The Chagos Islands marine protected area is the largest of its kind in the world, encircling the dozens of tiny islands of the Chagos archipelago that lie in thousands of miles of Indian Ocean between…
Tavis Potts, Scottish Association for Marine Science
Foundation essay: This article on the future of the Arctic by Tavis Potts, Senior Lecturer in Oceans Governance at the Scottish Association for Marine Science, is part of a series marking the launch of…
The danger to marine life from ghost nets is symptomatic of the threat to Australia’s northern marine environment from illegal practise and overfishing.
AAP Image/Department of Heritage and Government
Are we spending money on the wrong marine resources? While some $A100 million is being thrown at a new network of marine protected areas – a doubtful investment according to some commentators - the fabulous…
Why can’t people and marine parks get along?
Flickr/f-l-e-x
In what is either a win for fishers or another blow to reserves, recreational fishers have been allowed back into marine sanctuaries under controversial new reforms in New South Wales. In the past four…
Ensuring the protection of marine turtle nesting sites is critical to helping the reptiles survive the dangers of climate…
Rubbish in the ocean - marine debris - is a terrible threat to wildlife. Discarded fishing nets are among the worst.
AAP Image/Department of the Environment and Heritage/Melbourne Zoo
Each year around 640,000 tonnes of fishing gear is lost or thrown overboard by the fisheries around the world. These “ghostnets” drift through the oceans and can continue fishing for many years. They kill…
Shark fins are a delicacy in Asia, which can sometimes lead to unsustainable fishing practices.
mario ruckh/Flickr
Whether it’s from fishing and by-catch, finning or even culling, global shark populations are under a growing threat from human activity. But how successful is international law at protecting some of the…
The super trawler Margiris is an environmental “experiment” and the conditions placed on it by the government don’t go far enough to protect dolphins, seals and other protected species, fisheries and oceans…
Recent aerial surveys of the southern Great Barrier Reef have revealed a dramatic decline in the region’s dugong population…
Networks of nature: a potato cod with striped cleaner wrasse at Osprey Reef, an area in the expanded marine reservations announced today.
Flickr/richard ling
Today’s announcement of a national network of marine parks is really a memorable day for Australian nature conservation. The political rhetoric and self-congratulation associated with major events is often…