Oceans

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    How to Clean Up Our Universal Plastic Tragedy

    How to Clean Up Our Universal Plastic Tragedy

    By Tony Robert Walker Twenty five years ago, I spent a summer removing plastic packing bands and plastic nets from 135 entangled Antarctic fur seals on Bird Island, South Georgia in the sub-Antarctic. Plastic marine waste discarded by the fishing industry were the primary source of entanglements. A quarter of a century later, plastic is […]

    Hawaii to Approve Landmark Ban on Coral-Damaging Sunscreens

    Hawaii to Approve Landmark Ban on Coral-Damaging Sunscreens

    Hawaii Gov. David Ige signed a bill Tuesday prohibiting the sale of sunscreen that contains chemicals considered harmful to ocean ecosystems, including coral reefs. The Aloha State is the first in the nation to enact such a law. “Studies have documented the negative impact of these chemicals on corals and other marine life. Our natural […]

    Showdown Expected as Japan Plans to Resume For-Profit Whaling

    Showdown Expected as Japan Plans to Resume For-Profit Whaling

    For years, the Japanese government has hunted whales under the name of “scientific research.” Now officials are angling to resume commercial whaling at the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting this September in Brazil. At the meeting, officials “will propose setting a catch quota for species whose stocks are recognized as healthy by the IWC scientific […]

    Disastrous BP Oil Spill ‘Flattened’ Microbe Biodiversity in Gulf

    Disastrous BP Oil Spill ‘Flattened’ Microbe Biodiversity in Gulf

    Last week, President Donald Trump signed an executive order striking a conservation-minded oceans policy that former President Barack Obama signed in the wake of the devastating Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010. A week later, a new study of microorganisms in shipwreck sediment found the BP spill could still have a profound impact on marine […]

    12-Year-Old Girl Invents Plastic-Detecting Robot to Save Our Oceans

    12-Year-Old Girl Invents Plastic-Detecting Robot to Save Our Oceans

    For 12-year-old Anna Du a love of the ocean and marine animals inspired her to build a device that hunts for microplastics. These tiny plastic particles are barely visible to the naked eye, but they pollute aquatic ecosystems around the world, posing a serious threat to marine life. “One day when I was at Boston […]

    A Turning Point in NYC’s Fight for Ocean Health

    A Turning Point in NYC’s Fight for Ocean Health

    By Emy Kane The introduction of bill No. 936 by New York City Councilman Rafael Espinal, Jr. marks a veritable tipping point in the spread of single-use plastic straw bans across the globe. From Taiwan to Portland, the city-wide takeover our team began with our Strawless in Seattle campaign has certainly taken off and created […]

    ‘Atlantification’ of Arctic Ocean Speeds Up

    ‘Atlantification’ of Arctic Ocean Speeds Up

    The Arctic Ocean is warming so rapidly that it may soon transform into an upper arm of the Atlantic Ocean, researchers say. A study published this week in Nature Climate Change shows how the Barents Sea in Scandinavia, where Atlantic waters enter the Arctic basin, has become a warming “hot spot,” with temperatures spiking 2.7 […]