By Allison Guy In May 2016, technical divers descended 200 feet to Benham Bank, the shallowest portion of a huge underwater plateau off the Philippines’ northeast tip. As they neared the bottom, an otherworldly landscape emerged from the dim cobalt blue. Plates of coral grew one atop the other like china at a yard sale, […]
By Amy McDermott Gloomy octopuses used to blend in. They were just another cephalopod, drab-gray and medium-bodied, living in the ocean off east-central Australia. Until, a few decades ago, the octopuses started to spread. They crept south, establishing populations down Australia’s East Coast, a climate change hotspot where seawater temperatures are rising almost four times […]
By Annie Roth It might seem smart to eat the big fish and throw the little ones back. But a recent study in the journal Science says just the opposite. Big fish are the ones to throw back, especially if they’re female. That’s because bigger females have disproportionately more babies than their smaller counterparts. Biologists […]
The world’s oceans are vast and boundless, and its spectacular and innumerable diversity of sea creatures and plants may seem immune from human harm. But as U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said at the United Nations conference on oceans last year, our seas and its inhabitants are “now under threat as never before.” The human footprint […]
A fishing town on the southwest tip of India is showing what a community can achieve when it decides to face an environmental problem and turn it into a solution, using ocean plastics to empower women and literally build roads to a better future. In an inspiring profile on the town of Kollam in the […]
In an ambitious effort to stop ocean pollution, the European Commission on Monday proposed banning the 10 most common single-use plastic products as well as lost and abandoned fishing gear. The European Union’s executive arm targeted the products that are most often found on the continent’s beaches and seas, which together account for 70 percent […]
By Nathan Johnson The deep sea might be cold and dark, but it’s not barren. Down here, an incredible diversity of corals shelters young fish like grouper, snapper and rockfish. Sharks, rays and other species live and feed here their whole lives. Brightly colored coral gardens, far beyond the reach of the sun’s rays, don’t […]
By Amy McDermott The Inuvialuit and Gwich’in peoples spend their summers fishing off the coast of Canada’s Yukon Territory. For generations, they’ve trekked from towns around the Western Arctic to a spit called Shingle Point, where the Mackenzie River’s braided flows spill off North America into the Beaufort Sea. The nutrient-rich waters at the mouth […]
By Amy McDermott Local, wild seafood is essential for global health. Around the world, more than 3 billion people rely on fish as a substantial part of their diet. Nearby fisheries offer vitamins and minerals otherwise unavailable in poor coastal areas. But local seafood, and the nutrients it provides, is at risk. More than half […]