Mongabay series: Oceans

The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) launched a global campaign last month aimed at eliminating two of the chief sources of ocean trash by 2022: microplastics frequently used in cosmetics…

JAKARTA — The extent of coral reef damage from the grounding of a Bahamian-flagged cruise ship at Raja Ampat earlier this month is about 3.5 times as big as an…

Rising ocean temperatures are bleaching reefs around the world at unprecedented levels, and, with little standing in its way, this coral-killing force is unlikely to relent, according to a new…

JAKARTA — One of the main coral reefs at Raja Ampat, an Indonesian island chain home to perhaps the world's richest marine biodiversity, was severely damaged last week when a…

Evolution can be an exquisite hammer, tapping out finely honed strategies for the survival of life on Earth against the blunt force of the environment. But mess with those surroundings too…

Made by human hands, thousands of floating structures that attract fish speckle Indonesian waters throughout the archipelago. Some drift. Some stand anchored to the ocean bottom. These fish aggregating devices —…

The vaquita continues to earn its title as “the world’s most endangered cetacean species.” According to a recent report by the International Committee for the Recovery of the Vaquita (CIRVA),…

When a large swath of the Ross Sea in Antarctica earned marine protected area (MPA) status late last year, becoming the world’s largest MPA, it was hailed as an ocean…

Greenpeace has released the first-ever underwater photos of a coral reef discovered at the mouth of the Amazon River last year. Extending from French Guiana to Maranhão State in northern…

JAKARTA — The archipelagic country of Indonesia has revised upward the official count of its islands, from 13,466 to 14,572. The former figure was submitted in 2012 to the last UN…

When the world is staring down a population that’s pushing quickly toward nine billion people, aquaculture offers an efficient way to produce high-protein food for the hungry masses. But there’s…

You need a boogie board and a wetsuit to garden with Katharyn Boyer, a biology professor at San Francisco State University in California. They come in handy along the shorelines…

In 2016, massive new ocean protected areas and transformative policies to fight illegal fishing brought hope. Meanwhile, the world’s worst coral bleaching event, record sea ice lows, and coastal flooding…

A battle is brewing in southeastern U.S. waters, the Gulf of Mexico, and the Caribbean Sea: it’s the lionfish against all comers. With voracious appetites and virtually no predators, these…

Water and air temperatures and shifts in wind patterns conspired to hold down sea ice extent, setting record lows for the month of November in both the Arctic and the…

GILI TRAWANGAN, Indonesia — The sun is rising behind Mount Rinjani as a group of divers boards a boat to Shark Point, a spot popular among sea turtles and reef…

This past July, U.S. President Barack Obama hosted Mexico’s President Peña Nieto at the White House to discuss bilateral cooperation on a range of issues, including several environmental matters. The…

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 fisheries have been estimated to support the livelihoods of 10 to 12 percent of the world’s population and generate an average of $100 billion in revenue every year. But…

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…

ad news came in three for critically endangered North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis) in late September. On Thursday, September 22, an 8-year-old female whale tangled up in hundreds of…

t’s a diver’s bane: beautiful and interesting sites, but low visibility. This year, Indonesia’s anomalously wet dry season overlapped its stormy rain season. Yet, while Jakarta proper was inundated, the…

It's 7 p.m. in the bay of Quintero, Valparaiso Province. With cuttlefish, hooks, coffee and food at the ready, the crew releases the moorings and sets out into the night…

The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) announced a new proposed rule last week that would create a new protected area in the Mid-Atlantic region in order to conserve…

Many of the ecosystems most impacted by human activities, such as tropical forests and coral reefs, are also among the most biodiverse in the world. But a recent study determined…

An area that includes the islands of San Félix and San Ambrosio — also known as the Desventuradas — is now officially protected. On August 24, the Chilean government announced…

rossbow in hand, Jo Marie Acebes strides the deck of the outrigger fishing boat she has refitted for tracking whales off the Philippines’ Babuyan Islands. She’s scanning for a target…

Government officials from around the world gathered at the United Nations in New York City for ongoing negotiations of an international treaty to protect marine biodiversity on the high seas…

Exporters of fish and fish products to the United States must now follow the same protective rules for marine mammal bycatch as domestic fishing operations. The U.S. National Oceanic and…

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…