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. […]
DURBAN, South Africa, June 5, 2014 (ENS) – A global strategy to prevent extinction and promote recovery of sawfishes, devastated worldwide by overfishing and habitat loss, was introduced today by the Shark Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature, IUCN. […]
BRUSSELS, Belgium, May 14, 2014 (ENS) – The European Commission today proposed to ban the use of any kind of driftnets for fishing in all EU waters as of January 2015. The nets kill marine mammals, sea turtles and sea birds protected under EU law. […]
NOUMEA, New Caledonia, May 13, 2014 (ENS) – A vast expanse of pristine Pacific Ocean is now the world’s largest protected area under a new law passed by the government of New Caledonia creating the Natural Park of the Coral Sea. […]
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. […]
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. […]
WASHINGTON, DC, April 22, 2014 (ENS) – WASHINGTON, DC, April 22, 2014 (ENS) – Thousands of Earth Day actions today brought people together to plant trees and preserve forests, create cleaner, greener cities and safeguard wildlife. […]
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. […]
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. […]
VALDIVIA, Chile, February 28, 2014 (ENS) – Endangered blue whales and 12 species of dolphins will flourish in the waters of south-central Chile after the government this week inaugurated the largest Marine Protected Area in continental Chile. […]
JAKARTA, Indonesia, February 24, 2014 (ENS) – Indonesia has announced legislation that will protect all manta rays within its nearly six million square kilometer exclusive economic zone, creating the world’s largest sanctuary for both species of manta rays. […]
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. […]
NEW YORK, New York, February 9, 2014 (ENS) – People who love the oceans and people who love fashion have joined forces in The Vortex Project, a new initiative to clear the oceans of plastic debris and transform it into fashionable denim garments. […]
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. […]
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. […]
ADELAIDE, Australia, December 5, 2013 (ENS) – Huge reservoirs of low-salinity water have been discovered where they are least expected – buried under the seabed on continental shelves around the world. […]
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. […]
WELLINGTON, New Zealand, November 26, 2013 (ENS) – The New Zealand government Monday announced protections for Maui’s dolphins but the Green Party warned that these measures will not stop their slide into extinction. Just 55 adult Maui’s dolphins still exist. […]
HOBART, Australia, November 4, 2013 (ENS) – A meeting of 24 countries and the European Union has failed again to create the world’s largest marine sanctuary in the vulnerable environment of Antarctica’s Southern Ocean. […]
AMSTERDAM, The Netherlands, October 22, 2013 (ENS) – The Netherlands has requested arbitration by the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in a dispute with Russia over the arrest and detention of the Greenpeace vessel Arctic Sunrise and its crew by Russian authorities. […]
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