Mega Trawlers Emptying African Seas

West African waters have been subject to overfishing for decades, the effects of which are being felt by protesting local communities. Greenpeace protests against EU subsidised plunder of West African Waters, with level of fishing that is completely unsustainable. Trawlers have a disastrous impact with their ability to make massive catches in an area with already declining fish stocks, destroying both African fisheries and the local fishing industry.

Scientists Warn of Emergency on Global Scale

In a “State of the Planet” declaration issued after a four-day conference, leading scientists said Earth was now facing unprecedented challenges, from water stress, pollution and species loss to spiralling demands for food.

Japan Tsunami Holds Lessons for Pacific Northwest

The threat posed to coastal areas in the Pacific Northwest by massive tsunami flooding gained renewed attention after the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and consecutive devastating tsunami that rapidly inundated coastal areas in Japan on March 11, 2011. Scientists say that a similar tsunami hit the Pacific Northwest coast in 1700, and it may happen again. 90 percent of the coastal region’s residents evacuated effectively in japan, but a same situation would likely play out differently in the Pacific Northwest.

Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup : 2011 Report

Ocean Conservancy’s International Coastal Cleanup has become the world’s largest volunteer effort for ocean health. Nearly nine million volunteers from 152 countries and locations have cleaned 145 million pounds of trash from the shores of lakes, streams, rivers, and the ocean on just one day each year.

A decade of weather extremes

The ostensibly large number of recent extreme weather events has triggered intensive discussions, both in- and outside the scientific community, on whether they are related to global warming.

Global Partnership for Oceans: to Reverse Patterns of Degradation, UN

A powerful coalition of governments, international organizations, civil society groups and private interests are joining together under the banner of a Global Partnership for Oceans to confront widely documented problems of over-fishing, marine degradation, and habitat loss.

Amount of Coldest Antarctic Water Near Ocean Floor Decreasing for Decades

Oceanographers find that, the coldest deep ocean water, Antarctic Bottom Water, has been disappearing at an average rate of about eight million metric tons per second over the past few decades, equivalent to about fifty times the average flow of the Mississippi River. The world’s deep ocean currents play a critical role in transporting heat and carbon around the planet, thus regulating our climate.