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A “roadmap” for preserving marine life around the famously biologically rich island of Madagascar has been proposed in a new study released last week.

Madagascar is one of the poorest countries on Earth yet has proposed to create more than 1 million hectares (3,861 square miles) of protected areas to provide for the long-term conservation of its marine resources, including coral reefs and mangroves.

The new study, conducted by the University of California, Berkeley, the Wildlife Conservation Society and others used what is called (borrowing from the financial world) a “diversified portfolio” approach, to identify what areas need protection and use a variety of strategies to protect them.

These options include implementing strict no-take zones (where fishing is completely banned) to areas ...

Six recipients of the 2012 Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation have been announced. They are from Brazil, Cuba, France, Peru, and the United States.

The 2012 Pew Fellowships in Marine Conservation will support projects to promote green infrastructure for climate adaptation in coastal communities, expand marine areas in Brazil that are under protection, shift the Peruvian anchoveta industry toward directly feeding humans, identify climate-driven changes in fisheries, analyze French fisheries subsidies, and conserve goliath grouper populations in Cuba, the Caribbean, and the Gulf of Mexico.

Sea ice cover in the Arctic in 2011 has passed its annual minimum, reaching the second-lowest level since satellite records began, US scientists say.

The National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC) says the minimum, reached on 9 September, was 4.33 million sq km.

That value is 36% lower than the average minimum for 1979-2000.

NSIDC said the figure was preliminary, and that “changing winds could still push the ice extent lower” before final numbers are published in early October.

The preliminary value is 160,000 sq km – or 4% – above the record minimum seen in 2007.

“While the record low year of 2007 was marked by a combination of weather conditions that favoured ice loss – including clearer skies, favourable wind patterns and warm temperatures – this year has shown more typical weather patt...

A powerful coalition of governments, international organizations, civil society groups and private interests are joining together under the banner of a Global Partnership for Oceans to confront widely documented problems of over-fishing, marine degradation, and habitat loss.

In a keynote speech delivered on 24 February at The Economist

Small island states in the South Pacific are to link up their marine resources this year in an effort to sustainably manage one-tenth of the world’s oceans and boost maritime conservation globally.

The Micronesian and Polynesian nations are implementing the network in conjunction with environmentalists to ease the impacts of overfishing, pollution, acidification and climate change that are threatening their economic and social systems.

The project – which aims to cover an area bigger than the combined territories of the US and Canada – was outlined during a World Oceans summit in Singapore that brought together scientists, politicians, NGOs and representatives from the fishing and shipping industries.

It comes amid a raft of new moves to reduce the alarming deterioration of the world’s mar...

A pioneering scientific expedition that will document the health of coral on the Great Barrier Reef will be undertaken as a joint venture between global technology giant Google, the UQ Global Change Institute, not-for-profit organisation Underwater Earth and insurance company Catlin.

The Catlin Seaview Survey, announced in Singapore today, aims to carry out the first comprehensive study of the composition and health of Reef coral to an unprecedented depth range (0-100m).

The project’s chief scientist, Professor Ove Hoegh Guldberg from the Global Change Institute at The University of Queensland, said the scientific data gathered would strengthen the understanding about how climate change and other environmental changes are likely to affect ocean ecosystems like the Great Barrier Reef.

The UK Ministry of Defence is to de-classify submarine data to help shed light on climate change in the Arctic.

Environmental data are routinely monitored by Navy vessels, but the measurements are highly sensitive because they could give away positions.

A dataset from one submarine mission will be released to give a snapshot of conditions under the ice.

It is hoped that further data could be released in future, yielding clues to how the Arctic is changing.

Water temperature and salt content are among the environmental data monitored by submarines.

But only a handful of people have access to such information because they could be used to track where UK submarines go.

As part of the Submarine Estimates of Arctic Turbulence Spectra (SEATS) project, the MoD will release measurements to resear...

Are artificial reefs the answer to the oceans’ eco-problems? Nicolette Craig looks at attempts, both good and bad, to replicate nature.

Just off the coast of Lombok in Indonesia the sea is crystal clear, the diving is breathtaking and fish abound

A UK scientist studying volcanic vents in the ocean says they hold a grave warning for future marine ecosystems.

These vents have naturally acidified waters that hint at how our seas might change if atmospheric carbon dioxide levels continue to rise.

They are conditions that would make it harder for corals and similar organisms to make the hard parts in their bodies.

Dr Jason Hall-Spencer’s work suggests our oceans could lose perhaps 30% of their biodiversity this century.

The Plymouth University researcher has been presenting his latest findings to a major conference in Vancouver, Canada.

“I am investigating underwater volcanoes where carbon dioxide bubbles up like a Jacuzzi, acidifying large areas of the seabed, and we can see at these vents which types of organisms are able to thrive a...

Canadian researchers have trained sea lions to take part in an experiment designed to find out why the species is dying out.

The team strapped cameras and tracking equipment onto endangered Steller sea lions to see how they dived for food.

Early results from the project indicate that overfishing might not be the main factor in their decline as had previously been thought.

Male Steller sea lions measure 3m (10ft) and weigh more than 950kg.

This makes them the biggest of all sea lions.

These marine mammals once thrived on the shores of the North Pacific ocean. Now their numbers have dwindled to around 100,000. But no one knows why they are dying out.

To investigate why, Prof Andrew Trites, a marine mammal specialist from the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, has recruited some of...