Oceans | Environment News Service (ENS)

Oceans Endure Repeated Heat Attacks

February 7, 2025 News Editor Comments Off

BEIJING, China, February 7, 2025 (ENS) – Ocean warming in 2024 has produced the hottest ocean temperatures ever recorded by humans, hot not only at the surface but also for […]

Mass Coral Bleaching Devastates the Great Barrier Reef

August 7, 2024 News Editor Comments Off

WOLLONGONG, New South Wales, Australia, August 8, 2024 (ENS) – A new 400-year temperature record published today shows the world’s largest coral reef is experiencing catastrophic damage. Warming sea temperatures and repeated mass coral bleaching events are threatening to destroy the ecology, biodiversity, and beauty of the Great Barrier Reef. […]

EU Hosts Global Ocean Meetings, Sets Goals, Raises Billions

May 6, 2024 News Editor Comments Off

BARCELONA, Spain, May 5, 2024 (ENS) – The 2024 Ocean Decade Conference, held in Barcelona from April 10 to 12, attracted over 1,500 participants from 124 countries and thousands of online viewers. Under the theme “The Science We Need for the Ocean We Want,” this conference emerged as one of the largest-ever gatherings of the global oceanic community. […]

WWII Munitions, DDT Remain on Southern California Seafloor

January 7, 2024 News Editor Comments Off

SAN DIEGO, California, January 7, 2024 (ENS) – Tons of munitions, petrochemicals, chemicals from manufacturing the pesticide DDT, and other hazardous materials were dumped for decades in deep ocean basins off the coast of Los Angeles, scientists from three California universities are discovering. […]

New Underwater AI Bot Detects Illegal Fishing, Reports Fast

July 25, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

SOUTHAMPTON, England, UK, July 25, 2023 (ENS) – British scientists have started work on a new underwater artificial intelligence bot which can detect activities that harm the ocean environment. The bot will be used to detect illegal fishing and protect marine mammals during offshore wind farm construction. […]

Climate Activists Block Departure of Rotterdam Cruise Ship

June 14, 2023 News Editor Comments Off

day blocked the departure of the Holland America Lines cruise ship “Zuiderdam” from the port of Rotterdam. The protesters detained the ship by closing off access to the mooring bollards, the tie-up points for mooring lines that anchor vessels safely at their docks. […]

Ocean Species Suffer as Nations at COP15 Confront Extinctions

December 9, 2022 News Editor Comments Off

MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada, December 9, 2022 (ENS) – Today’s update to the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species exposes the many threats wiping out marine species – illegal and unsustainable […]

State of the Oceans Alarms World Leaders

July 6, 2022 News Editor Comments Off

LISBON, Portugal, July 1, 2022 (ENS) – Heads of state, world leaders, and government officials wrapping up their week-long meeting in Lisbon at the UN Ocean Conference admitted to being “deeply alarmed by the global emergency facing the ocean.” Across the planet, coastal erosion, rising sea levels, warmer and more acidic waters, marine pollution, overexploitation of fish populations and a steep decline in marine biodiversity are getting worse… […]

Extreme Storms May Protect Beaches Against Sea-level Rise

May 17, 2022 News Editor Comments Off

SYDNEY, New South Wales, Australia, May 17, 2022 (ENS) – Climate change is making storms more intense and destructive, but the impact of extreme storms is not wholly negative, an international team of researchers has learned. Sand movements stirred up by extreme weather events could help protect beaches from the impact of sea-level rise by bringing in new sand from deeper waters or from nearby beaches. […]

U.S. Pressures Mexico to Curb Illegal Fishing of Gulf Waters

February 18, 2022 News Editor Comments Off

SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, Texas, February 18, 2022 (ENS) – “They’ll come into U.S. waters, they’ll fish, they’ll grab as much snapper as they can and they’ll go head back south before we can detect ’em. The average catch they’ll have on board is 1,000 to 3,000 pounds of snapper,” commanding officer of Coast Guard Station South Padre Island, Lieutenant Commander Dan Ippolito told reporters last year. […]

Thailand to Sue as Oil Spill Contaminates Popular Beach

February 4, 2022 News Editor Comments Off

BANGKOK, Thailand, February 3, 2022 (ENS) – A beach in eastern Thailand was declared a disaster-hit area on Saturday as oil leaking from an underwater pipeline in the Gulf of Thailand continued to wash up onto the coast and blacken the sand. […]

World’s Most Daunting Ocean Project: Mapping Entire Seafloor

January 15, 2022 News Editor Comments Off

TOKYO, Japan, January 15, 2022 (ENS) – Much has changed since the early days of oceanic bathymetry, the study of the seafloor, when simple soundings were taken by hand with a rope and weight. Today, an international effort led by Seabed 2030 is underway to precisely map the entire ocean floor by the end of the decade… […]

Sea Shepherd Targets Ocean Criminals With ‘Age of Union’ Ship

January 10, 2022 News Editor Comments Off

MONTREAL, Quebec, Canada, January 10, 2022 (ENS) – The movement to protect marine wildlife took a giant a leap forward this week as a brand new nonprofit environmental organization, the Age of Union Alliance, announced a US$4.5 million donation to Sea Shepherd, the global NGO that partners with governments to fight illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing throughout the world. […]

Norway Builds World’s First Emissions-free Container Ship

January 5, 2022 News Editor Comments Off

OSLO, Norway, January 5, 2022 (ENS) – Norway’s new Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre has taken a guided tour of the world’s first electric, self-propelled container ship, the Yara Birkeland, […]

Ecuador Enlarges Galapagos Marine Reserve, Darwin’s Dream

November 6, 2021 News Editor Comments Off

GLASGOW, Scotland, November 5, 2021 (ENS) – Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso has just expanded the marine reserve around the Galapagos Islands by 45 percent and created a protected swimway from Galapagos to Costa Rica. President Lasso announced the expansion at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow… […]

Spill From Damaged Oil Pipeline Fouls California Beaches

October 4, 2021 News Editor Comments Off

LONG BEACH, California, October 4, 2021 (ENS) – The anchor of a ship approaching or leaving a major port on the southern California coast may have struck an oil pipeline on the ocean floor, causing a major leak of crude oil, authorities said today. […]

Asian Development Bank Issues Blue Bonds for Asia-Pacific Oceans

September 13, 2021 News Editor Comments Off

MANILA, Philippines, September 13, 2021 (ENS) – To finance ocean protection projects in Asia and the Pacific, the Asian Development Bank has issued its first dual-tranche blue bonds denominated in Australian and New Zealand dollars. […]

Ocean Protection Gets Financial, Technical & Management Talent

August 9, 2021 News Editor Comments Off

ARLINGTON, Virginia, August 9, 2021 (ENS) – A new ocean conservation initiative is gathering force to protect 18 million square kilometers (seven million square miles) of the ocean over the next five years – an area twice the size of the continental United States and larger than the continent of South America. […]

Police Find 1,600+ Marine Pollution Crimes in 30 Days

May 4, 2021 News Editor Comments Off

LYON, France, May 4, 2021 (ENS) – Thousands of suspects, companies and criminal networks engaged in maritime pollution have been detected and dozens arrested in a global operation […]

Quieter Oceans Offer a Rare Chance to Listen

April 21, 2021 News Editor Comments Off

WOODS HOLE, Mass, April 22, 2021 (ENS) – Coronavirus pandemic travel restrictions and economic slowdowns slammed the brakes on human activities in the oceans starting last spring and ongoing. Noise levels are down […]