Scientific American magazine recently ran an article on the rediscovery of the smoothtooth blacktip shark (Carcharhinus leiodon) in a Kuwaiti fish market. Believed extinct for over 100 years, the smoothtooth…
Environmental groups have blasted draft text of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) released yesterday by WikiLeaks as potentially devastating to the environment and wildlife. The massive 12-nation free trade agreement has…
Also see our Top 10 Environmental Stories of 2013. The discovery of a new tapir species is number seven in our first ever Top 10 List of Happy Environmental Stories.…
Great white shark in South Africa. China has banned shark fin and bird's nest soup from being served at official state banquets, reports Chinese state media. The move, announced Sunday…
Indonesia’s flag carrier won't transport shark fins any more Indonesia’s national carrier Garuda Indonesia has joined a growing number of airlines looking to curb the international shark fin trade by…
Authorities in Costa Rica have identified a new method used by fishermen to circumvent a ban on killing sharks for their fins. According to an INTERPOL alert, fishermen are now…
Peruvian fishermen slaughtered dolphins to use as bait for shark fishing, an undercover investigation has revealed. Footage showed infant and adult dolphins being harpooned then stabbed and clubbed before, in…
Overfishing for sharks is having detrimental effects on coral reefs, finds a new study published in the journal PLOS One. The research is based on long-term monitoring reefs off northwestern…
A species of shark that uses its fins to "walk" along the bottom of the ocean floor has been discovered off the coast of Indonesia. The shark, Hemiscyllium halmahera, uses…
Polka-dotted and striped. Massive but docile. That’s the whale shark for you - the largest fish and shark in the world. But despite being major tourist attractions, the lives of…
Warning: some photos may be disturbing or graphic. In a single night in March, a band of heavily-armed, horse-riding poachers slaughtered 89 elephants in southern Chad, thirty of which were…
A giant mako shark caught by a sports-fisherman in California Monday has spurred a conversation about declining shark populations worldwide, reports the Associated Press. The female shark caught Monday off…
Blue shark (Prionace glauca) off southern California. Photo by: Mark Conlin/NMFS. A recent study published in mongabay.com’s open access journal Tropical Conservation Science raises concerns about levels of heavy metals,…
The scalloped hammerhead shark is one of five sharks and two manta rays that won protection today at CITES, so long as it isn't overturned. Photo by: Stacy Jupiter/WCS. Today,…
Scalloped hammerheads (Sphyrna lewini) off Cocos Island, Costa Rica. This species is up for protection by CITES this month if nations votes in its favor. Photo by: Barry Peters. While…
The 3rd Annual New York Wildlife Conservation Film Festival (WFCC.org) runs from January 30 – February 2, 2013. Ahead of the event, Mongabay.com is running a series of Q&As with…
Sharks are among the most feared of all the world's predators, yet humans kill tens of millions of sharks for every person who falls victim to shark attack. Part of…
A forest elephant, which is considered by some to be a distinct species of elephant in Africa, in Gabon. Both forest elephants and savannah elephants are increasingly killed for their…
Green sea turtle released back into its natural habitat after being raised for 10 months. Photo by: Sea Turtles 911. Earlier this month, Sea Turtles 911, a conservation organization in…
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…
Captive whale shark in the Georgia aquarium. Photo by: Zac Wolf. The death of one of the world's largest recorded whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) in the Arabian Sea provoked a…
Leopard Shark (Triakis semifasciata). Photo by Rhett Butler. Analyzing the DNA sequences of 4,383 specimens of sharks and rays, researchers have discovered 79 potentially new species, raising both the known…
Researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the University of Exeter, and the Government of Mexico have published the first-ever satellite telemetry study on the manta ray, the world’s largest ray…
Remote camera traps, which have become a hugely important conservation tool on land during the past decade, have now gone underwater. Marine biologists have used underwater video camera traps to…
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…
Matt Miller is director of communications for The Nature Conservancy in Idaho, a position he’s held for ten years. He is responsible for the chapter’s publications and digital media. He…
Blue shark with longline hook. Photo by: Terry Goss. A photo of a shark with a rusting hook in its maw is the grand prize winner of the Ocean in…
Costa Rican fishermen have killed some 2,000 sharks in Colombian waters off Malpelo island, a protected area renowned for its marine life, reports Colombia Reports. Sandra Bessudo, special advisor on…
California governor Jerry Brown on Friday signed legislation banning the the importation, possession and sale of shark fins in California. The move follows similar bans in Washington, Oregon and Hawaii…
The Republic of the Marshall Islands has created the world's biggest shark reserve: so large that all of Mexico could fit comfortably inside. With new legislation, commercial shark fishing is…
