Oceans News

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Soil microbes. Invisible to the naked eye, microbial communities play a huge role in planetary processes, such as nutrient cycling, and are vital to ecosystem and human health.

IUCN launches group to conserve at-risk microbes vital to life on Earth

Sean Mowbray 21 Jan 2026
After a game of beach footvolley on a sweltering hot day in Beirut, Lebanon, a man cools off by pouring water on himself.

2025 was third-warmest year on record, research shows

Shanna Hanbury 20 Jan 2026

From south to north, Sri Lanka’s cricket dreams undermine fragile ecosystems

Malaka Rodrigo 19 Jan 2026

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

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 Jan 2026
Mike Heusner. Photo courtesy of Caribbean Lifestyle Belize

Mike Heusner, steward of Belize’s waters, has died, aged 86

Rhett Ayers Butler 16 Jan 2026
A crew prepares the ground for electric poles near homes destroyed by the Pacific Palisades Fire in Malibu, California, U.S., in January 2025. Image by AP Photo/Richard Vogel.

Ocean set ‘alarming’ new temperature record in 2025

Edward Carver 16 Jan 2026

Greenland sharks retain functional vision despite extreme longevity

Bobby Bascomb 14 Jan 2026
A purse seiner targeting Pacific bluefin tuna (Thunnus orientalis) in the Pacific Ocean off Mexico. Image courtesy of Andre Boustany.

Study tracks fishing boats to see how heat waves affect fish distribution

Edward Carver 13 Jan 2026
A North Atlantic right whale with calf. Image via Wikimedia Commons (Public domain).

North Atlantic right whale births increase

Rhett Ayers Butler 13 Jan 2026
Canoes stationed by Bountiya, a fishmeal industrial zone in Nouadhibou, with industrial purse seiners, including the Turkish-flagged Cinar Kardesler.

Mauritania’s fishmeal fever ends as government tightens regulation

Josef Skrdlik, OIiver Dunn 13 Jan 2026
Cody James brand pirarucu cowboy boots, made from exotic fish leather that stands up to wear, at Boot Barn.

Cowboy boots made from pirarucu leather fund Amazon’s sustainable fishery

Jenny Gonzales 12 Jan 2026
Methane bubbles flow in small streams out of seafloor sediment offshore of Virginia, north of Washington Canyon. Quill worms, anemones and patches of microbial mat can be seen in and along the periphery of the seepage area.

Methane chasers: Hunting a climate-changing gas seeping from Earth’s seafloor

Elizabeth Devitt 8 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
A camera-trap image of a flat-headed cat in Thailand’s Princess Sirindhorn Wildlife Sanctuary. Image courtesy of DNP/Panthera.

7 hopeful wildlife sightings that researchers celebrated in 2025

Shreya Dasgupta 6 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
Emma Johnston. Photo by The University of New South Wales

Emma Johnston, a marine ecologist with institutional reach, has died at 52

Rhett Ayers Butler 31 Dec 2025

Deep-sea ‘hotels’ reveal 20 new species hiding in Pacific Ocean twilight zone near Guam

Liz Kimbrough 31 Dec 2025
The fish-eating bat has been recorded on more than 45 islands in the Gulf of California. Isla Partida Norte is home to the largest known colony of the species. Image courtesy of José Juan Flores Martínez.

Up close with Mexico’s fish-eating bats: Interview with researcher José Juan Flores Martínez

Astrid Arellano 31 Dec 2025
The Belo Monte hydropower dam on the Xingu River in Brazil’s Pará state. Image courtesy of TV Brasil.

Fish deformities expose ‘collapse’ of Xingu River’s pulse after construction of Belo Monte Dam

Tiago da Mota e Silva 31 Dec 2025

Road to recovery: Five stories of species staging a comeback

Shreya Dasgupta 31 Dec 2025
A wooden dhow in Kiwla, Tanzania.

Fishing ‘modernization’ leaves Tanzania’s small-scale crews struggling to stay afloat

Mongabay.com 30 Dec 2025

Photos: Top new species from 2025

Liz Kimbrough 29 Dec 2025
On their way back from a day of fishing, fishers shared information on where, how, when and how much they spent to catch fish as well as the amount and the species caught. Researchers present at the daily landings collect information to quantify and identify the fish, take biometric measurements and photos of all captured fish, and systematize the data, allowing researchers to identify which fish came from which vessel. Image courtesy of Igor Hister Lourenço.

Amazon fishers help scientists map dam harms to Madeira River stocks

Karla Mendes 29 Dec 2025
Kristina-Maria-Gjerde. Image courtesy of the Deep-Ocean Stewardship Initiative (DOSI).

Kristina Gjerde, defender of the deep ocean, has died

Rhett Ayers Butler 26 Dec 2025
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
Community members plant red mangrove (Rhizophora mangle) propagules in Hanging Site as part of a restoration effort.

Huge ‘blue carbon’ offsetting project takes root in the mangroves of Sierra Leone

Edward Carver, Mohamed Fofanah 23 Dec 2025

As Cyclone Ditwah battered land, Sri Lanka’s oceans absorbed a silent shock

Malaka Rodrigo 23 Dec 2025
Shark meat is prepared for distribution at CEAGESP in São Paulo city. Image by Philip Jacobson/Mongabay.

Mongabay shark meat investigation wins national journalism award in Brazil

Mongabay.com 23 Dec 2025
Sand mining in the Mekong

Mekong sand mining risks collapse of SE Asia’s largest freshwater lake, study finds

Carolyn Cowan 23 Dec 2025
Vermillion rockfish and soft coral observed during an expedition in Channel Islands National Marine Sanctuary.

Century-old corals reveal the Pacific Northwest is acidifying faster than expected

Elizabeth Fitt 22 Dec 2025
Bee Smith, from her Instagram account.

Bethany “Bee” Smith, researcher who documented a megamouth shark alive, died in a diving accident, aged 24

Rhett Ayers Butler 22 Dec 2025

A flood of logs post-Cyclone Senyar leaves Padang fishers out of work

Jaka Hendra Baittri 20 Dec 2025

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