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American Tortoise Rescue, a nonprofit organization established in 1990 for the protection of all species of tortoise and turtle, is sponsoring its 17th annual World Turtle Day® today. The day was created as an annual observance to help people celebrate and protect turtles and tortoises and their disappearing habitats around the world.

Susan Tellem and Marshall Thompson, founders of ATR, advocate humane treatment of all animals, including reptiles. Since 1990, ATR has placed about 4,000 tortoises and turtles in caring homes. ATR assists law enforcement when undersize or endangered turtles are confiscated and provides helpful information and referrals to persons with sick, neglected or abandoned turtles.

Alaska Airlines is kicking plastic straws off of its planes. The carrier has announced plans to eliminate single-use plastic straws and drink stirrers on all flights, following the pleas of a 16-year old Girl Scout.

Shelby O’Neil, a Girl Scout who founded ocean conservation group Jr. Ocean Guardians, reached out to Alaska Airlines last year, pointing out the negative environmental impact of the plastic straws, 22 million of which the carrier used last year. Officials at the airline say they were already considering making the change.

Starting this summer, all Alaska Airlines flights will replace the straws, stirrers and toothpicks with sustainable, marine-friendly options, including white birch and bamboo...

Reefs all over the planet are facing a very bleak future. Rapidly warming ocean and acidic water are killing them all over the planet. Bleaching event after bleaching event is ruining some of the most important of earth’s natural features. No, it’s not just the Australia or Hawaii, although those are probably the ones you’ve heard about. It’s many other reef systems, all of which are home to a massive variety of life. The most recent depressing reef news comes out of Japan, where studies have found that 99 percent of Japan’s largest reef is on the verge of collapse.

According to a government survey in Sekisei Lagoon in southwestern Japan, the reef, which measures 12 miles long by 10 miles wide, is basically dead...

At Mote Marine Lab’s Center for Coral Reef Research and Restoration in the Florida Keys, Joey Mandara is like a baby sitter. But instead of children he tends to thousands of baby corals, growing in large, shallow tanks called raceways. Mote has been doing this work for five years, raising corals from embryos into adult colonies, then planting them on Florida’s reefs. Now, the emergence of a new, debilitating coral disease makes his work more important than ever.

In one raceway, Mandara says fragments of brain coral have grown quickly in this controlled environment.

“The brain coral were eight fragments,” he says. “And over time, they’ve grown out and have now fused into each other, becoming one coral that will hopefully over time become sexually mature.”

Mote lab’s science director Erinn...

Coral reefs, mangroves and even some fish could soon have their own insurance policies as the industry seeks new ways to boost protection for those affected by the ocean changes wrought by climate change.

Warmer sea temperatures have led to more intense storms in the Atlantic Ocean, contributing to $320 billion in disaster losses from weather and climate-related events last year, according to the World Meteorological Organization.

Only about a quarter of these were insured.

But despite high payouts, industry experts speaking at the Ocean Risk Summit in reinsurance hub Bermuda said so-called “ocean risk” – which encompasses storms and hurricanes as well as marine diseases and declines in fish stocks – can present opportunities for insurers if the risks are modelled correctly.

One way to...

A dazzling neon blue tide in San Diego, California, has filled its beaches with electric aqua colours. By day the plankton turn the water red, but come nightfall they radiate a blue glow when the algae are disturbed by movement, such as waves crashing on to the shoreline. Bioluminescent light shows are not uncommon globally, but the last red tide in San Diego was in 2013 – and it’s no less beautiful each time they grace the oceans.

Hundreds and hundreds of white tip sharks swarming in crystal clear ebony coloured water weaving gracefully through the nooks and crannies of the coral below searching for a meal. Little fish hiding behind rocks and even divers, hoping not to be spied. Then – CRACK!!!! – a shark finds a morsel and send the hundreds of other shark into a frenzy of movement. Thirty seconds later, the slow graceful ballet of movement resumes as if nothing had happened. What a rush!!

New research from the University of North Carolina concludes that most marine life in marine protected areas will not be able to tolerate warming ocean temperatures caused by greenhouse gas emissions.

There are 8,236 marine protected areas around the world covering about four percent of the surface of the ocean. They have been established as a haven to protect threatened marine life, like polar bears, penguins and coral reefs, from the effects of fishing and other activities such as oil and gas extraction.

The study found that with continued “business-as-usual” emissions, the protections currently in place won’t matter, because by 2100, warming and reduced oxygen concentration will make marine protected areas uninhabitable by most species currently residing in those areas.

The study ...

Alisa Schulman-Janiger was observing gray whales off Mexico in 1985 when, instead of a majestic fluke rising from the water, she saw an ugly stump.

It was a whale without a tail. “My jaw literally dropped,” she recalls.

Since then, there have been occasional sightings of tailless whales in western North America. But so far this year, at least three flukeless gray whales have been spotted migrating northward along California’s coast—a spike that has Schulman-Janiger concerned for their well-being.

There are no signs these animals have suffered a killer whale attack, or a collision with a ship, she says; instead, the injuries are likely due to entanglement in fishing gear.

When the marine mammals feed in areas with lots of fishing gear, debris, and other human-made objects, ropes and nets ...