Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Experts fear plan, one of many attempts Trump’s made to dismantle wildlife protection, will speed up extinction crisis The Trump administration presented a new plan to roll back regulations in the Endangered Species Act (ESA) on Wednesday, a move experts fear will accelerate the extinction crisis if adopted. The proposed changes would allow the federal government more power to weigh economic impact against habitat designations, remove safeguards against future events – including the impacts from the climate crisis – and rescind the “blanket rule” that automatically grants threatened species the same protections as those designated as endangered. Continue reading...

Study finds rising seas could flood facilities handling waste, sewage, and oil and gas – and coastal states most at risk More than 5,500 toxic sites nationwide could face coastal flooding by 2100 due to rising sea levels, according to new research. The study, published on Thursday in Nature Communications and led by scientists at the University of California, warns that if heat-trapping pollution continues unabated, rising seas will flood a wide range of hazardous facilities including those handling sewage, toxic waste, oil and gas, as well as other industrial pollutants. Continue reading...

Sussan Ley’s offer allows a clear path to pass laws to rewrite Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act in final sitting week Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The Coalition has offered to help Labor rush through new nature laws if it agrees to gut environment protection, challenging Labor to side with business interests over green groups to implement the long-awaited changes. Environmental lawyers are urging the government against further weakening already flawed laws at the “behest of industry”. Continue reading...

npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 18 November 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00162-1 Critical energy minerals face persistent shortages. Deep-sea mining offers a potential supplement but raises environmental, technical, and governance concerns. Drawing on interdisciplinary literature and policy review, this comment analyzes the resource potential and commercialization challenges of deep-sea mining. We propose five priorities: building sustainable consensus, advancing green technologies, establishing commercialization safeguards, strengthening global monitoring, and enhancing the International Seabed Authority’s capacity to foster cooperative global governance.