Ocean Conservation & Tidalpunk

• Mangroves in Belize protect coastlines, are nursery grounds for fish, and store vast amounts of carbon.
• In 2021, the government of Belize committed to restoring 4,000 hectares (nearly 10,000 acres) of mangroves, and protecting an additional 12,000 hectares (nearly 30,000 acres) within a decade, as part of its emissions reduction target under the Paris climate agreement.
• To support this restoration target, WWF Mesoamerica is developing a national mangrove restoration action plan.
• Restoration initiatives are already underway in areas like Gales Point, Placencia Caye and elsewhere.

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• Applications for deep-sea mining permits in Brazil have soared in recent years: of the 950 requests filed since 1967, nearly half were submitted between 2020 and 2024.
• Demand for key minerals used in the clean energy transition, as well as geopolitical uncertainties, are driving the race to the seabed.
• Loopholes in Brazilian legislation are allowing mining companies to work without environmental licensing, a situation made worse by the lack of specific rules for deep-sea mining.
• Researchers warn that the lack of environmental impact studies could have widespread impacts on marine ecosystems, especially on coral reef biodiversity.

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• Just 0.001% of the deep seafloor has ever been captured by photo or video images, a new study finds.
• That which has been captured is “biased” and potentially unrepresentative: 65% of observations have been in the waters of the United States, Japan or New Zealand, according to the study.
• Experts told Mongabay that policymakers at a wide range of international institutions should bear the study’s findings in mind, including those governing high seas fisheries, deep-sea mining, and the use of marine carbon dioxide sequestration systems.

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• Mongabay article
• research cited

Reducing travel speeds and using an intelligent queuing system at busy ports can reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from oceangoing container vessels by 16-24%, according to researchers. Not only would those relatively simple interventions reduce emissions from a major, direct source of greenhouse gases, the technology to implement these measures already exists.

• Drifting fish aggregating devices (dFADs) are floating rafts with underwater netting used by fishing vessels to attract tuna.
• A recent study estimated that between 2007 and 2021, 1.41 million dFADs drifted through 37% of the world’s oceans, stranding in 104 maritime jurisdictions and often polluting sensitive marine habitats.
• Strandings were most frequent in the Indian and Pacific oceans, with the Seychelles, Somalia and French Polynesia accounting for 43% of cases; ecosystem damage and cleanup costs fall on local communities.

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Seaspiracy

Marine bacteria control how much CO2 is stored in the oceans, by swimming after and degrading sinking particles that would otherwise remain stored in the ocean for millennia. Researchers have discovered that some bacteria can swim for several days without food while searching for these particles, losing body weight in the process. Understanding how marine bacteria do this may lead to a better prediction of marine carbon storage capacity and climate mitigation.

Bacteria are often overlooked in mathematical models that describe the transformation of various forms of carbon, such as CO2, in the ocean.

Ahead of oil-rich Suriname's election, the country's president tells AFP that a looming energy windfall will not spell a shift away from climate-friendly policies.

The country of 600,000 recently discovered a vast oil field off the Atlantic coast that within years should be capable of producing 220,000 barrels daily.

There will be "a huge amount of income for the country" once drilling gets underway in 2028, Chan Santokhi told AFP in an interview on the eve of the vote. (...)

Note: He got re-elected, which means more oil drilling, there too unfortunately.

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A mysterious, brown foam appeared on a beach an hour south of Adelaide. It was just the beginning of a toxic algal bloom that has now grown to thousands of square kilometres in size, killing precious sea life in its wake. Experts say it could be a sign of things to come.

The blame was placed on an “ongoing marine heatwave” which had seen water temperatures 2.5 degrees Celsius warmer than usual.

On Kangaroo Island, which reported its first fish kills in March, some beaches were so littered with dead sea life, the smell was overpowering.

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Ibama approves Petrobras plan for Foz do Amazonas that allows oil exploration

The next step in the oil extraction project in the Foz do Amazonas region is to carry out practical tests with animals

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A new study finds that scientists have likely underestimated heat stress on coral reefs in the South Atlantic Ocean, further raising concerns for coral bleaching amid climate change.

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• Mongabay article
• new study doesn't want to be archived
• previous studies suggest

• In Baja California Sur, Mexico, a private tourism company, Aquamayan Adventures, and the port administration have reached an agreement that allows mega cruise ships to enter Bahía de La Paz. Environmental organizations are urging the government to cancel the agreement.
• The agreement allows at least 150,000 annual visitors, a figure four times that of cruise passengers received in 2023 and equivalent to 60% of the resident population of the city of La Paz, the state’s capital.
• In addition, the company intends to build a large tourism and commercial complex that could have serious environmental, social and economic impacts on the city and surrounding area, according to organizations concerned about the project.
• Bahía de La Paz is a critical location for marine species like the whale shark, which was affected by the presence of a high number of mega cruise ships in 2020, and which could now be the victim of collisions with vessels arriving to port.

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• The world’s most influential seafood companies and industry associations mostly lobby against environmental protections, a report by the U.K.-based NGO InfluenceMap found.
• The report assesses the biodiversity-related lobbying efforts of a list of the 30 most influential seafood companies in the world and 12 of the main industry associations they’re members of.
• The vast majority of the companies and industry associations engage in lobbying that’s misaligned with international biodiversity goals agreed to in a 2022 treaty.
• Industry associations told Mongabay that they support science-based policy and that the report is flawed.

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Seaspiracy

In April this year, Mozambican President Daniel Chapo announced the launch of a national petrochemical city project in Mavanza village in Vilankulo district of Inhambane province. The coastline of Inhambane province, or the Inhambane seascape, is a globally important area that conservation groups have previously urged the government of Mozambique to protect for its threatened marine mammals, seabirds and sharks.

The $2 billion petrochemical city project, expected be completed by 2028, will be built by the Hong Kong-based Phoenix International Group, Chapo said at the launch. The project will include thermal power stations, refineries, maritime terminals, units to produce polymers and fertilizers and residential areas with schools and hospitals, Chapo said.

“The fact that a quarter of the way through the 21st century a ‘national petrochemical city’ is being planned in a globally significant and highly sensitive area for biodiversity is shocking enough,” Tim Davenport, Africa director of the nonprofit Re:wild, told Mongabay by email. “But a development of this magnitude … demonstrates abject short-termism, a failure to understand the true value of nature, and a grave disregard for some of the region’s most disadvantaged communities.”

The Inhambane seascape is globally recognized as a critical area for conservation. The seascape includes islands of the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park and the Vilanculos Coastal Wildlife Sanctuary, home to more than 2,000 species of fish and several threatened species of sharks, rays, skates, sawfish and sea turtles. The Bazaruto Archipelago also hosts the last known viable population of dugong (Dugong dugon) in East Africa, with only a few hundred left.

In October 2024, Re:wild and several international conservation organizations published an open letter in response to a slew of mining projects planned along the Inhambane seascape. The organizations noted that according to the government’s mining cadastral map portal, more than 70% of the Inhambane coastline had been marked for some form of mining. In their letter, the organizations urged Mozambique’s political leaders to protect the seascape and to invest in projects that benefit the local communities, “instead of allowing foreign corporations to unsustainably extract Mozambique’s natural resources and irreversibly destroy Inhambane’s environment.”

At the launch of the national petrochemical city, Chapo said the industries will maintain high international environmental standards. However, Davenport said he’s skeptical environmental standards will be met given the previous track record of foreign companies on Mozambique’s coasts.

In 2024, the Mozambican anti-corruption NGO, the Public Integrity Center, accused a Chinese-owned company, Haiyu Mining, of environmental transgressions along the coast of Angoche district, “despite initial promises just like these,” Davenport said. “It is impossible to see how an industrial plant of this size — financed by an external nation with huge leverage over Mozambique — will have anything other than calamitous environmental impacts locally and regionally. Anyone, not least Mozambicans, who has any concern for nature, biodiversity or social justice should be deeply concerned by this project.”

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In a study published today in Science Advances, researchers from the Ocean Discovery League reveal that only a minuscule fraction of the deep seafloor has been imaged. Despite covering 66% of Earth's surface, the deep ocean remains largely unexplored.

The deep ocean, defined as being deeper than 200 meters

"As we face accelerated threats to the deep ocean—from climate change to potential mining and resource exploitation—this limited exploration of such a vast region becomes a critical problem for both science and policy,"

The study: How little we’ve seen: A visual coverage estimate of the deep seafloor

• The latest “report card” on Mesoamerica’s coral reefs made clear that 2024’s hottest-ever recorded summer temperatures devastated some of the region’s most iconic reef sites.
• But against all odds, a reef in Tela Bay on Honduras’s Caribbean coast, composed largely of critically endangered elkhorn corals (Acorpora palmata), displays remarkable health.
• Known affectionately as “Cocalito,” this patch of coral is raising urgent questions about what qualities endow coral with heat resilience and whether they can be harnessed to help save other reefs.

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A 426-foot-long electric ship, called China Zorrilla after the famous actress from Uruguay, launched from Tasmania this week.

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