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

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

Rhett Ayers Butler 17 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
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
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
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

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
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
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
A southern sea otter.

Zombie urchins & the Blob: California sea otters face new threats & ecosystem shifts

Christine Heinrichs 19 Dec 2025
Artisanal fishing boats. Image by Mongabay Latam.

Drug gangs in Ecuador and Peru also involved in shark fin trafficking: Report

Shanna Hanbury 19 Dec 2025
A sewage outlet in Bangkok.

Marine heat waves and raw sewage combine to put human health at risk

Sean Mowbray 18 Dec 2025

The lab-in-a-backpack busting illegal shark fins: Interview with Diego Cardeñosa

Philip Jacobson 18 Dec 2025
A child touches a freshly caught albacore tuna in Vairao, Tahiti, French Polynesia, in January 2024. Image by AP Photo/Daniel Cole.

Pacific fisheries summit gives a boost to albacore & seabirds

Edward Carver 16 Dec 2025
Healthy reef off the coast of Panaon Island. Image courtesy of Danny Ocampo / Oceana.

Philippines’ newest marine protected area ‘sets inspiring example’ (commentary)

Antha Williams, Loren Legarda 16 Dec 2025

West and Central Africa tackle coastal erosion

Adrienne Engono, Carolle Ahodekon, Charles Kolou, Christophe Assogba, Roland Klohi, Rosie Pioth 16 Dec 2025

Seafloor survey in Cambodia finds simple anti-trawling blocks help seagrass recover

Keith Anthony Fabro 15 Dec 2025
Artisanal fishers pull in a fishing net.

Artisanal fishers in Liberia question benefits of new tracking devices from government

Edward Blamo 15 Dec 2025

Study finds more ‘laggards’ than ‘leaders’ among high seas fisheries managers

Edward Carver 12 Dec 2025

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