glaciers
Air/Climate

West Antarctic Glacier Collapse ‘Unstoppable’

IRVINE, California, May 13, 2014 (ENS) – A rapidly melting section of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet appears to be in irreversible decline, with nothing to stop the entire glacial basin from disappearing into the sea, according to researchers at NASA and the University of California, Irvine. […]

tuna
Food

80 Governments Agree ‘Unorthodox Steps’ to Restore Oceans

THE HAGUE, The Netherlands, April 25, 2014 (ENS) – The Global Oceans Action Summit for Blue Growth and Food Security concluded today in The Hague with commitments from 80 government ministers, the fishing industry and civil society to tackle key threats to the world’s oceans: climate change, overfishing, habitat loss and pollution. […]

Sargasso Sea
Latest News

Voluntary Stewardship Pact Protects Threatened Sargasso Sea

HAMILTON, Bermuda, March 21, 2014 (ENS) – For the first time, the world’s only sea without coasts will be protected from adverse effects of pollution, ship traffic, overfishing, and illegal activities under a new agreement among five governments and five intergovernmental partners. […]

monument
Latest News

Obama Expands California Coastal National Monument

WASHINGTON, DC, March 11, 2014 (ENS) – President Obama Barack Tuesday established the first shoreline addition to the California Coastal National Monument, protecting the Point Arena-Stornetta Unit, a spectacular stretch of public lands along the Mendocino coastline in Northern California. […]

yellow coral
Latest News

Deep Oceans Need ‘Stewardship’ to Prevent Industrial Damage

CHICAGO, Illinois, February 18, 2014 (ENS) – The deep ocean is Earth’s least explored environment, but that is rapidly changing. Scientists are calling for a new stewardship ethic as technological advances open the ocean deeps to the extraction of oil and gas, minerals and precious metals, and the dwindling supply of land-based materials creates incentives for deep sea industrialization. […]

waves
At Risk

‘Massive’ Coastal Floods Predicted as Storms Flood Britain

LONDON, UK, February 7, 2014 (ENS) – Met Office forecasters warn that strong winds and big waves will bring risk of flooding and damaging winds along Britain’s southern and southwestern coasts into the weekend, intensifying storm conditions that have persisted all week. Globally, coastal regions face “massive increases in damages from storm surge flooding during the 21st century,” new research predicts. […]

discarded fish
Latest News

EU Bans Fish Discards Under New Common Fisheries Policy

STRASBOURG, France, December 10, 2013 (ENS) – A ban on the wasteful practice of discarding perfectly edible fish is part of an historic deal to reform the Common Fisheries Policy agreed today by the EU Parliament. The new Common Fisheries Policy will become law on January 1, 2014. […]

ocean
Air/Climate

Acidifying Oceans Alarm Hundreds of Scientists

PARIS, France, November 27, 2013 (ENS) – Climate change is causing the world’s oceans to acidify at rates not seen for the last 55 million years, and the only way to moderate this danger is to reduce human emissions of carbon dioxide, conclude 540 scientists from 37 countries in a new report. […]

bleached coral
Air/Climate

Climate Change to Cause ‘Massive’ Ocean Damage by 2100

HONOLULU, Hawaii, October 18, 2013 (ENS) – By the year 2100, about 98 percent of the oceans will be affected by acidification, warming temperatures, low oxygen, or lack of biological productivity, and most areas will be hit by a multitude of these stressors, finds a new study of the impacts of climate change on the world’s ocean systems. […]

Latest News

Matson Spills Molasses Into Honolulu Harbor

HONOLULU, Hawaii, September 17, 2013 (ENS) – Hawaii state and federal officials say they are still assessing the scope of the “severe” environmental damage from a molasses spill that dumped an estimated 233,000 gallons of the dark syrup into Honolulu Harbor, killing thousands of fish and forcing beach closures. […]