Malnourished Gray Whales of the Eastern North Pacific Are in ‘Serious Trouble’

The population has plummeted over the past seven years as climate change triggers mass starvation in warming Arctic waters.

SEATTLE—Exceptionally skinny gray whales—enfeebled by starvation and mangled by blunt-force trauma—are washing up this spring along the coast of Washington state in numbers that alarm marine-mammal scientists.

Trump Administration to Dismantle Ocean Monitoring System

The $368 million network of instruments collecting data in both the Atlantic and Pacific has been critical to climate and ocean research

The Trump administration is dismantling a $368 million deep-ocean observation system that was put in place a decade ago to monitor coastal environments, marine ecosystems and powerful currents that affect the global climate.

Climate Change Alarms Are Flashing. Washington Isn’t Paying Attention.

The climate system’s warning signs are blaring, but hardly anyone in Washington has noticed. In recent months, scientists have revealed new ways climate change is affecting the planet: Higher temperatures threaten to worsen damage from a potentially historic El Niño; a record warm winter in the U.S. West pushed river levels near catastrophic levels; new data shows the planet heating up more quickly, shrinking Arctic ice cover to record lows; a critical ocean current that regulates weather is closer to collapse than previously thought.

How One Company Plans to Mine the Bottom of the Sea

A look at the quest to mine the bottom of the ocean for valuable minerals, the connection between light pollution and allergies and more climate news.

For the past few months, I have been reporting on the nascent deep-sea mining industry. Metals worth trillions of dollars lie at the bottom of the sea, and a handful of companies have been developing the technology to get them up to the surface and into electric car batteries, weapons systems and whatever else might need it.

Wave-measuring Device Deployed at New Marine Energy Test Site in Massachusetts

The Marine Renewable Energy Collaborative (MRECo), a nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing marine renewable energy and ocean technology in Massachusetts, has deployed a wave-measuring device at a newly established test range in this U.S. state. SOFAR Ocean’s SOFAR Spotter Buoy collects real-time ocean data, including wave height, temperature, and environmental conditions, which will directly support multiple ongoing and future ocean technology projects.

Rising Pacific Ocean Temperatures Trigger Legal Requirement to Protect Loggerhead Sea Turtles from Driftnets

Rising Pacific Ocean temperatures are triggering a federal legal requirement, triggered by litigation by Turtle Island (TIRN) and Center for Biological Diversity (CBD) to close a large stretch of Southern California waters to driftnet fishing. The closure zone — known as the Loggerhead Conservation Area (LCA) — was established in 2000 to protect loggerhead sea turtles that migrate into Southern California waters during El Niño events.

A Record Die-off of Sea Stars Was Followed By Something That Stunned Biologists

The creatures almost went extinct along the West Coast a decade ago. Recently, they have been making a comeback. For much of his career, Bruce Menge assumed he would conduct the same research until he died. The marine biologist has studied sea stars since the 1970s, and the animals had always seemed more solid a bet than others in the ocean. They have no natural enemies, regenerate limbs when they lose them and reproduce prolifically.

Boiling Point

This might come as a surprise, unless you’re plugged into ocean science lore: The oldest and longest-running marine ecosystem monitoring program in the world is based right off the coast of Southern California. Every season, for more than three-quarters of a century, researchers with the California Cooperative Oceanic Fisheries Investigations — or CalCOFI, for those in the know — have sailed hundreds of miles off the Golden State’s coast and collected a dizzying array of zooplankton, microscopic plant matter, larvae and all manner of fish.

Efforts to Save Kelp Forests from Ocean Warming Are Ramping Up

At one time, kelp forests — which shelter fish, slow erosion, and sequester carbon — grew along a third of the world’s coastlines. Now, scientists are working to bolster heat-stressed kelp by attacking the urchins that prey on them and transplanting hardier kelp varieties. In the coastal waters off British Columbia, tribal volunteers from the Haida Nation dive for purple sea urchins amid a dense forest of rippling golden-brown kelp fronds.

AI System Provides Hope For Grey Whales After Deadliest Migration Season

With local whale deaths spiking due to ship strikes and Arctic starvation, scientists have deployed a round-the-clock thermal monitoring system to detect whale breaths and guide heavy vessel traffic safely around the ocean giants

Earlier this year, scientists tracking grey whales in San Francisco Bay found that nearly one in five individuals identified there died in its waters; 40% of these deaths were found to be caused by vessel strikes.

Lab-Grown Sunflower Sea Stars Offer Hope for Vanishing Marine Ecosystems

Troubling reports of sea star wasting disease along the West Coast of the United States began in 2013. Its identification in Washington state spread southward, extending down to Baja. The symptoms of the disease spread rapidly, too – among them lesions, loss of arms, and breakdown of the body into what has been described as a pile of goo. Sunflower sea stars are a keystone species, the natural predators of sea urchins. As their populations shrank, they were no longer able to maintain a balance in the kelp ecosystem.

Scientists Can Now Predict Coral Bleaching Months Before it Happen

or reef managers racing to protect corals from warming seas, the most valuable resource has always been time. A new tool developed by researchers at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution may just have given them more of it.

Scientists have created an early-warning system capable of predicting coral bleaching events five to six months before they occur.

Democrats Pledge to Fight Trump’s Removal of Ocean Monitors

Democrats said Tuesday they intend to fight the Trump administration’s plan to eradicate a deep-ocean observation system critical to understanding climate change and marine ecosystems. The system cost $368 million when it was installed in 2016 but now officials want to shut it down, which they say would save $48 million in operating costs each year.

Interior Expands Hunting and Fishing Access Across Federal Lands

The Department of the Interior today announced major actions to expand hunting and fishing access across lands and waters managed by the Department, advancing President Donald J. Trump’s commitment to increasing outdoor recreation opportunities, reducing unnecessary regulatory burdens and supporting rural communities.

The actions include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposed largest expansion of hunting and sport fishing opportunities in agency history.

E.U. Steps Up Ocean Monitoring as Trump Administration Backs Away

Days after the Trump administration vowed to dismantle a deep-ocean observation system, the European Union said it would bolster its own monitoring of the world’s oceans to improve climate forecasting and better anticipate changes to marine ecosystems. The European Union announcement was long in the works, and not a response to the U.S. pullback. Still, officials in Brussels highlighted the contrast.

Trump Tears Up Protections Across Three Pacific Marine Monuments

The Trump administration has signed a proclamation reopening nearly 500,000 square miles of previously protected federal waters to commercial fishing, rolling back conservation measures across three marine national monuments in the Pacific. It is the third such action by the Trump administration. Commercial fishing was previously reopened in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts monument in February 2026 and the Pacific Islands Heritage Marine National Monument in April 2025.

Whales Are Showing Up in San Francisco Bay. New Ship Alerts Could Help Protect Them

Gray whales used to be a rare sight in San Francisco Bay. Now, their spouts are appearing off Alcatraz Island in one of the busiest waterways in the country.

The whales are making a pit stop on their long migrations from Mexico to Alaska, detouring under the Golden Gate Bridge for a snack as climate change is shrinking their normal food supply in Arctic waters.

What Federal Cuts to Science Funding Could Mean For the Great Lakes

Facing another round of cuts, NOAA-funded researchers worry about undermining public safety, the maritime economy, and health on the Great Lakes.

Some groups that do research and collect data on the Great Lakes are facing existential threats as the annual budgeting process for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration gets underway.

Why an Immense Marine Heatwave Off the US West Coast Has Alarmed Scientists

An enormous marine heatwave off the US west coast is ringing alarm bells among ocean and atmospheric scientists as new data shows its ecological and environmental effects are intensifying.

The unusual area of warm water has persisted since peaking in size during September 2025 and still stretches thousands of miles from the California coastline – more than halfway across the Pacific.

Arizona and Nevada Agree to Trade for Desalinated Pacific Ocean Water

San Diego could sell some of its rights to Colorado River water to Arizona and Nevada under a deal struck Wednesday that could help parched inland states fill a widening gap between water supply and demand.

The San Diego County Water Authority now has a water surplus thanks to a desalination plant the utility opened a decade ago after facing shortages of its own. Water wouldn’t physically move inland, but the utility wouldn’t draw as much from the river as it’s entitled to.

Prepare For Imminent Return of El Niño, UN Warns

The world must prepare for the imminent return of El Niño and the supercharged weather extremes it brings, the UN has warned.

The powerful natural weather pattern, which raises global temperatures and worsens some rainfall, has an 80% chance of forming before September and a 90% chance before November, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Senator Who Won’t Shut Up About Climate Change

At a time when other public officials and the media are talking less about climate change, Sheldon Whitehouse remains fiercely outspoken. He delivered his 307th climate speech on the Senate floor this month and is pushing back against the recent trend of “climate hushing.” For the last 15 years, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, Democrat of Rhode Island, has been Congress’s most outspoken member on climate change. In 2012, he had a sign made up that showed the Earth as seen from space. “Time to Wake Up,” it said.

Forever Chemicals Found Across Marine Life

Current laws are not doing enough to protect the environment or public health against "forever chemicals", a new study has warned.

Research by the University of Portsmouth and the Marine Conservation Society tested for polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the Solent, a stretch of water between Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight. The study found that the chemicals are present throughout the Solent at "multiple levels" of the marine environment.

A Solar-powered Rubbish-eating Boat? The Vessel Chomping Plastic Waste Out of the Sea

On an overcast June morning, I step from the rubber-sided Zodiac boat on to a floating barge at the mouth of Ballona Creek, where it meets Santa Monica Bay on the west side of Los Angeles. The first thing I notice? Salty air is the only smell, despite six giant waste bins sitting atop the tennis court-sized barge.

The contraption is actually two barges – a smaller platform sits nestled inside the larger boat.

NOAA Forecasts an Above-average Summer 'dead zone' in Gulf of America

NOAA is forecasting this summer’s Gulf of America “dead zone” to be larger than average, covering approximately 7,027 square miles, an area slightly smaller than the size of New Jersey. The 2026 forecast is below the record size of 8,776 square miles set in 2017 and larger than the 39-year average measured size of 5,223 square miles. The dead zone, or hypoxic zone, is an area where dissolved oxygen levels are too low to support marine life, causing die-offs of fish, shellfish, corals, and aquatic plants.

New Study Suggests Fish Gut Microbe Helps Regulate Ocean Health

The study, led by former graduate student Anthony Bonacolta in the Department of Marine Biology and Ecology at the University of Miami Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science, found that symbiotic gut microbes may work in tandem with marine fish to produce a form of calcium carbonate that influences overall ocean health and serves as a key carbon sink. This process, long attributed primarily to fish physiology, may in fact depend on a previously unrecognized microbial partnership.

3,000 Species Are Killed for Supper. Why Do We Allow It?

We humans are capable of enormous devastation, but every now and then, we’re able to agree to stop the worst of our transgressions. We no longer regularly scour the oceans for the great whales only to boil them down for margarine and pet food. We’ve stopped killing wild birds en masse to make hats out of their plumage. We’ve effectively banned DDT — a pesticide that nearly emptied the skies of hawks, falcons and even the bald eagle.

Rainstorms Create Invisible Ceilings Which Trap Jellyfish, Study Finds

A sudden tropical downpour in Florida’s Everglades National Park has led to a major discovery in marine fluid dynamics, proving that physical boundaries, not just animal behavior, can trap marine life in the deep ocean. The study, published in the Journal of Experimental Biology by researchers at Kiel University (CAU), reveals how a phenomenon called stratification drag creates a physical ceiling that prevents certain marine organisms from reaching the surface, even as they actively swim upward.

Fishermen Prepared For the Longest Red Snapper Season in Recent Memory. A Court Order Stopped It

Miles from shore, Chris Kemp pumps and reels as he battles a fish 150 feet below. Eventually, it gives up, and the 10-pound red snapper is hauled aboard the Jodie Lynn II.

There’s barely time to rejoice. As Kemp raises his trophy for a picture, the charter boat’s captain rushes over and then drives a knifelike tool into the fish’s gas-filled bladder. The procedure, required by federal law, is intended to improve the fish’s chances of survival after release.

There’s a Bit of Good News for Coral Reefs

New research has identified areas around the world where cooler currents and other favorable conditions are helping to protect coral from the worst effects of global warming. As spiking ocean temperatures are devastating reefs around the world, a handful of scientists have found a reason for cautious optimism. They’ve used artificial intelligence to detect sheltered pockets where cool currents, reduced exposure to sunlight and locations outside cyclone paths mean corals are more likely to survive.

The Plastic Detox - Netflix  Documentary Trailer

What are microplastics doing to our health? The dangers of using plastics have an unprecedented health toll on fertility, puberty, and much more. This documentary follows the research of Dr. Swan and other experts in the field, covering the impact on human development and showing how we can take matters into our own hands.