Tuna transparency is getting a deadline — and $163 million is riding on the data
TNC says Seychelles is targeting 100% monitoring of industrial tuna vessels by 2027, as Gabon’s blue bond-linked plan aims to unlock $163 million over 15 years.
OceanX Bets on People-to-People Ocean Science
A U.S.–China student voyage aboard OceanXplorer is a small, practical wager: that shared data and shared decks can outlast geopolitics.
Marine Heatwaves Are Becoming a Year-Round Risk for Coral Reefs
NOAA Coral Reef Watch’s daily 5km Marine Heatwave Watch turns ocean heat stress into a decision-grade metric — and raises the stakes for reef protection.
Reef mapping is becoming an investable dataset — as scientists listen for coral “hotspots”
WHOI researchers are using reef soundscapes and AUVs to map hotspots; Scripps says the ocean-climate engine makes better data an urgent investment.
Microplastics are the hardest part of ocean plastics — and the most expensive to measure
NOAA defines microplastics as <5mm plastics found from polar ice to the food chain; UNEP’s Inger Andersen says a global treaty is needed as outrage grows.
Africa Pushes Deep-Sea Mining Moratorium Past 41 Countries as IUCN Resolution 122 Framework Holds
Malawi, Kenya and Madagascar join the precautionary pause at OOC11 Mombasa, taking the count to 41; IUCN Resolution 122 framework anchors the legal debate at the International Seabed Authority.
Fiji and Panama Launch a ‘Twilight Zone’ Challenge
A new voluntary pledge targets the mesopelagic zone — the ocean’s food warehouse and carbon pump — as interest in deep-water fishing and seabed mining grows.
The Ocean Crosses 10% Protected. The High Seas Are Where the Next Phase Gets Real
UNEP-WCMC marks 10.01% of the ocean as designated, with only 1.3% management-assessed; The Nature Conservancy commits to support up to five first-generation high-seas MPA proposals by 2030.
Blue Park Awards Put a Price on ‘Paper Parks’ as 30×30 Race Enters Its Hardest Phase
Blue Park Awards shine a light on what comes after designation: funding, enforcement, and community governance that can keep MPAs real.
$6.4 Billion in New Ocean Pledges Puts Data Systems and High-Seas Governance Back on the Clock
Our Ocean Conference commitments are piling up. The real test is whether observation, compliance and high-seas governance can absorb the money and deliver measurable ocean recovery.
UN Global Compact and UNEP FI bring central banks into the USD 5.5 trillion ocean economy framework
A 23 June 2026 closed-door London roundtable advanced the Ocean Investment Protocol with central banks, regulators and supervisors, with WWF GFRi as research partner.
NSF reverses course on USD 368m Ocean Observatories Initiative after Senate passes bipartisan rescue bill
A day after the Senate unanimously passed the Saving the OOI Act of 2026, the National Science Foundation halts dismantling of a 900-sensor network managed by Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.
Sixteen countries sign Mombasa Declaration on Fisheries Transparency to attack USD 50bn-a-year IUU problem
Belgium, Cameroon, Chile, Dominican Republic, France (overseas territories), Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Peru, Republic of the Congo, Somalia and South Korea signed on 17 June at OOC11, committing to modernise vessel registries, publish fishing authorisations and share data with the UN FAO. Backed by Oceana, EJF, Global Fishing Watch and Bloomberg Philanthropies.
Our Ocean Conference Pledges $6.4 Billion — The Hard Part Is Proving It Lands
Mombasa’s 320 new commitments put fresh financing on the table. The credibility test now is measurement: what ships, sensors, and enforcement actually show up.
€60.5 million bets on Western Indian Ocean governance
The EU and Germany launched a five-year, nine-country programme aimed at cutting illegal fishing losses and building an investable pipeline for the region’s blue economy.
Our Ocean Conference spotlights “effective” protection as African governments move from pledges to MPAs
At Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, new African commitments and the Blue Park standard put the spotlight on enforceable — not just declared — ocean protection.
NOAA details new Pacific monument fishing access, raising fresh questions for protected oceans
A June 11 proclamation reopens parts of three U.S. Pacific marine monuments to commercial fishing — testing how durable ocean protection is when politics shifts.
UNESCO-backed ocean learning programme reaches 23,000 students across Southeast Asia
UNESCO says its 'Sustaining Our Oceans' initiative has involved more than 23,000 students since 2024 — a reminder that ocean finance increasingly depends on education and capacity.
Mesopelagic Zone Conservation Challenge launches at OOC11 in Mombasa as IOC-UNESCO opens GOOS funding push
On day one of the 11th Our Ocean Conference, Ocean Conservancy, the Government of Panama and seven partners launched the Mesopelagic Zone Conservation Challenge — the first governmental Charter for the ocean's twilight zone, which holds an estimated 90% of global fish biomass. IOC-UNESCO unveiled OceanEye, an EU-backed alliance to sustain the Global Ocean Observing System.
Faiths for 30×30 launches in Mombasa, putting religious institutions on the ocean-finance balance sheet
On the eve of the 11th Our Ocean Conference, Faiths for Oceans launches Faiths for 30×30 — the Faith High Ambition Coalition for Ocean and Nature Action — the first global platform allowing religious institutions to register measurable pledges against the 2030 ocean-protection target. The follow-on to a Nice 2025 declaration signed by 300+ faith groups representing more than half a billion people.
Trump opens 500,000 sq mi of Pacific marine monuments to commercial fishing; lawsuits ready
A June 11 White House proclamation reopens portions of Papahānaumokākea, the Mariana Trench and Rose Atoll marine national monuments to US commercial fishing. Earthjustice, the Center for Biological Diversity and Native Hawaiian leaders plan to refile lawsuits, citing an August 2025 federal court ruling that already struck down a parallel order.
USD 2.5 trillion ocean economy meets a 14% funding gap as Our Ocean Conference convenes in Mombasa
UNCTAD pegs ocean-related trade at USD 2.5 trillion in 2025 with services now 58% of the total, yet Pew warns marine ecosystems still receive only 14% of international conservation funding as ministers from roughly 100 countries head to Kenya for the first African Our Ocean Conference.
NOAA confirms end of Fourth Global Coral Bleaching Event: 84% of world's reefs hit in 26-month run
The most widespread and intense bleaching episode on record ran from early 2023 to mid-2025 across 83 countries and surpassed the 68% reach of the 2014–2017 event. NOAA warns reefs are now in an era of near-annual bleaching.
UN launches Third World Ocean Assessment: 52.1 million tonnes of plastic, 4.3 mm sea-level rise, 27.3% of seafloor mapped
A 1,600-page integrated synthesis from nearly 600 experts across 86 countries, approved by 190 UN Member States in Resolution 80/10, lands the hard data baseline for ocean policy in 2026.
French Polynesia locks 520,000 sq km of ocean into IUCN Category 1 in single largest 30x30 contribution to date
On World Ocean Day, President Moetai Brotherson confirmed new fully protected zones around the Austral and Marquesas Islands, taking French Polynesia's no-take ocean to 1.4 million sq km — more than twice the area of continental France.
Aotearoa gazettes 308 sq km Otago marine network in biggest mainland NZ expansion since 2014
Five no-take reserves, co-managed by the Department of Conservation and Kāi Tahu, will lift mainland Aotearoa's marine reserve coverage by nearly 50 percent when they take effect on 1 July 2026.
ILO adopts first global safety code for a 130-million-tonne aquaculture sector
Tripartite delegates in Geneva closed a May 4–8 expert meeting with the first international Code of Practice on Occupational Safety and Health in Aquaculture, covering a sector that produced USD 312.8 billion in 2022 and now overtakes wild-capture fisheries.
US prepares 875,000 sq km of Pacific federal waters for seabed-mining auctions
The Department of the Interior signalled three offshore seabed-mining lease sales across American Samoa, CNMI and Alaska in 2026–27, drawing pushback from territorial governors, Indigenous groups and conservation NGOs.
Caribbean opens its first basin-wide marine megafauna expedition as IOCARIBE stands up a BBNJ task team
The CCS‑led CALYPSO Project opens just as UNESCO‑IOC’s Caribbean sub‑commission launches a Deep‑Sea and BBNJ Task Team — the operational layer of the High Seas Treaty era.
Two humpback whales link Australia and Brazil across 15,100 km — a new record, and a connectivity lesson
A Royal Society Open Science study using 41 years of fluke photos confirms two humpbacks crossed between Australia and Brazil. 0.01% of 20,000 whales, but the genetic and cultural implications are large.
Papua New Guinea sets aside 214,000 sq km no-take sanctuary in Western Manus
PNG announced its largest-ever MPA at the inaugural Melanesian Ocean Summit — 9% of its EEZ, anchoring a 6 million sq km transboundary network with Fiji and Vanuatu.
Samoa launches UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Ready programme across 37 villages
Samoa, UNESCO-IOC and the U.S. Government launched a community-by-community readiness standard covering 37 villages — a Pacific template for the Ocean Decade’s 100% by 2030 target.
Sharks International lands in Asia: Colombo conference reframes ray conservation
800+ researchers gathered in Sri Lanka for the first Asian edition of the world’s largest shark conference. Headline: 36% of rays — and 69% of reef-associated rays — face extinction, worse than sharks.
Canada and B.C. sign Indigenous-led marine conservation deal on the Great Bear Sea
Six First Nations and two governments sign an establishment agreement for Mia-yaltwa Ha’lidzogm hoon, launching multi-year work on zoning, fisheries governance, and stewardship.
Ocean Census logs 1,121 new marine species in a year, turning discovery into a conservation asset
A 54% jump in annual identification, drawn from 13 expeditions and 1,400 scientists across 85 countries — a stress test of how fast discovery can feed policy.
TNC and Newlab pick three pilots to automate ocean enforcement in Southeast Asia
Three June pilots in Indonesia’s Savu Sea will test whether uncrewed patrol craft and AI listening can make marine protection cheaper to enforce.
California Sets a Template for Measuring Microplastics — and the Price of Not Knowing
California is building a statewide plastics monitoring framework—because you can’t manage what you can’t measure, and the cleanup bill is already running.
Ten Percent of the Ocean Is Now Protected
A milestone six years overdue arrives quietly — and reframes what the next four years of marine conservation must achieve. From the Coral Triangle to the Pacific, the next 20 percent will be the hardest yet.
A Morning on the Sand, A Future in the Numbers
Volunteers sorted hundreds of plastic items off a Hong Kong shoreline — each piece bagged, weighed and logged for scientific analysis. The data feeds straight into our partner-led marine debris research.
Where the Sea Tiger Cannot Go, the Tender Does
Some of Hong Kong's most polluted beaches sit beyond the reach of any large vessel. We send young crew ashore in smaller tenders — and they come back with stories the classroom can't teach.