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As humans continue to emit record levels of carbon dioxide, we are putting marine habitats at risk. One consequence of these emissions, ocean acidification, is a serious threat to many undersea environments—especially coral reefs.
The mouth of the Amazon River, which yawns out of Brazil’s rainforested north, must be a stressful place to call home. Each year, six trillion cubic meters of water—roughly enough to fill the Grand Canyon one and a half times—surge from the river into the Atlantic Ocean.
The growing number of greenhouse gas emissions and the loss of nutrients are taking oxygen out of the oceans, threatening all marine biodiversity.
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.
From the ship’s deck, there nothing to see but deep blue water, not the remotest sign of a marine paradise that lies just a few metres below the waves.
This is a question we need to ask ourselves but before answering we need to acknowledge the diversity of expectations and aspirations that we all have for oceans, which cover more than two-thirds of the planet’s surface.
The greatest single climate-induced threat facing the world’s 44 small island developing states (SIDS) is rising sea waters which could obliterate some of the low-lying states, including Maldives, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Palau and Micronesia.
A small group of volunteers are mounting their own attempt to reverse the effects of climate change. They call themselves ‘coral gardeners’ and are trying to reverse the effects of global warming on Jamaica’s coral reefs.
From the surface, these 57 square kilometres of water are unexceptional. But dip beneath the surface — go down 20 or 30 metres — and you’ll find a spectacular seascape. Sponges, barnacles and tube worms cover rocky ledges on the ocean floor, forming a “live bottom.”
COLOMBO — Uthpala Adaranga, a ranger with Sri Lanka’s Department of Wildlife Conservation (DWC), was initially doubtful about the call he received of a seal spotted near Unawatuna, off the country’s southern coast on Nov. 20.
A new WWF report shows that Mediterranean countries are failing on their global commitment to protect at least 10% of marine and coastal areas, and to stop ongoing biodiversity loss in the region.
Sharks, penguins, turtles and other seagoing species could help humans monitor the oceans by transmitting oceanographic information from electronic tags.
Reference: SCBD/SSSF/AS/SBG/JA/JG/88518 (2019-107)
To: CBD National Focal Points; Marine and Coastal Biodiversity Focal Points; SBSTTA Focal Points; indigenous peoples and local communities; and relevant organizations
Ocean warming threatens to wipe out corals, but scientists are trying to protect naturally resilient reefs and are nursing some others back to health.
Crabbers are postponing their harvest to avoid entangling whales, as the climate crisis fuels new dangers
Since winning the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Young Champions of the Earth prize 12 months ago, Better Blue founder Miao Wang has taken China’s diving community by storm.
Canada has made disappointingly little progress in preserving the variety of life in its oceans largely because of a contradiction in the federal department that’s supposed to protect it, says a group of senior scientists.
Next month’s UN climate talks have moved from Chile to Spain but will retain the ‘blue COP’ theme.
On 13 November 2019, during the 2020 Ocean Pathways Week, participants convened for a joint session coordinated by the Secretariat of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and supported by the Ministry of Environment and Energy of the Government of Sweden and the Ministry of Oceans and Fi ...
The world's coral reefs are in dire shape because of climate change. Severe bleaching in 2016 and 2017 killed off nearly 50 percent of the Great Barrier Reef.
Coral reefs are one of the nature eco-systems that are being affected by global climate change, and scientists are seeking ways to help save the marine life that depends on them for sustenance.
A mass coral spawning has begun on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, with early indications the annual event could be among the biggest in recent years, local marine biologists said Sunday.
Beneath the ocean’s surface, there is a landscape marked by its biodiversity. Only by venturing under the water can scientists study the vast number of species living there — from giant blue whales to tiny marine animals like plankton and other microbes.
13 - 15 November 2019, Montreal, Canada
Oceana Canada’s latest annual report on the state of Canada’s fisheries was released today, revealing that the health of fish populations has declined over the past three years and the government is not acting with the speed and rigour needed to rebuild depleted stocks. Unless this changes, Cana ...
Canczn, Mexico: The breathtaking reds, yellows and purples of the Mesoamerican Reef have been turning sickly white, leading researchers on a desperate hunt to understand and fight the mysterious disease killing the Caribbean's corals.
11 - 13 November 2019, Montreal, Canada
The great white shark is often viewed as the most hardcore thing in the ocean. The top of the food chain. The silent slayer in the dark. But evidence is increasingly emerging that even the great white isn't safe. In fact, these fish too are prey.
This week, world leaders gather in Norway to focus on the health of our oceans at a critical time. For island nations such as the Federated States of Micronesia, threatened as never before by climate change, seriousness of purpose isn’t elective, it’s existential.
Corals are comeback creatures. As the world froze and melted and sea levels rose and fell over 30,000 years, Australia’s Great Barrier Reef, which is roughly the size of Italy, died and revived five times. But now, thanks to human activity, corals face the most complex concoction of conditions t ...
Krill are best known as whale food. But few people realize that these small, shrimp-like creatures are also important to the health of the ocean and the atmosphere. In fact, Antarctic krill can fertilize the oceans, ultimately supporting marine life from tiny plankton through to massive whales a ...
Overfishing is a major problem for the world's oceans, but a strategy adopted nearly 50 years ago has helped protect fisheries: giving nations exclusive rights to waters 200 miles offshore and letting them police their own fish stocks.
Some corals can recover after massive mortality episodes caused by the water temperature rise. This survival mechanism in the marine environment -known as rejuvenation- had only been described in some fossil corals so far. A new study published in the journal Science Advances reveals the first s ...
The solution to dying coral reefs may be lurking just under the surface of Red Sea waters. New studies reveal that Gulf of Aqaba coral reefs show resistance to climate change.
14 - 18 October 2019, Seocheon, Republic of Korea
As we pump more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, the world is warming at an alarming rate, with devastating consequences. While our vast oceans are helping to take the heat out of climate change, new research shows that they are absorbing a lot more atmospheric carbon dioxide than previousl ...
If you look at a globe, you'll see that the Southern Hemisphere is bluer than the Northern Hemisphere. A huge 80% of it is ocean compared to 60% of the North.
Off the coast of Guiana, a French overseas department perched on the north coast of South America, scientists scour the choppy waters for signs of life.
A top marine biologist has urged Thailand's government to speed up conservation plans for the dugong, an imperiled sea mammal, after their death toll for the year in Thai waters has already climbed to a record 21.
Corals reefs in the Maldives are showing signs of resilience, adaptation and recovery from the effects of climate change, an annual survey has found. The survey was conducted in a 250km area in the central atolls by Biosphere Expeditions, Marine Conservation Society, Reef Check Maldives and loca ...
Understanding the impact of modern fishing techniques is critical to ensure the sustainability of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (WCPO) tuna fishery—the largest tuna fishery in the world that accounts for 55% of the total tropical tuna catch and provides up to 98% of government revenue fo ...
Analysis of reef damage in the Indo-Pacific during the 2016 El Nino reveals that several stressors influence bleaching.Scientists in the Indian and Pacific Oceans used the El Nino of 2016—the warmest year on record—to evaluate the role of excess heat as the leading driver of coral bleaching and ...
Australia’s mangroves, tidal marshes and seagrass meadows are absorbing about 20m tonnes of carbon dioxide every year, according to a major new study that is the first to measure in detail the climate benefits of the coastal ecosystems.
The oceans are under siege, campaigners warn, and fish stocks could collapse unless a global deal is struck swiftly to ban harmful fisheries subsidies. The World Trade Organization, meanwhile, can’t agree on who will head the committee to discuss the issue, according to sources close to the nego ...
Sir David Attenborough is supporting a campaign to help save an important marine habitat.Kelp forests of the West Sussex coast are one of the most biodiverse environments on the planet, but they have been damaged by changing fishing habits and sediment being dumped on the seafloor.
Coral reefs around the world are under increasing stress due to a combination of local and global factors. As such, long-term investigation is becoming increasingly important to understanding ecosystem responses.
26 September 2019, London, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
Most of the heat from global warming has gone into the oceans, so it is no wonder that the seas are experiencing massive heatwaves too. What's more, climate change is causing a fall in global ocean oxygen levels.
Reference: SCBD/SSSF/AS/SBG/JA/JMQ/88255 (2019-081)
To: CBD National Focal Points, Marine and Coastal Biodiversity Focal Points and SBSTTA Focal Points
Scientists have seen for the first time how corals collaborate with other microscopic life to build and grow.A study led by The University of Queensland and James Cook University reveals at the DNA level how coral interacts with partners like algae and bacteria to share resources and build healt ...