WASHINGTON, DC, March 17, 2016 (ENS) – The Obama Administration is withdrawing the middle and southern Atlantic seaboard from its next five-year offshore oil and gas leasing plan after objections from the Pentagon and from coastal communities in Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina and Georgia. […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan, February 4, 2016 (ENS) – The number of coastal fish species in northern Taiwan has dropped by 75 percent over the past three decades, finds a new study by Taiwanese researchers. Weak and poorly enforced fisheries regulations put the island nation at greater risk of a marine ecosystem collapse than the planet as a whole. […]
OTTAWA, Canada, November 13, 2015 (ENS) – Canada’s new Prime Minister Justin Trudeau today instructed his incoming cabinet members to work together to “formalize a moratorium on crude oil tanker traffic on British Columbia’s north coast.” […]
NGERULMUD, Palau, November 4, 2015 (ENS) – The remote Pacific island nation of Palau has created a new marine sanctuary the size of California that will be the world’s sixth largest protected ocean area, sheltering 1,300 fish species and 700 kinds of coral. […]
NEW LONDON, Connecticut, October 31, 2015 (ENS) – Coast guard agencies of the eight Arctic nations Friday officially signed a joint statement establishing a new intergovernmental security body – the Arctic Coast Guard Forum. […]
TOFINO, British Columbia, Canada, October 30, 2015 (ENS) – Five people have lost their lives and another is missing and presumed drowned after a whale watching trip off the west coast of Vancouver Island went wrong on Sunday. […]
WASHINGTON, DC, October 18, 2015 (ENS) – “In light of current market conditions and low industry interest,” the U.S. Department of the Interior says it will cancel the two potential Arctic offshore lease sales scheduled under the current five-year offshore oil and gas leasing program that ends in 2017. […]
VALPARAISO, Chile, October 5, 2015 (ENS) – Chile’s President Michelle Bachelet today announced the designation of three new marine sanctuaries in Chilean waters, including the Nazca-Desventuradas Marine Park, the largest marine protected area in the Americas. […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, October 3, 2015 (ENS) – To safeguard a unique, pristine ocean environment, New Zealand intends to create a new sanctuary in the Kermadec Islands region of the South Pacific, about 1,000 kilometers (600 miles) northeast of the country’s North Island. […]
TAIPEI, Taiwan, September 1, 2015 (ENS) – Taiwan is establishing a new government agency to coordinate and implement the island country’s marine policies and strengthen conservation of its ocean environment. […]
SEATTLE, Washington, August 12, 2015 (ENS) – A record-breaking algal bloom continues to spread across the North Pacific from as far north as the Aleutian Islands to as far south as southern California. At the same time, this year’s Gulf of Mexico dead zone is larger than average. […]
VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, April 10, 2015 (ENS) – The Marathassa, a Korean bulk grain carrier on its first voyage, is the source of the heavy bunker fuel oil that spilled into the waters of English Bay in Vancouver Wednesday, the Canadian Coast Guard confirmed today. […]
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar, February 13, 2015 (ENS) – The New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society has assisted the Government of Madagascar to create the country’s first marine sanctuary for sharks as part of a new law to safeguard the country’s marine resources and the communities that rely on them […]
NEW YORK, New York, January 27, 2015 (ENS) – Government representatives from around the world agreed Saturday to develop the first legally-binding agreement to conserve marine life in the […]
WASHINGTON, DC, January 2, 2015 (ENS) – As of January 1, 2015 single-hull oil tankers are no longer allowed in U.S. waters. The single-hull tankers are forbidden under the Oil Pollution Act of 1990, passed after the disastrous 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill in Prince William Sound, Alaska. […]
WASHINGTON, DC, December 16, 2014 (ENS) – President Barack Obama today designated the waters of Bristol Bay as off limits to oil and gas leasing for exploration, development or production. This action safeguards one of the nation’s most productive fisheries and preserves an ecologically rich area of the Bering Sea that is vital to the commercial fishing and tourism economy and to Alaska Native communities. […]
CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand, December 10, 2014 (ENS) – Polluting chemicals found in personal care products such as cosmetics, soaps and sunscreens has been discovered in waters off Antarctica at the same levels as many urban areas, according to new research from New Zealand. […]
WASHINGTON, DC, September 26, 2014 (ENS) – In the remote reaches of the Pacific Ocean, President Barack Obama Thursday created the world’s most extensive marine reserve by expanding a National Monument established in the waning days of the Bush Administration. These pristine waters are now protected from commercial resource extraction and fishing. […]
ST. JOHN’S, Antigua and Barbuda, August 25, 2014 (ENS) – The twin-island Caribbean nation of Antigua and Barbuda has imposed new regulations to establish five marine sanctuaries protecting 33 percent of the waters surrounding Barbuda. […]
NEW YORK, New York, June 9, 2014 (ENS) – Oceans cover three quarters of the Earth’s surface, contain 97 percent of the Earth’s water, and represent 99 percent of the living space on the planet by volume. But human pressures, such as overexploitation, illegal fishing, unsustainable aquaculture, pollution, habitat destruction, alien species, climate change and ocean acidification are taking their toll. […]
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