npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 14 August 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00144-3
COVID-19 anthropause affects coral reef ecosystems through biophysical changes
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
08/13/2025 - 23:00
08/13/2025 - 19:50
Companies such as SpaceX and Blue Origin may be able to forgo reviews required under National Environmental Policy Act
Donald Trump is looking to relax environmental rules for commercial spaceship companies. In an executive order titled “Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry” that he signed on Wednesday, he said it’s imperative to national security that the private rocket-ship industry increase launches “substantially” by 2030.
That would mean, according to the executive order, that those companies may be able to forgo the environmental reviews that are required under the National Environmental Policy Act (Nepa). Private space companies are required to obtain launch permits from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). And, as part of that process, companies are subject to review under Nepa.
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08/13/2025 - 12:00
Some experts tee up public comment on EPA report calling fossil fuel concerns overblown, as others fast-track review
Veteran climate scientists are organizing a coordinated public comment to a US Department of Energy (DOE) report that cast doubt on the scientific consensus on the climate crisis.
The report, published late last month, claimed concerns about planet-warming fossil fuels are overblown, sparking widespread concern from scientists who said it was full of climate misinformation; it was an attempt to support a proposal from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to undo the “endangerment finding”, which forms the legal basis of virtually all US climate regulations.
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08/13/2025 - 09:14
Officials say temporary barriers helped Juneau avoid hundreds of flooded homes from Mendenhall Glacier melt
Newly installed river barriers held back record levels of flooding and prevented widespread damage in Alaska’s capital city on Wednesday, after an ice dam at the nearby Mendenhall Glacier released a huge surge of rainwater and snowmelt, officials said.
Water pooled on several streets and in some yards in Juneau after the Mendenhall River crested earlier in the day, and high water was expected to persist for hours. But many residents in the flood zone had evacuated before peak water levels, and there were no damage reports similar to the past two summers, when about 300 homes were flooded.
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08/13/2025 - 07:12
Environment minister says blazes, in which two people have died, are proof of country’s vulnerability to global heating
The heatwave-fuelled wildfires that have killed two people in Spain over recent days, devouring thousands of hectares of land and forcing thousands of people from their homes, are a “clear warning” of the impact of the climate emergency, the country’s environment minister has said.
Speaking on Wednesday morning, as firefighters in Spain, Greece and other Mediterranean countries continued to battle dozens of blazes, Sara Aagesen said the 14 wildfires still burning across seven Spanish regions were further proof of the country’s particular vulnerability to global heating.
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08/13/2025 - 02:16
Murray Watt and Sussan Ley survey devastation in Adelaide as scientists call for urgent funding for affected species
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Scientists have called for urgent funding for recovery measures for species affected by a catastrophic algal bloom off South Australia as images emerged of a dead dolphin that washed up on a beach in Adelaide.
The call comes in response to an Albanese government announcement that it would fast-track an expert assessment of the impact of the crisis on marine life, similar to a step taken after the black summer bushfire crisis.
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08/12/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 13 August 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00137-2
Controlled electrochemical nutrient delivery to enhance marine primary productivity
08/06/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 07 August 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00150-5
Divergent patterns of global tuna fishing fleet dynamics among different continents
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | director@thew2o.net +12077011069
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