Oceans

The largest iceberg in the world — A23a, nearly 1,500 square miles, about three times as big as New York City — has broken free of its anchor on the floor of the Weddell Sea and begun to drift toward the Southern Ocean. In 1986, the Antarctic iceberg calved off the Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf in […]

The U.S. Coast Guard is searching off the Louisiana coast for the source of a leak in a 67-mile-long pipeline that has spilled over 1 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. When the leak started has not been specified, but it was first reported by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) […]

Caviar made from the eggs of wild sturgeon is now illegal, as the ancient fish was brought to the edge of extinction by poaching. Caviar can only be traded legally internationally if it comes from farmed sturgeon, reported Cell Press. The regulations in place to protect the endangered species are being broken, however, according to […]

European Union (EU) member states and lawmakers have reached an agreement to stop exports of certain types of waste, including plastics, to countries outside the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) group of mostly rich countries starting in mid-2026. “Exports of certain non-hazardous wastes and mixtures of non-hazardous wastes… will be allowed only to […]

Microplastics — tiny fragments of plastic products and industrial waste — are now so pervasive in Earth’s environment that they are found everywhere from the highest mountain peaks to the deepest parts of the ocean. According to a new report, all aquatic species in the mouths of rivers that flow into the Atlantic Ocean and […]

A new study led by researchers from Griffith University in Australia contributes to the growing research on how global warming and pollution are impacting reproduction for endangered sea turtles. The study, published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science, found that pollution exposure to heavy metals, like cadmium and antimony, as well as organic contaminants […]

The European Union (EU) has agreed on a provisional agreement for a Nature Restoration Law — first proposed by the European Commission in June of last year — that would require member states to introduce measures for the restoration of 20 percent of the bloc’s land and sea ecosystems by 2030. More than 80 percent […]

Since its invention more than 100 years ago, plastic has become increasingly ubiquitous in the environment, from the depths of the ocean to within algae beneath Arctic sea ice. Tiny microplastics have been detected floating high in the atmosphere above the French Pyrenees, as well as in human blood. Plastics persist in the environment because […]