News & Commentary

The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certification of the Gulf of Maine lobster fishery has been reinstated even though the fishery still poses a direct threat to the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale.

When AB 525 became law last month, California set the standard for floating offshore wind energy development in the United States. The law requires California to develop offshore wind in a way that creates good jobs, protects California's unparalleled marine…

After Trump’s rollback attempts, Bears Ears, Grand Staircase-Escalante, and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts will no longer be up for grabs by industry.

To mitigate and increase our resilience to climate change, we need to stop leasing our public waters to oil and gas companies, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels, and highly and fully protect at least 30 percent of our ocean…

We have to transition away from fossil fuels. That’s why it’s essential that Congress pass budget reconciliation with offshore drilling provisions—and enact President Biden’s Build Back Better agenda.

The Huntington Beach offshore oil pipeline spill will present a handful of legal issues in the coming months and years. Here we go again.

The Biden Administration recently began to move forward with an offshore lease sale that will hand millions of acres of public ocean over to the oil and gas industry, allowing them to make investments that will lock in our use…

New protections include measures to reduce vessel collisions with large whales and new programs aimed at reducing chronic underwater noise from vessels. If enacted, they would amount to the most substantial new legislative measures for marine mammals in years.

Five years ago, President Obama designated this ocean oasis as a marine national monument.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) recent report—Improving International Fisheries Management: 2021 Report to Congress—promotes accountability for illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing by naming nations whose fleets engage in these harmful practices. 

The benefit of taking comprehensive climate action isn’t just curtailing carbon dioxide emissions released into the atmosphere. Climate action also prevents excess carbon dioxide from dissolving in our ocean. This process, known as ocean acidification, needs to continue to be…

The Sustaining America’s Fisheries for the Future Act would reauthorize and recharge the Magnuson-Stevens Act—a promising sign for sustainable fisheries and coastal communities.

On July 27th, NOAA's remotely-operated vehicle will be piloted down to the slope of Retriever Seamount in the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to view its biodiversity and geology up close—and you’re invited!

Among the animals at greatest risk from the impacts of seismic testing is the Gulf of Mexico whale—one of the most endangered marine mammals on the planet.

Maps help us make sense of the world. They reveal patterns and relationships and bring together different kinds of information in an easily understandable format. 

With the reintroduction of the Ocean Based Climate Solutions Act (H.R. 3764), the House Natural Resources Committee, led by Chair Grijalva, continues to drive the conversation on the essential role the ocean plays in addressing the climate crisis. The Committee…

No matter where we live, we need a healthy ocean to survive. Strong marine protected areas are key to restoring our ocean, protecting our climate and biodiversity; in short, to securing our future.

New Status of Stocks report shows we must act now for healthy and resilient fisheries