Category News

Ocean temperatures are rising every year, according to a 2021 UN report, which means certain marine species vulnerable to heat, such as corals, are becoming increasingly endangered. In Brazil’s Northeastern Pernambuco state, a scientific initiative is trying to fight back. Since 2017 the Corais Biofactory, a local scientific startup, has developed a technique to aid coral restoration by using “nurseries”. In these spaces, scientists rehabilitate damaged corals taken from the sea. After the treatment, they reintroduce them into Pernambuco’s coral reefs.

The work is a pioneering effort in Brazil, as it uses 3D-printed bases that serve as support for the coral while it undergoes rehabilitation...

Two months ago the Sea Save Foundation delegation participated in the United Nation’s Ocean Conference – Sustainable Development Goal #14. Delegate after delegate took the podium and passionately expressed their nations’ support for the protection and the conservation of oceans.
Scientists are concerned that the failure to protect open oceans will spell disaster not only for marine species, island communities and fisheries but for the entire planet.

Climate Change, the effects of which we are seeing daily in news headlines, is largely buffered by oceans. Ocean decline will cause a domino-like effect on the climate of our planet.

The United Nations has tried to pass the High Oceans treaty four times before, and this fifth-time failure to reach consensus was unexpected by most and is ...

The way Google calculates the climate impact of your flights has changed, the BBC has discovered. Flights now appear to have much less impact on the environment than before. That’s because the world’s biggest search engine has taken a key driver of global warming out of its online carbon flight calculator.

“Google has airbrushed a huge chunk of the aviation industry’s climate impacts from its pages” says Dr Doug Parr, chief scientist of Greenpeace.

With Google hosting nine out of every 10 online searches, this could have wide repercussions for people’s travel decisions. 

The company said it made the change following consultations with its “industry partners”.

It affects the carbon calculator embedded in the company’s “Google Flights” search tool.

If you have ever tried ...

Researchers have declared a mammal related to the manatee – said to have inspired ancient tales of mermaids and sirens – extinct in China. Only three people surveyed from coastal communities in China reported seeing the dugong in the past five years. Known as the ocean’s most gentle giant, the dugong’s slow, relaxed behaviour is likely to have made it vulnerable to overfishing and shipping accidents. It still exists elsewhere in the world but is facing similar threats.

Prof Samuel Turvey, from the Zoological Society of London (ZSL), who co-authored the research study, said: “The likely disappearance of the dugong in China is a devastating loss.”

Scientists at ZSL and the Chinese Academy of Science reviewed all historical data on where dugongs had previously been found in China. 

In their first week, UN negotiations for a new Global Ocean Treaty are stalling due to a lack of political will. In response, activists marched for the oceans with Greenpeace USA activists in New York City outside the United Nations, with representatives from frontline communities addressing the crowd and calling for more urgency to ensure a strong Treaty is finalised in 2022.

Shaama Sandooyea, an activist from Mauritius who spoke at the rally, said:
“In Mauritius, we’re already feeling the impacts of the ocean crisis. The negotiations are not moving fast enough and we need action now. Delegates are not recognising the urgency of the situation, and are spending hours debating minor points that were put to bed decades ago...

World leaders will meet at the UN in New York later for more talks to save the world’s oceans from overexploitation. The UN High Seas Treaty has been through 10 years of negotiations but has yet to be signed. If agreed, it would put 30% of the world’s oceans into conservation areas by 2030. Campaigners hope it will protect marine life from overfishing and other human activities.

Two-thirds of the world’s oceans are currently considered international waters, which mean all countries have a right to fish, ship and do research there. But only 1.2% of these high seas, as they are referred to, are protected.

This leaves the marine life living there at risk of exploitation from the increasing threats of climate change, overfishing and shipping traffic.

And with ecosystems in the high...

The East Antarctic Ice Sheet (EAIS), so-called “sleeping giant”, which holds the majority of glacier ice on Earth, is closer to being “awakened” than scientists have previously believed. In research published this week, a team of scientists analyzed how EAIS behaved during warm periods in Earth’s past to predict how it will fare as the world continues heating. Recent satellite images already show signs of thinning ice and melting. 

“A key lesson from the past is that the EAIS is highly sensitive to even relatively modest warming scenarios. It isn’t as stable and protected as we once thought,” said co-author Professor Nerilie Abram, from Australian National University’s Research School of Earth Sciences.

If the global average temperature remains well below 2C, then EAIS is p...

For someone looking to make their diet more sustainable, the choices when it comes to eating seafood can be frankly baffling. It’s a vast category of food that includes everything from farmed prawns to wild-caught mackerel, and can have a huge array of environmental impacts, from high carbon emissions to the nasty effects of overfishing, slaughtered bycatch or antibiotic pollution.

Many people seeking to eat more environmentally choose to eschew it altogether and go for the vegetarian or vegan option.

But some seafood can be low-carbon, low environmental impact and also be a healthy source of food. And if you’re going to eat fish, making sure you choose a more sustainable option can make a huge difference.

“The category of seafood is really diverse,” says Jessica Gephart, assis...

In what seems like excellent news, coral cover in parts of the Great Barrier Reef is at a record high, according to new data from the Australian Institute of Marine Science. But this doesn’t necessarily mean our beloved reef is in good health. In the north of the reef, coral cover usually fluctuates between 20% and 30%. Currently, it’s at 36%, the highest level recorded since monitoring began more than three decades ago.

This level of coral cover comes hot off the back of a disturbing decade that saw the reef endure six mass coral bleaching events, four severe tropical cyclones, active outbreaks of crown-of-thorns starfish, and water quality impacts following floods. So what’s going on?

High coral cover findings can be deceptive because they can result from only a few dominant...

The activists seized 30.2km of longline, just 2.5% of the total length, including 286 hooks. They released a blue shark, a near threatened species, seven swordfish and other marine life caught on the lines. 

“We could only confiscate a tiny proportion of the longlines, but what we found makes clear the horrors of industrial fishing. What’s the point in protecting a place if environmental destruction like this is still allowed? Protected areas like this are a perfect example of the broken status quo: protected on paper, but not on the water,” said Greenpeace España oceans campaigner Maria José Caballero who was on board the Arctic Sunrise.

Industrial fishing in the Marine Protected Area, the Milne Seamount Complex, makes clear the challenges in properly protecting areas i...