Pacific Ocean News

“Casper”, the ghost-like octopod discovered early this year, could be at risk from deep sea mining, scientists say. The octopod was found at a depth of 4,290 meters (2.7 miles) during…

Sperm whales wander great expanses of the sea, locking their culture between their lips and carrying it with them wherever they go. Their distinctive vocal traits allowed researchers to identify…

Remote-controlled vehicles will soon begin churning up the ocean floor off the cost of Papua New Guinea, searching for millions of tons of copper and gold. In 2011, Canada-based Nautilus…

Pacific bluefin tuna are severely overfished. A stock assessment released last April found that the Pacific bluefin population has dropped by 97.4 percent from its historic, pre-fishing levels, leaving just…

Marine scientists at the University of California Santa Barbara’s Benioff Ocean Initiative have developed a web-based tool, Deep Sea Mining Watch, to allow anyone to watch vessels engaged in deep…

Global warming is changing Earth’s oceans and those impacts will last for decades even if we rein in greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, according to new research. A report…

In 2013, Indonesia declared the whale shark a protected species, hoping to put a dent in the thriving trade in its body and parts which was pushing the world’s largest fish…

To mark its independence day on August 17, Indonesia’s fisheries ministry will scuttle 34 fishing boats — from Vietnam, Philippines, Thailand, Malaysia and China — all caught fishing with faulty…

An area targeted for deep sea mining is teeming with diverse life forms, including several new species, a new study has found. Countries have been eyeing the deep seafloor of…

By now, you’ve probably heard of the massive, floating garbage patches swirling around in each of Earth’s five major ocean basins: the North and South Atlantic, the North and South…

A Malaysian minister said the Southeast Asian nation would begin to sink rogue foreign fishing vessels that trespass in its waters. The practice began to be employed in Indonesia after Joko Widodo…

In the mysterious depths of the Marianas Trench Marine National Monument off of the Philippines in the Pacific Ocean, scientists have filmed a ghostly-looking fish belonging to the Aphyonidae family. This is the…

n July 12, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea upheld the Philippine government's challenge to China's sweeping claim that it had "since time immemorial" ruled the seas…

rom space, there is only one stretch of ocean that lights up at night, in spring. Breaking the dark in a curved line near South America’s southern tip, the lights…

You’re probably familiar with the 2003 animated film Finding Nemo — it was a box office hit that grossed nearly $400 million, after all. But you may be less familiar…

Criminal charges have been filed against Houston, Texas-based Plains All American Pipeline, the company responsible for spilling as much as 143,000 gallons of crude oil from a ruptured pipeline near…

Sea level rise and other associated impacts of rising global temperatures such as coastal erosion and flooding have long been forecast as some of the most serious challenges that humanity…

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…

Researchers with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) discovered what may be a new species of 'dumbo' octopod at a depth of 4,290 meters (2.5 miles) during a deep…

The current global coral bleaching event began in the Pacific Ocean in the middle of 2014. By October 2015, as the current El Niño event was just beginning to gain…

We dump a lot of trash into the world's oceans — so much that there’s a massive trash vortex swirling around in the North Pacific, as you’ve probably heard. A…

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…

t's like the plot of a science-fiction film: scientists develop killer robots to take out their targets with lethal injections. Only the targets in this case aren’t government enemies or…

Scientists collected water samples to measure ocean acidification in the Bering, Chukchi, and Beaufort seas on two research cruises aboard the US Coast Guard cutter Healy. Photo credit: Jeremy Mathis…

A Galápagos sea lion pup feeds. Male and female pups differ in how independently they forage for their own food, a new study shows. Credit: Peter Wilton / Wikimedia Commons…