Category News

Greater protections for species of sharks will be considered through a new call for evidence to better understand the scale of the shark fin trade in the UK, as a way to help reduce the import and export of shark fins and protect the world’s sharks.

The UK has a strong track record in marine conservation and has been pressing for stronger international action to protect sharks against unsustainable fishing practices and shark finning, which is the practice of removing a shark’s fins at sea and discarding the finless body back into the water.

The government is now seeking additional evidence to ensure that appropriate protection is in place for all shark species and to inform future policy on protecting marine wildlife.

The call for evidence will help the government better und...

Covering a swath of ocean larger than Peru around coral reefs, golden beaches and rocky atolls in north Hawaiʻi, Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument is one of the world’s largest marine protected areas — and the biggest in North America.This UNESCO World Heritage Site is home to endangered Hawaiian monk seals (Monachus schauinslandi), two dozen species of whales and dolphins, and green sea turtles (Chelonia mydas), among thousands of other creatures.

Even as countries fall well short of meeting a UN goal to protect 10% of the world’s oceans by the end of this year, marine protected areas (MPAs) like Papahānaumokuākea show what effective conservation can look like, said Aulani Wilhelm, who worked to build and manage the MPA as an official with the US National Oceanic and A...

The state government has sent its final proposal to the Centre to notify 2,011.43 sq km Angria Bank – located 105km (56.7 nautical miles) off the Konkan coast – as a ‘designated area’ under the Maritime Zones Act, 1976, thereby inching towards India’s first marine protected zone beyond territorial waters.

“It is a very important step towards conservation and protection of marine biodiversity,” said Milind Mhaiskar, principal secretary (forests) who wrote to central bodies, the Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) with a copy to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on November 25. 

Supporting coral reefs, algal habitats, and high diversity of marine flora and fauna, Angria Bank was identified among 106 important coastal and marine biodiversity ...

We are going through one of the hardest times in the 21st Century. Filled with bad news, the human species is fighting for survival. As much as we need to battle the pandemic, we must resist the climate crisis and choose sustainability as our survival pathway. Amidst the pandemic, and the loss of lives, time and happiness, let’s look at some good news for biodiversity and the ecosystem.

Coral Reefs of the Red Sea surprisingly resist climate change.
Increasing temperature and marine pollution is a threat to the coral reefs — the ecosystem of the Red Sea that protects and provides a habitat to hundreds of coastal organisms. Environmental activists and scientists, for a long time, believed in the possibility of the death of coral species due to temperature rise...

A satellite that will be critical to the understanding of climate change has blasted skyward from California.

Sentinel-6 “Michael Freilich” is set to become the primary means of measuring the shape of the world’s oceans.

Its data will track not only sea-level rise but reveal how the great mass of waters is moving around the globe.

Looking somewhat like a dog kennel, the sophisticated 1.3-tonne satellite was taken aloft from the Vandenberg base on a SpaceX Falcon-9 rocket.

The Sentinel is a joint endeavour between Europe and the US, and will continue the measurements that have been made by a succession of spacecraft, called the Jason-Topex/Poseidon series, going back to 1992.

These earlier missions have shown unequivocally that sea levels globally are rising, at a rate in ex...

In the South Atlantic Ocean, a tiny island of 250 people has made a significant contribution to global marine conservation by protecting a huge swath of ocean under its control.

To reach Tristan da Cunha, a UK overseas territory, one must make a seven-day boat trip from South Africa, reported National Geographic. The island chain recently announced that 700,000 square kilometers (270,271 square miles), or 90% of its territorial waters, will be designated as a large marine protected area (MPA) to safeguard the area’s rich biodiversity and endangered animals, The Guardian reported...

Ocean deoxygenation is now being recognized as major threat to future global coral reef survival.

Oxygen is life, in or out of the water, raising concerns that declining ocean oxygen stores are adding an additional environmental stress to already highly vulnerable coral reef ecosystems. While the twin effects of ocean warming and acidification are well studied, until now there has been limited understanding of how the growing threat of ocean deoxygenation may impact the ability of corals to function and ultimately form reefs.

A unique deoxygenation-reoxygenation stress experiment has given researchers from the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), University of Konstanz and University of Copenhagen insight into how corals manage deoxygenation stress and the key genes that likely dr...

Egypt ranked the second best diving world destination in 2020, according to the British Dive Magazine. The magazine said Egypt once again garnered a large proportion of the vote. Egypt gained the same position in 2019.   

It is worth noting that Egypt has previously won a number of international awards and distinguished sites in the field of diving.

In 2008, 2009 and 2010 the shores of the Red Sea won the first place in polls in the English market in diving and marine activities. In 2015, Egypt ranked second.  

October 18, 2020, Reef International Foundation specialized in diving and protecting coral reefs has chosen the Red Sea in Egypt among the best global list of diving sites, and advised its followers to visit Egypt and enjoy a unique experience in the depths of the R...

Researchers in Southern California are seeing more great white sharks than ever before, reports local broadcast network KCAL-TV.

Chris Lowe, a shark expert at California State University Long Beach, tells KCAL-TV that his lab tagged a record 38 great whites—more than three times the number they tagged last year. “This year there were just more sharks around, and the question is why,” says Lowe.

But scientists emphasize an important qualifier: The great whites cruising the Southern California coast are babies and juveniles that tend to be between four and ten feet long. These skittish young sharks stick close to shore to avoid predators and snack on stingrays and fish.

They also mostly avoid people, even as they’re becoming more numerous.

“Despite the fact that shark p...

This year’s Great British Beach Clean, hosted by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS), has found that face masks and gloves were found on nearly 30% of beaches cleaned by Marine Conservation Society volunteers over the week-long event. The inland Source to Sea Litter Quest data shows a similarly alarming presence of masks and gloves, with more than 69% of litter picks finding PPE items.

“The amount of PPE our volunteers found on beaches and inland this year is certainly of concern,” said Lizzie Prior, Great British Beach Clean Coordinator at the MCS...