Today is World Ocean’s Day, a chance to celebrate ongoing actions towards ocean protection. One such endeavor on the U.S. west coast is also an opportunity to uplift Indigenous leadership via the proposed Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary in central California.
James Fawcett of the USC Sea Grant program at USC Dornsife explains how the line of ships floating off the coast waiting to offload goods is making a mark on the local environment.
When Lucas Zucker talks about sea level rise in California, his first thoughts aren’t about waves crashing onto fancy homes in Orange County, nor the state’s most iconic beaches shrinking year after year.
The world’s coastlines are turning to concrete, at a huge cost to wildlife and the climate. But new technologies may offer a way to shore up coasts while benefiting biodiversity.
This year’s Atlantic hurricane season got off to an early start in May, but even though there was a brief reprieve from tropical storms — thanks to a plume of Saharan dust earlier this month – we are once again seeing an increase in storm activity.
Eight million metric tons of plastic waste enter the oceans every year. This equates to one garbage truck’s worth of plastic being dumped into our oceans every minute.
As the world celebrates #OceanWeek, the news@HispanicAccesssreport “Nuestro Océano y la Costa: Latino Connections to the Ocean and Coast” finds that Latinos could become one of the leading voices in its protection.
Like millions around the world right now, at UPSTREAM we’ve been talking a lot about racial justice in America. We’ve been holding in our hearts the countless Black Americans who’ve effectively been treated as disposable in our society and justice system.
The coronavirus lockdown is giving the world’s oceans much-needed breathing space, let’s hope we don’t go back to bad habits when it ends, writes the Ocean Conservation Trust.
Sand crabs, a key species in beach ecosystems, were found to have increased adult mortality and decreased reproductive success when exposed to plastic microfibers
2019 was a record year for global warming. This week, NASA and NOAA announced that global surface temperatures in 2019 were the second warmest since modern record keeping began.
A major new United Nations report, issued on Wednesday, warns that the Earth’s oceans are under severe strain from climate change, threatening everything from the ability to harvest seafood to the well-being of hundreds of millions of people living along the coasts.
Halting overfishing and the plastic pollution of the oceans could help tackle the climate emergency by improving the degraded state of the world’s biggest carbon sink, a report has found.
There's a mystery lurking in the Pacific Ocean just off the coast of Big Sur, California. An underwater survey has found thousands of small, round divots scooped out of the soft sediment on the seafloor.
In first-of-its-kind research, NOAA scientists and academic partners used 100 years of microscopic shells to show that the coastal waters off California are acidifying twice as fast as the global ocean average—with the seafood supply in the crosshairs.
Southern California Edison was set to release 19,200 gallons of “non-radiological and radiological” liquids a mile offshore today, Dec. 19, from the San Onofre Nuclear Generating site.
Whales are a critical part of our marine ecosystems and vital to the health of ocean waters and the environment. The giant and majestic mammals help to keep thousands of species alive and thriving.
The world is in the midst of a mass extinction — the sixth time in the planet's history that species are experiencing a major global collapse in numbers.
When a deadly virus that killed tens of thousands of European harbor seals in the northern Atlantic Ocean in 2002 began threatening sea lions, seals and otters in the northern Pacific Ocean, scientists were initially puzzled.
New research shows that reef manta rays in Nusa Penida and Komodo National Park could be ingesting up to 63 pieces of plastic per hour of feeding, and whale sharks, which seasonally aggregate in Java, could be ingesting up to 137 pieces per hour.
Lost and abandoned fishing gear which is deadly to marine life makes up the majority of large plastic pollution in the oceans, according to a report by Greenpeace.
Each of the five mass extinctions over the last 500 million years that saw at least 75% of species disappear was accompanied by a surge in carbon entering the ocean.
As the ocean gets warmer, lionfish get hungrier, a new study indicates. With climate change happening now, that’s bad news for the Atlantic marine ecosystems the invasive lionfish has ravaged for decades.
Pacific green sea turtles spend years cruising this northern Australia feeding ground, fattening up on sea grasses before heading to nesting areas to mate and lay eggs.
A vast region of unusually warm water has formed in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, and scientists are worried that it could devastate sea life in the area and fuel the formation of harmful algal blooms.
The Japanese utility giant Tepco is considering a plan to dump roughly 1 million cubic meters of treated radioactive water -- enough to fill 400 Olympic-size swimming pools -- from the wrecked Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean, part of its nearly $200 billion effort to clean up the worst atomic accident since Chernobyl.
Loading the atmosphere with CO2 and greenhouse gases has spawned a host of consequences, starting with irreversible sea-level rise, according to a draft Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) special report obtained by AFP.
It’s a big feat to get 65,000 people to do anything, let alone spend three hours picking up soiled trash. Yet, state officials are expecting around that number to turn out Saturday for the 35th annual Coastal Cleanup Day. The event attracts volunteers who spread out across more than 1,000 coastal beaches, rivers and parks in 55 of California’s 58 counties. Merced, Sutter, and Trinity counties do not participate.
Ocean heat wave “blobs” are emerging in the world’s oceans, posing a serious threat to marine life. The heat waves have been reported recently near both California and Uruguay, according The Washington Post. Marine heat waves have also been observed near Australia.
Southern California waters, famous for being much cooler than Atlantic Ocean waters, are warming up. Scientists recorded a temperature of 78.3 degrees Thursday in the water off Scripps Pier in La Jolla – the warmest September temperature recorded since 1916.
A mass of warm water extending from Baja California in Mexico all the way to Alaska and the Bering Sea could result in death for many sea lions and salmon, as well as toxic algae blooms that can poison mussels, crabs and other sea life.
Each year, the level of sound caused by humans increases in the world’s oceans. This noise—from a host of sources, including shipping, military exercises, and oil and gas industry activity—disturbs marine life, including fish, sea turtles, invertebrates, and mammals.
LAMU, Kenya (Reuters) - Kenyan islanders have built a boat made entirely of recycled plastic collected during clean-ups of the ocean to highlight the growing menace of plastic waste that ends up in the sea.
The first United Nations Children’s Clean Ocean Summit took place in Austria this summer. The children created a whale sculpture using ocean debris to build awareness about the ocean pollution crisis facing us all.
Thirteen percent of the world’s oceans is considered marine wilderness—crucial areas of water mostly undisturbed by humans where biodiversity is able to flourish.
Ocean heatwaves will become more frequent and extreme as the climate warms, scientists report on August 15 in Nature. These episodes of intense heat could disrupt marine food webs and reshape biodiversity in the world’s oceans.
UN Environment has partnered with internationally acclaimed cartoonist, Jim Toomey – of Sherman’s Lagoon fame – in the production of entertaining two-minute videos intended to raise awareness of the importance of oceans and the coastal environment.
Sea-level rise threatens thousands of homes in California by 2035, especially in cities near San Francisco and Los Angeles, according to an analysis released today.
Thanks to carbon emissions, the ocean is changing, and that is putting a whole host of marine organisms at risk. These scientists are on the front lines.
Climate Central has added Spanish language versions of their online tools Risk Finder, Risk Zone Map and Mapping Choices. These tools now provide detailed information in Spanish for U.S. coastal communities on populations, infrastructure, and property at risk from rising sea levels and coastal floods.
Rare tropical fish from Australia have been spotted in New Zealand waters after a record-breaking hot summer and warm ocean temperatures lured the creatures across the Tasman sea.
An invisible layer of scum on the sea surface can reduce carbon dioxide exchange between the atmosphere and the oceans by up to 50%, scientists have discovered.
Antarctica’s ice sheet is melting at a rapidly increasing rate, now pouring more than 200 billion tons of ice into the ocean annually and raising sea levels a half-millimeter every year, a team of 80 scientists reported Wednesday.
Engineer and adventurer Richard Jenkins has made oceangoing robots that could revolutionize fishing, drilling, and environmental science. His aim: a thousand of them.
A squad of seals living off the coast of West Antarctica has provided scientists with data that could help to improve estimates of future sea-level rise.
Weedy plants will thrive and displace long-lived, ecologically valuable kelp forests under forecast ocean acidification, new research shows. The researchers describe how kelp forests are displaced by weedy marine plants in high carbon dioxide conditions, equivalent to those predicted for the turn of the century.
Over the next two centuries, warming oceans could trap nutrients at the poles and starve out many of the world’s fisheries, according to a recent study.
After the March for Science and Earth Day, comes the March for the Ocean on June 9, to continue the fight to stop offshore oil drilling, end plastic pollution and protect our coastlines. On World Oceans Day weekend (June 9), thousands are expected to come to DC to participate in a flotilla on the Potomac and Anacostia Rivers, a march past the White House, and a rally, along with simultaneous events across the US and around the world.
An underwater “dead zone” larger than the area of Scotland has been discovered by robots exploring the Arabian Sea.sScientists say the situation is “worse than feared” after finding almost no oxygen in the Gulf of Oman, the strait that connects the Arabian Sea to the Strait of Hormuz in the Middle East.
All over the planet, countries are increasingly working to conserve the wealth and beauty of their natural resources. While some say setting aside nature reserves inhibits economic development, others vehemently contend that doing so is of great import, not only to wildlife and biodiversity, but to the future of the human race as well. Below, we take a look at those countries with the highest relative proportions of their respective land areas being set aside as terrestrial, protected, nature reserves.
Scientists say that right whales, already an endangered species, could become extinct in 25 years. There are only 450 of these whales swimming in the world’s oceans, and this past year there were no new calves born.
Scientists at the University of British Columbia recently revealed that climate change will gut the global fishing industry by $10 billion per year within a few decades.
During a recent necropsy, investigators discovered nearly 65 lbs. (29 kilograms) of plastic trash crammed into the dead whale's stomach and intestines, including dozens of plastic bags, chunks of mangled rope and glass.
Population growth has seen skylines creep ever higher and entire cities rise from ocean depths. The latest “ocean city” is the Chinese-developed Forest City project. By 2045, four artificial islands in Malaysia will cover 14sq kilometres of ocean (an area larger than 10,000 Olympic swimming pools), and support 700,000 residents.
Plastic pollution is invading the deepest parts of the ocean, causing damage to the ecosystem that can last thousands of years. The discovery of a plastic bag 36,000 feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean in the Mariana Trench is of global concern.
It is increasingly clear that climate change will touch every corner of California. For the state’s coastal marshes – a major ecosystem from San Diego to Humboldt counties – the toll may be complete annihilation.
A study reveals highest microplastic pollution levels ever recorded in a river in Manchester, UK and shows that billions of particles flooded into the sea from rivers in the area in just one year.
Sailboat drones powered by wind and sun have been collecting data in the Pacific Ocean about temperature and currents. Additionally, they collect information on wind and solar radiation. Among other findings, these data show how the ocean and air exchange gases such as carbon dioxide and oxygen which could help explain why the tropical Pacific emits carbon dioxide, rather than absorbing it like the rest of the ocean.
Carpets and rugssare a major source of potentially toxic chemicals and can be especially harmful to children. They cover more than half of all U.S. homes and workplaces. California’s Safer Consumer Products program wants to identify sources of toxicity in consumer products and find alternatives.
The Revillagigedo Archipelago National Park puts 57,176 square miles of the Pacific Ocean off limits to commercial fishing – and comes with funding to enforce the ban.
Scientists have found surprising evidence of rapid climate change in the Arctic: In the middle of the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole, they discovered that the levels of radium-228 have almost doubled over the last decade.
Global sea level rise is not cruising along at a steady 3 mm per year, it's accelerating a little every year, like a driver merging onto a highway, according to a powerful new assessment led by CIRES Fellow Steve Nerem.
Plastic waste is building up in the supposedly pristine wilderness of the Norwegian Arctic, scientists say. Researchers are particularly concerned about huge concentrations of microplastic fragments in sea ice.
Scientists have attributed an algal bloom that killed off $800 million worth of salmon in Chile to rising ocean temperatures, and they say other aquaculture operations around the world are at risk.
On Saturday June 9, 2018, World Oceans Day weekend and the beginning of the 2018 hurricane season, the March for the Ocean (M4O) campaign will mount mass marches, flotillas and rallies in our nation’s capital and around the country.
Called white plague, white blotch and other names, depending on the pattern of damaged or destroyed tissue, the disease has infected more than 20 South Florida coral species from the mid-Florida Keys through Palm Beach County.
Marine life is facing "irreparable damage" from the millions of tons of plastic waste which ends up in the oceans each year, the United Nations has warned.
Most of that plastic isn’t recycled. 91 percent of the world’s plastic ends up as waste that threatens fish, birds, mammals and even the crustaceans seven miles below the ocean’s surface.
A lobster fished from waters off the coast of New Brunswick, Canada, was found earlier this month with an unusual marking on its claw—what appears to be the image of a Pepsi can.
Plastics now dominate modern human life, with many throwaway or single-use products such as drinks bottles, nappies and cutlery, ending up in the natural environment.
Every piece of plastic rubbish has a story, so it also makes me wonder about the chain of events that led to that particular item ending up in the deep ocean, and whether any of those events could have been prevented.
Sea level rise and catastrophic coastal flooding could come early to the US Atlantic coast. So sea water in the streets of Florida or drowned towns on offshore islands will not necessarily be blamed upon global warming.
Now, ocean plastic pollution had its Frankenstein trash island. Sea captain Marcus Eriksen and surfer Charles Moore discovered the Pacific trash vortex and the island of floating trash.
An FAO study finds that more than 100 commercial seafood species ingest microplastic, which can be contaminated with toxins. More worrying are the unknown health effects of even smaller nanoplastics.
Peter Thomson, President of the UN General Assembly encourages us to join together to develop a concerted global action to deliver on the targets of SDG 6.
Oil drilling was banned along the entire Sonoma County coast when President Obama expanded Greater Farallones National Marine Sanctuary in 2016. Now the Trump administration is considering reversing that decision.
The ocean is losing oxygen due to nutrient pollution, the effects of climate change, and decreased mixing of marine layers. These are a few ways that could help predict catastrophic loss of ocean oxygen.
Oceans Deeply talks with experts about the plastic pollution that’s threatening the ocean: What we know, what we don’t know and, crucially, what we can do about it.
Later this year, an army of small swimming robots is set to plumb the mysteries of oceans around the world. Each one will have its own mission, as defined by citizen scientists interested in everything from reefs to "robomussels" that can self-monitor temperature.
Environmental monitoring is an expensive and time-consuming endeavor. One solution: Tap data stored in tweets and Instagram photos to track the health of coral reefs and other marine ecosystems.
Scripps Institution of Oceanography’s 100 Island Challenge uses 3-D photography to monitor how coral reefs change over time in an effort to help local communities save crucial marine ecosystems.
Sunscreen contains a chemical called oxybenzone to deflect UV rays which will cause about six and a half Olympic-size swimming pool to be deadly with one single drop.
UN Environment and Think Beyond Plastic, an innovation accelerator organization, have launched a worldwide innovation challenge for university students to fight plastic waste in oceans.
Henderson Island is particularly hit by the plastic pollution because it’s located at the edge of the South Pacific gyre, an ocean current that tends to pick up trash.
Without oceans, there would be no life on earth as we know it. But they are under more stress than ever, thanks to overfishing, pollution, and climate change. This World Oceans Day, here are six things you can do to save the seas.
With millions of tons of plastic waste being dumped into the sea every year and barely any ocean area free of such pollutants, the environmental impact on marine life and species is tremendous. Take a look at the hazardous effects of plastic pollution on our oceans.
Coral nitrogen analysis offers an independent measure of the effects of human activity on the ecosystem. Changes in nitrogen runoff are reflected in coral reef growth.
In the two minutes it took you to read this article, more than 60,000 pounds of plastic were dumped into our oceans. That plastic could very well have profound health consequences for you and the ones you love.
Plastics recycling, ocean pollution and program investments were among the sustainability topics at the first Plasticity Forum in California. While noting that the U.S. is far from ideal on plastics recycling, California is so far ahead of other areas.
Would you like a side of plastic with your fish dish? Well, you might get it whether you like it or not. Ocean plastic pollution is pervasive. Scientists are trying to figure out the impact on human health.
While it's true the oceans can provide us with some amazing eco-solutions like alternative energy, they are undergoing some serious stress factors. Here are the seven biggest problems, plus some light at the end of the tunnel.
The discovery of microplastics in deep water means scientists may have underestimated the extent to which plastic trash is contaminating the ocean – and its impact on fish, marine mammals and seabed dwellers.
Every year, billions of pounds of plastic waste pour into our oceans. Used by humanity for a few minutes at most, these single-use plastics will likely stick around for decades, or longer.
All life on Earth is connected to the ocean and its inhabitants. The more you learn about the issues facing this vital system, the more you’ll want to help ensure its health.
Yet the ocean is still home to treasure troves of biodiversity, and evidence is mounting that protecting such significant local areas builds resilience to climate change—and can even help regenerate what has been lost.
Without human intervention, many of the region’s beautiful beaches may disappear by 2100 as sea levels rise. If the Golden State wants to save its golden shores, it will have to add sand to them—and lots of it.
The Ocean Cleanup's technology uses long floating rubber barriers with nets below the surface that act as a sort of artificial coastline, passively catching and concentrating debris using the power of the ocean's natural currents.
The Aquarium of the Pacific in Long Beach is teaming up with the Monterey Bay Aquarium and others to reduce or eliminate single-use plastics like straws and beverage bottles from their cafes and gift shops.
Last month the U.S. Geological Survey estimated that without intervention, as much as 67 percent of Southern California’s beaches could be lost to rising seas by the end of the century.
Researchers at Stony Brook University, in New York, analyzed the effects of rising ocean temperatures on two of the most toxic types of algae and found growths are becoming more widespread and profiling through the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans.
More than two-thirds of the coral in Australia's Great Barrier Reef is experiencing "shocking" amounts of bleaching, new aerial surveys have revealed. The Australian government says climate change is mainly to blame.
A study conducted by the US Geological Survey and California State University Fullerton revealed that past earthquakes have caused parts of the state’s coastline to sink.
The oceans may be storing 13 percent more heat than previously estimated, according to a new study co-authored by scientists at the National Center for Atmospheric Research.
The researchers documented the extent of the damage the reef off the coast of Australia, and found that only 8.9 percent of more than 1,000 reefs escaped with no bleaching along a stretch more than 2,300 kilometers long.
According to new reports, water quality in Southern California beaches are improving, but L.A. county leads California in the number of beaches with poor water quality.
There is currently a dire plastic pollution problem. If nothing is done, researchers predict there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean by 2050.
PCBs — chemicals that have been banned since 1979 — have been found to have far-reaching effects. Recently, researchers have discovered traces of the chemical in the depths of the Pacific Ocean.
Because of the powerful El Nino that hit the Pacific Ocean a year ago, scientists say that beaches lining coasts between Mexico and Canada will eat away at seaside cliffs and low-lying coastal towns.
Latinos Marinos meet with legislative staff in Sacramento as part of Ocean Day 2017.The 12th annual Ocean Day 2017 drew over 100 representatives from some of California's leading coastal advocacy organizations.