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Find an interesting new article each week from the curated list below:
A marine heatwave known as a blob was especially severe this year in the north-western and central Pacific Ocean, which could lead in the coming months to increased flooding in the US Pacific…
Article Link
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/oct/23/pacific-ocean-marine-heatwave-north-west
Last month, humanity crossed another planetary boundary: ocean acidification. A new report from the Planetary Boundaries Science Lab at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)…
The urgency is all too obvious. News headlines from the ocean are filled with stories of tensions, conflicts, risks and worries. The ocean is a major player in the new era of geopolitics. At the helm of global governance…
Over the past three years, Back to Blue has detailed the growing threat that ocean acidification (OA) poses to marine ecosystems. We have also described how OA contributes to the loss of marine…
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The great ocean destabilisers
Marine pollution extends far beyond plastics, encompassing a range of substances including chemicals, nutrients, pharmaceuticals and heavy metals, which often originate from land-based sources…
Article Link
https://backtoblueinitiative.com/investing-in-a-pollution-free-ocean-lessons-from-fairr/
There is a wall display in the Port Office overlooking the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s dock on the southern tip of Cape Cod. Old and yellowing, it quietly speaks volumes after more than 90 years…
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The long-awaited INC 5.2 session in Geneva was meant to bring the world closer to a legally binding global plastics treaty after the five previous rounds failed to secure an agreement…
Article Link
https://backtoblueintiative.com/a-rudderless-treaty/
Marine pollution extends far beyond plastics, encompassing a range of substances including chemicals, nutrients, pharmaceuticals and heavy metals, which often originate from land-based sources…
Article Link
https://backtoblueinitiative.com/investing-in-a-pollution-free-ocean-lessons-from-fairr/
There is a wall display in the Port Office overlooking the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution’s dock on the southern tip of Cape Cod. Old and yellowing, it quietly speaks volumes after more than 90 years…
Article Link
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/07/21/oceanography-national-security-noaa/
A volunteer group in Hastings has launched a project to help bring back kelp forests off the Sussex coast. Kelp – a form of seaweed – was once abundant in the area, but by the end of the 1980s, an estimated 96%…
Article Link
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c30z1p080lpo
The UK’s seas have had their warmest start to the year since records began, helping to drive some dramatic changes in marine life and for its fishing communities. The average surface temperature of UK waters in the…
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It is no secret that Asia is on the rise. Today, the region contains over half the world’s population, as well as three of the world’s largest economies, with China, India, and Japan together generating nearly a quarter…
Article Link
https://impact.economist.com/ocean/sustainable-ocean-economy/asias-ocean-opportunity-why-a-blue-economy-venture-fund-is-needed
An algal bloom catastrophe which has turned usually pristine South Australian waters toxic green and suffocated masses of marine life is a “natural disaster”, the state premier has declared…
Article Link
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5y7nze38p5o
Extreme climate events—including heatwaves, torrential rains and supercharged typhoons—are striking with growing frequency and intensity. In June 2024, temperatures in Mecca, Islam’s holiest city, soared to 51.8°C…
Article Link
https://impact.economist.com/ocean/ocean-health/halfway-through-the-ocean-decade-why-the-private-sector-must-lead-for-a
At the Blue Economy and Finance Forum (BEFF), a special event of the third UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3) held on June 7th and 8th, the United Nations Global Compact and the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative…
Article Link
https://impact.economist.com/ocean/biodiversity-ecosystems-and-resources/inside-the-blue-ocean-dome-a-conversation-with-shigeru-ban-at-the-osaka-expo
he oceans are the largest habitat on the planet, but a lot of that habitat is extremely hard to study. Similar to how we study other planets in our solar system, we need to make smaller and mobile versions of…
Grotesque scenes of overfishing and shark graveyards shocked Andrew and Marit Miners when they visited eastern Indonesia’s Coral Triangle in the early 2000s. The British and Swedish nationals decided something needed…
International Day for Biological Diversity (or World Biodiversity Day) is celebrated every year in late May to increase understanding and awareness of biodiversity issues. To honour this occasion the World Ocean Initiative…
India is blessed with rich and varied fisheries resources and a diverse array of fish species that have traditionally supported the livelihood of millions of fishers. With an exclusive economic zone…
This year marks the halfway point of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development. As I write, thousands of ocean-conservation professionals and advocates from government, business…
The Blue Ocean Dome rises like a seashell unfurling over Yumeshima Island, its curved form framed by a lightweight lattice of bamboo and carbon fibre, glowing softly in the filtered Osaka sunlight…
“Plankton have been around since before we had multi-cellular life,” says Dr Daniela Schmidt, professor of earth sciences at the University of Bristol and a lead author of the fifth and sixth reports to the…
The ocean, Earth’s enormous pulsing and flowing life-support system, is under increasing strain. Industrial activities—from hi-tech fishery practices to offshore energy and mining—are able to reach farther and…
What do you get if you mix eggshells into concrete? How effective could certain micro-organisms be at creating a self-healing, anti-corrosion mix—particularly useful for harsh marine environments? What difference does…
Small-scale fisheries (SSFs) are the backbone of coastal and inland communities worldwide, contributing at least 40% of the world’s total fish catch and providing essential nutrients to 2.3bn…
Article Link
https://impact.economist.com/ocean/biodiversity-ecosystems-and-resources/small-scale-fishers-hold-the-key-to-food-security-and-climate-resilience
Deep-sea mining (DSM) is an unproven industry seeking to extract primarily manganese, copper, cobalt, and nickel from the seabed. It is also the worst option to source those minerals because…
Article Link
https://impact.economist.com/ocean/ocean-health/deep-sea-mining-poised-to-be-another-subsidised-extractive-industry
The world’s coral reefs have been pushed into “uncharted territory” by the worst global bleaching event on record that has now hit more than 80% of the planet’s reefs, scientists have warned. Reefs in at least 82…
Article Link
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/apr/23/coral-reef-bleaching-worst-global-event-on-record
John Todd remembers the moment he knew he was really on to something: “There was no question that it was at the Harwich dump in 1986…
Article Link
https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2025/apr/10/scientists-john-todd-eco-machines-pollution-technology-ships-oceans
Flowing clockwise around Antarctica, the Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the strongest ocean current on the planet. It’s five times stronger than the Gulf Stream and more than 100 times stronger than the Amazon River…
Article Link
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20250303-the-worlds-strongest-ocean-current-is-at-risk
Your morning coffee, the clothes you wear and the phone in your hand all have something in common: they travelled across land and sea..
Article Link
https://impact.economist.com/ocean/ocean-and-climate/turning-the-tide-ports-as-catalysts-for-climate-action
Formed out of a tropical wave that left the coast of Africa on June 25th, Hurricane Beryl soon became the earliest category-five hurricane on record…
Article Link
https://impact.economist.com/ocean/ocean-and-climate/warming-seas-driving-extreme-weather-hurricane-helene-one-of-deadliest-in-us
“If you compare land to ocean—if you had the ratio of buoys from the ocean on land—Canada would have two weather stations,” says Sebastiaan Ambtman, chief executive of OceanSync, speaking from Halifax…
Article Link
https://impact.economist.com/ocean/ocean-and-climate/data-is-the-bottleneck-in-better-ocean-prediction
When you look at images of Kiribati, a nation of 32 atolls and one raised-coral island deep in Oceania, the turquoise waters around its causeway-connected capital stand out like a bright paradise…
Article Link
https://impact.economist.com/ocean/ocean-and-climate/taps-running-dry-desperate-call-for-funding-reform-over-sids-water-security
After months of drifting, the world’s largest iceberg has come to a halt near the island of South Georgia in the South Atlantic Ocean. While a “Titanic II” scenario..
Article Link
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/03/04/climate/iceberg-antarctica-a23a.html
A global movement encouraging businesses and financial institutions to consider their impacts on nature is gathering momentum, and the…
As the International Negotiating Committee (INC) works to create a global plastics treaty, it faces a challenge of unprecedented scale. Plastic pollution has infiltrated
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Making the invisible visible
As many as 100 billion lifeforms – about the number of people who have ever lived on Earth – can be found in a liter of seawater. These microscopic organisms…
Article Link
https://woods.stanford.edu/news/secret-lives-plankton
Microplastics contamination is widespread in seafood sampled in a recent study, adding to growing evidence of the dangerous substances’ ubiquity…
Article Link
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/feb/03/seafood-microplastic-contamination-study?scrlybrkr=3ab79bb2
Memory can be a flighty thing. The past can be recalled with rose-colored glasses, and many of our memories dim as we age—there’s a reason eyewitness testimony…
Article Link
https://www.popularmechanics.com/scienc e/environment/a63084409/north-atlantic-ocean-memory/
It’s official: 2024 was the planet’s warmest year on record, according to an analysis by scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)…
Article Link
https://www.noaa.gov/news/2024-was-worlds-warmest-year-on-record
After tragedies like the thalidomide scandal and the Bhopal chemical disaster brought awareness to the links between…
Article Link
https://backtoblueinitiative.com/slowing-the-chemical-tide-safeguarding-human-and-ocean-health-amid-chemical-pollution/
The South-West Indian Ocean (SWIO)—the second-most biodiverse ocean region in the world and an area of great natural beauty—is at a crossroads…
Article Link
https://impact.economist.com/ocean/sus tainable-ocean-economy/now-is-the-time-to-protect-africas-most-biodiverse-ocean-region-from
Shipping is among the most hard-to-abate sectors, emitting a billion tonnes of carbon dioxide annually while transporting 90% of global trade…
Article Link
https://backtoblueinitiative.com/a-symbiotic-approach-to-decarbonisation-in-the-maritime-industry/
Grotesque scenes of overfishing and shark graveyards shocked Andrew and Marit Miners when they visited eastern Indonesia’s Coral Triangle…
Article Link
https://impact.economist.com/ocean/biod iversity-ecosystems-and- resources/restoring-an-island-paradise
Despite its modest landmass of just 457 square km, Seychelles’ ocean spans 1.37m square km—a territory equivalent to half the land area…
Article Link
https://impact.economist.com/ocean/bi
odiversity-ecosystems-and-resources/seychelles-balancing-act-transforming-fisheries-to-preserve-biodiversity
Article Link
https://news.nationalgeographic.org/new-discovery-largest-coral-in-the-world-found-in-the-solomon-islands/
Article Link
https://backtoblueinitiative.com/sea-sickness-the-pharmaceutical-pollution-problem/
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