Coastal & Marine Conservation

Current marine protected areas in the Southern Ocean need to be at least doubled to adequately safeguard the biodiversity of the Antarctic, according to a new CU Boulder study published in April on Earth Day, in the journal PLOS ONE.

There is a big blue gap in the Green New Deal, writes Ayana Elizabeth Johnson in The Washington Post. That’s why she helped advise Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) in developing a Blue New Deal for our oceans, to expand the vision of the Green New Deal.

With confident strides, Stuart Siegel leads me along the muddy shore of China Camp State Park’s expansive wetlands.

Across the world, researchers are collecting loads of observational data about marine life, from population estimates to the expanse of marine habitats, but they are doing so largely independently from each other, using their own methods and institutional protocols, and relying solely on their own data. Fellow Erin Satterthwaite is part of a team working to connect the data and the people who are tracking marine life by building a worldwide network.

Few things are as embedded in Maine's culture — or its mud — as clams, and an environmental group thinks the key to saving the shellfish might be growing a different kind of bivalve along the state's coast. Manomet, based in Plymouth, Massachusetts, is proposing the shellfish shift as a way to beat predators that plague Maine's clam diggers. Seafood lovers have sought Maine's softshell clams in chowders and clam rolls for decades, but wild harvesters are collecting fewer of those clams, in part because of the spread of crabs and worms that prey on them.

A landmark multinational agreement protecting Antarctica’s Ross Sea offers valuable lessons for similar global conservation pacts in the future, according to a new analysis coauthored by a CU Boulder researcher. The Ross Sea region Marine Protection Area, which was adopted by the international community in October 2016 after more than five years of negotiations, preserves vital biodiversity in the Southern Ocean and has been praised for being the world’s largest marine protected area.

The most recent IPCC report on the ocean and cryosphere is among dozens released during the last 30 years, but its message is the most bold and urgent to date: If the world’s nations do not act with urgency, we – and future generations – will suffer from these changes. What can we do?, asks Fellow Cassandra Brooks.

One of the tough realities of commercial fishing is that fishermen and seals sometimes compete for the same fish. And when they do, interactions between the animals and fishing nets can occur, leaving fishermen with ruined catches and damaged fishing gear, and seals with the possibility of lethal entanglements.

Fellow Cassandra Brooks was interviewed by Nature's social science editors for an early-career spotlight article. She discussed her research interests, journey in science communications and policy outreach, challenges and predictions for the near future of her field.