CONSERVATION NEWS

The small South Pacific island nation of Niue recently launched a first-of-its-kind sustainable funding initiative that enables anyone to sponsor a square kilometer of its ocean waters — a sanctuary for humpback whales, sea snakes and gray reef sharks.

After intense negotiations, discussions on commercial deep-sea mining have been postponed — at least for now. Environmentalists view the decision as a hopeful step toward protecting fragile marine ecosystems.

Earlier this year, three zebra shark pups became the first endangered sharks ever to be bred in captivity for the purpose of being released into the wild. They're part of a bold plan to bring sharks back from the brink of extinction.

Across the globe, marine protected areas help struggling fish populations and ecosystems recover and flourish. But what impact do they have on the people living nearby? A new study finds big benefits for both biodiversity and coastal communities.

Every year, up to 10 million tons of plastic end up in the world’s oceans — an amount so large it’s hard to visualize. Two journalists from Al Jazeera found that if flattened, ocean plastic today would cover an area roughly the size of Jamaica.