Oceans Stories

The coastal nation of Belize is at a crossroads. In 2009, the reef system was added to UNESCO’s List of World Heritage in Danger. It remains on the list today because of mangrove deforestation, unsustainable coastal development and offshore oil exploration. The good news is a coastal zone management plan can safeguard Belize’s natural assets and produce a win-win opportunity for the people and environment.

Every five years, the US determines where oil and gas companies can purchase leases for offshore drilling. The most recent plan excluded the Arctic, but the Trump administration wants to change that.

The government of Belize has not put into place promised protections for the Belize Barrier Reef World Heritage site, leaving the largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere under threat from offshore oil drilling and damaging coastal construction, according to a new WWF assessment.

The government of Mexico announces a permanent ban on gillnets in the Upper Gulf of California - a fantastic and encouraging step forward in the path to saving the vaquita.

With an estimated 30 or fewer remaining individuals, the vaquita are the focus of WWF’s new report calling for immediate, collective action to save the species from extinction. Prepared for WWF by Dalberg, Vanishing vaquita: saving the world’s most endangered marine mammal comes just before the two-year ban is due to expire at the end of May. 

Most of the Arctic’s federal waters are off limits to new drilling for oil and gas thanks to action protections put in place in 2016. But the Trump administration wants to reverse the ban and allow fossil fuel companies to begin bidding for a chance to drill. 

On World Heritage Day, we’re highlighting some of the incredible sites that WWF is working to save. These sites belong to all of us, and together we can protect them for wildlife and people around the world.

The receding sea ice at the North Pole threatens arctic species

In what has become the new normal over the past 10 years, residents of the Inupiat village of Point Lay on the coast of the Chukchi Sea in Alaska have had new neighbors each fall.

Often mistaken for a jellyfish, man o' war is actually a species of siphonophore, a colony of individual organisms that together operate as a single animal—one famous for its tendrils and harsh sting.

The halls of Congress came alive on Tuesday as dozens of WWF activists from across the country met with their representatives to advocate for international conservation funding on Lobby Day 2017.

Mangroves provide valuable services for people and the planet but they’re disappearing at an alarming rate and human activity is mostly to blame. Explore these forests in this photo essay and learn what WWF is doing to bring back 20% of the mangroves we’ve lost by 2030.

Hundreds of thousands of sea turtles are accidentally killed by fishing gear—caught on dangling hooks or entangled in nets—every year.

Launched in 2015, Oceans X Labs is a joint initiative of WWF and Conservation X Labs that, drawing on the venture tech model, aims to support and encourage innovators as they develop new approaches to addressing some of the ocean’s biggest problems.

Claiming more than 600,000 marine mammals each year, bycatch especially affects small cetaceans that get caught and drown in fishing nets.

The world must do more to sustainably manage fishing if we’re to address increasing global demand for protein in the coming decades. If the situation doesn’t improve, millions of people may no longer be able to afford fish by 2050. 

For the first time, researchers have created models to predict when, where, and to what extent coral bleaching will occur in reefs around the world at a finer scale than ever before.

Just one week after scientists warned of unprecedented change brought on by warming in the Arctic, President Obama announced permanent protection for 115 million acres of federal waters in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. Including previous presidential withdrawals, today's action protects nearly 125 million acres in the offshore Arctic from future oil and gas activity.

The Arctic is seeing unprecedented declines in sea ice and snow cover triggered by abnormally warm temperatures, according to a new report, the Arctic Report Card, released by the US government.

In the Melaky region on Madagascar’s west coast, local people are taking action to remedy the loss of mangroves, which are crucial to their livelihoods. Wise use of mangroves is essential for nature and people.

America’s Arctic will be free of new offshore oil and gas drilling, at least for the next five years, and that’s good news for people and wildlife. WWF and 225,000 of our activists opposed drilling in the Arctic’s Beaufort and Chuckchi seas due to the tremendous risk to indigenous communities, wildlife, and their environment.

WWF has teamed up with local governments, producers and exporters, and fishers to protect and improve the blue swimming crab stock in Kien Giang, and get their fishery certified as sustainable.

Officials in Belize agreed to suspend the seismic portion of offshore oil exploration after an outcry from concerned citizens, national civil society groups and international conservation organizations—including WWF—and their supporters.

The Arctic—home to diverse wildlife and many cultures—is changing faster than any other part of the planet in the face of climate change. But there’s still time left to help the Arctic and the impacts of climate change. Experts agreed on five important ways we can take action.