Tokitae, a killer whale who has been in captivity for more than fifty years at the Miami Seaquarium, will be returning to her native waters in the Pacific Ocean’s Salish Sea. Tokitae, who is also known as Lolita, is the oldest killer whale in captivity at 57. She is about 7,000 pounds and 20 feet […]
Like something out of a classic sci-fi film, marine scientists are tracking a giant seaweed blob approaching Florida’s Gulf Coast. The 5,000-mile-wide swarm of seaweed — which scientists say could be the biggest in history — is so large it can be seen from space. The colossal seaweed mat was caused by a huge sargassum […]
The amount of plastic floating in the world’s oceans rose by an “unprecedented” degree over the last decade and a half to reach more than 170 trillion plastic particles in 2019. That’s the shocking finding of a new study from scientists at the 5 Gyres Institute, the University of California, Riverside, the Stockholm Resilience Center […]
The phenomenon known as red tide — caused by large amounts of the toxic algae Karenia brevis — has come earlier than usual to Florida this year, and in concentrations that are higher than normal. The harmful algae produce brevetoxins that can kill marine life and pose health problems for humans, reported BBC News. The […]
After more than a decade of talks, the 193 United Nations (UN) member states have reached a landmark international agreement for a new Treaty for the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas of the ocean outside national jurisdiction, known as the “high seas.” In New York late Saturday night, President of […]
The Laguna Beach, California, city council has voted to ban the sale and public use of balloons — inflated with helium or not — in order to stop a major source of marine trash and reduce the risk of wildfires. Starting next year, all balloons in the community of 23,000 will be prohibited from being […]
The Australian government on Wednesday rejected a proposed open pit coal mine that would have been located less than 6.2 miles from the Great Barrier Reef.
A leaked video of a deep-sea mining test showing a plume of sediment being released into the ocean is reigniting concerns about the controversial practice.
As companies race to expand renewable energy and the batteries to store it, finding sufficient amounts of rare earth metals to build the technology is no easy feat. That’s leading mining companies to take a closer look at a largely unexplored frontier – the deep ocean seabed.