The seabed is not flat and smooth like the shimmering ocean above it. It’s a jagged, uneven landscape of submerged mountains and valleys, all hidden from sight – but not from science. By analysing the isotopic composition of the rocks that make up these underwater mountains networks – called mid-ocean ridges – scientists can identify […]

Plastics have become public enemy number one. This year, environmental groups GreenSeas Trust and Greenpeace have joined forces with the IET to engineer creative solutions to two specific parts of the problem. While the consequences of plastic pollution are becoming obvious, so are the causes. Eighty per cent of marine litter originates from land, with […]

The deepest point on Earth is heavily polluted with plastic, scientists have discovered, showing how pervasively the world has been contaminated. The researchers plumbed the depths of the Mariana Trench in the western Pacific Ocean, near Challenger Deep, the lowest place on the face of the planet. They found the highest levels of microplastics yet […]

After gathering more than a third of a million pounds of oceanborne waste from Hawaii shores, one marine waste cleanup program will continue its work for a third year. The Hawaii Nei Marine Debris Removal Program, a collaboration between the Hawaii Wildlife Fund and nonprofit conservation organizations Pulama Lanai and the Surfrider Foundation, announced last […]

The Swim may be over, but the cause for which Ben Lecomte tried to swim across the Pacific Ocean remains as important as ever. Lecomte logged about 1,700 miles in the water, using the effort to bring attention to the growing problem of plastic pollution in the world’s oceans. He and the crew had persevered […]

It’s been said that everything that is to be seen has already been seen. But as far as our planet’s oceans are concerned, nothing could be further from the truth. Just recently, a veteran underwater videographer saw a 26-foot-long pyrosome — a colony of tiny sea animals who link together into a free-floating mass. As […]

Policies to conserve and enhance beaches, public access, and coastal open space are failing in Hawaiʻiaccording to a recently published study by researchers at the University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa. A team of specalists in coastal erosion, sea level rise, and urban planning quantified land use on a section of Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi coast over the […]

Researchers say the state is not doing enough to protect our beaches. A study recently published by University of Hawaii at Manoa researchers claims policies to conserve and enhance beaches, public access, and coastal open space are failing in Hawaii. A team of specialists analyzed land use on a section of Windward Oahu from 1928 to 2015. In […]

Plastic pollution in the ocean is a growing threat to the survival of sea turtles, endangering the life cycle of these ancient marine globetrotters, according to a new study. Researchers found startling amounts of plastic in the bodies of nearly 100 sea turtle hatchlings that washed ashore on the Florida coast, including tiny “micronized” bits […]

To save the world from climate catastrophe, the world needs to urgently phase out the use of fossil fuels. On Wednesday, Danish energy company Orsted announced a major investment program as it seeks to become one of the “renewable majors” leading a global shift away from planet-warming fuels, Reuters reported. Orsted, which built the largest […]