths. According to a study in Endangered Species Research around 300,000 seabirds…

Tourism in Palau makes sharks worth more alive than dead finds a new study. Here a diver in Palau swims with five reef sharks. Photo by: Todd Essick. For the…

Researchers have documented for years how noise pollution impacts dolphins in whales, but a new study in Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment finds that even low intensity noise can…

Marine scientists have been warning for years that coral reefs, the most biodiverse ecosystems in the ocean, are facing grave peril. But a new comprehensive analysis by the World Resources…

From 1950 to 2006 the United Nation Food and Agriculture Agency (FAO) estimated that 12,700 metric tons of fish were caught in the Arctic, giving the impression that the Arctic…

The view from Lazy Point. Photo courtesy of Carl Safina. Being compared—by more than one reviewer—to Henry Thoreau and Rachel Carson would make any nature writer's day. But add in…