Dead Zone Off Gulf Coast, As Large As The State Of New Jersey

Dead zones off the coast, are fueled by nutrient runoff from agricultural and other human activities in the Mississippi River watershed, which stimulates an overgrowth of algae that sinks, decomposes and consumes most of the life-giving oxygen supply in bottom waters. These chronic, recurring hypoxic zones every summer represent a significant threat to Gulf coastal ecosystems.

What was natural in the coastal oceans?

Humans transformed Western Atlantic coastal marine ecosystems before modern ecological investigations began. The universal pattern of losses demonstrates that no coastal ecosystem is pristine and few wild fisheries are sustainable along the entire Western Atlantic coast.

Blue Carbon Initiative: Buried Treasure For Climate and Coastal Communities

Dubbed “blue carbon” for their ability to sequester and store huge amounts of carbon, mangroves, seagrasses, and salt marshes- show great climate mitigation potential, immediately available and cost-effective, for removing greenhouse gases already in the atmosphere. The Blue Carbon Initiative program, draw the world’s attention to the crucial role of these direly threaten coastal ecosystems, in the fight against carbon emissions.

Sea Turtle Egg Poaching Legalized in Costa Rica: The Debate

An unusual project installed in 1990, to stabilize the population of Olive Ridley sea turtles in the coastal town of Ostional on Costa Rica’s Nicoya Peninsula, that led the government of Costa Rica to legally permit an exemption to the 1966 nationwide ban on harvesting sea turtle eggs, remains controversial.

Caribbean states want end of nuclear waste shipments

The practice of shipping hazardous and nuclear waste through the Caribbean sea is seen as a dangerous environmental gamble, risking the existence of the more than 20 million people, and threatening its coral reefs and ecosystems.

Red Knots Shorebirds and Horseshoe Crabs Knotted Together

A shorebird species whose population has plummeted over the last 15 years, has been directly tied to the number of egg-laying horseshoe crabs. This is one of the first studies to scientifically support the ecological links between these two species.

The Speed of Change: Oceans in Distress, An International Report

Sponsored by the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO), the 27 participants from 18 organisations in 6 countries produced a grave assessment of current threats, and a stark conclusion about future risks to marine and human life if the current trajectory of damage continues: that the world’s ocean is at high risk of entering a phase of extinction of marine species unprecedented in human history.