How China’s Expanding Fishing Fleet Is Depleting the World’s Oceans

After exhausting areas close to home, China’s vast fishing fleet has moved into the waters of other nations, depleting fish stocks. More than seafood is at stake, as China looks to assert itself on the seas and further its geo-political ambitions, from East Asia to Latin America.

Trump Opens Arctic Refuge to Polluters

The Interior Department is opening up the entire Coastal Plain of the refuge to polluters—at the expense of Indigenous peoples’ traditional ways of life, numerous wildlife species, and the climate.

More Than 500 Dams Planned in Protected Areas Around the Globe, Study Finds

More than 500 dams are planned or already under construction within protected areas around the world, according to a new study published in the journal Conservation Letters. The study is the first of its kind to quantify the global extent of dams constructed in protected areas, which can include indigenous areas, nature reserves, and national parks.

Deep-sea misconceptions cause underestimation of seabed-mining impacts

A new publication on the impacts of deep-seabed mining by 13 prominent deep-sea biologists, led by University of Hawai’i at M?noa oceanography professor Craig Smith, seeks to dispel scientific misconceptions that have led to miscalculations of the likely effects of commercial operations to extract minerals from the seabed.

Mix of contaminants in Fukushima wastewater, risks of ocean dumping

Nearly 10 years after the Tohoku-oki earthquake and tsunami devastated Japan’s Fukushima Dai-ichi Nuclear Power Plant and triggered an unprecedented release radioactivity into the ocean, radiation levels have fallen to safe levels in all but the waters closest to the shuttered power plant.