Emily Cunningham's ocean career proves you don't need a science degree to make a real difference for the ocean. She started with unpaid turtle patrols in Sri Lanka, a volunteer stint with the Sea Watch Foundation, and unpaid time at the North Wales Wildlife Trust. No PhD, no glamorous first…
Kelp forest restoration gets treated as one of the ocean's feel-good climate wins, the kind of thing you can donate to and point at as proof of progress. A new essay in PLOS Biology says the math doesn't support that framing. Climate-driven kelp losses are running 1,000 to 10,000 times…
Marine heat waves usually mean bad news for the ocean's ability to absorb carbon dioxide, and in the open ocean, that holds true. CO2 uptake drops by about 8% during a heat wave, warmer water simply holds less dissolved gas. But a new global study found the opposite happening along…
North Atlantic right whales show real signs of recovery this year: Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans reports the critically endangered population appears to be stabilizing after a decade of decline, now estimated at roughly 384 whales including about 70 breeding females. This season logged over 680 visual and 2,000…
North Atlantic right whales show real signs of recovery this year: Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans reports the critically endangered population appears to be stabilizing after a decade of decline, now estimated at roughly 384 whales including about 70 breeding females. This season logged over 680 visual and 2,000…
Marine heatwaves are supposed to mean less carbon absorbed by the ocean, and mostly, they do. A new global study led by Zhentao Hu, mostly out of Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon in Germany, analyzed 45 coastal regions worldwide across 35 years, 1985 to 2020, and found a sharp split. In the open…
Marine heatwaves are supposed to mean less carbon absorbed by the ocean, and mostly, they do. A new global study led by Zhentao Hu, mostly out of Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon in Germany, analyzed 45 coastal regions worldwide across 35 years, 1985 to 2020, and found a sharp split. In the open…
Why this marine biologist studies people as much as sharks starts with one brutal night in Cuba in 2018. Melissa Cristina Márquez was filming for Discovery's Shark Week when a crocodile lashed out and dragged her by the leg, leaving roughly 80 stitches behind. She survived, has spoken publicly about…
A blue whale's heart can slow to just two beats a minute during a deep dive, then climb more than tenfold in that same dive after a single feeding lunge. That swing, caught on tape for only the second time in a free-swimming blue whale and the first time ever…
Turtle excluder device requirements for Louisiana's largest skimmer shrimp trawlers survived a federal court challenge this week. On August 28, 2026, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a rule requiring turtle excluder devices (TEDs) on any skimmer trawl vessel 40 feet or longer, ruling against the Louisiana Shrimp Association…
Straw, fork, giant squid: three separate discoveries, one marine biologist, and each one landed in front of an audience most scientists spend entire careers hoping for. In this Ocean People profile from Ocean Decoded Live, host Andrew Lewin breaks down the career of his friend Dr. Nathan Robinson, a field…
Sea turtles win in court: on August 28, 2026, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a federal rule requiring turtle excluder devices on Louisiana skimmer trawl shrimp vessels 40 feet and longer, rejecting a challenge from the Louisiana Shrimp Association. The shrimpers' case rested on Louisiana's own 55-year,…
Sea turtles win in court: on August 28, 2026, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously upheld a federal rule requiring turtle excluder devices on Louisiana skimmer trawl shrimp vessels 40 feet and longer, rejecting a challenge from the Louisiana Shrimp Association. The shrimpers' case rested on Louisiana's own 55-year,…
Shedd Aquarium beluga deaths: three whales are dead in eight days, and one of them had nothing to do with the rescue that was supposed to save them. Peekachu, a 23-year-old female recently transferred from the now-closed Marineland Canada, died on August 25. One week later, on September 2, two…
Ghost sharks. Zombie worms. Twenty species new to science, sitting on a stretch of ocean floor that had never been mapped or seen by anyone until this year. Trinidad and Tobago is 93 percent deep ocean, and for the entire history of the nation, that deep sea sat unexplored. It's…
He started diving with his dad at four years old, decades before he'd ever set foot at Loggerhead Marinelife Center. Andy DeHart's father was a former Navy diver, and that early exposure to the water hooked him on marine biology for good. By 15 he was already working in aquariums,…
