Microplastics have been found in the placentas of unborn babies, the depths of the Mariana Trench, the summit of Everest and the organs of Antarctic penguins. But how do they travel through the world, and what do they do to the creatures that carry them? Here is the story of how plastic contaminates entire ecosystems – and even the food we eat
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/28/2025 - 05:00
07/28/2025 - 02:29
Experts welcome move by NSW government, saying nets are ineffective at preventing shark bites and ‘indiscriminately’ kill marine life
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A trial to remove shark nets from three Sydney and Central Coast beaches has been welcomed by scientists who say the nets create a false sense of security and are ineffective at preventing shark bites.
Shark nets, about 150 metres long and installed roughly 500 metres offshore at selected beaches in New South Wales and Queensland, were “like a table tennis net on a soccer pitch”, said Lawrence Chlebeck, a marine biologist at Humane World for Animals.
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07/27/2025 - 03:00
Exclusive: Solar-powered units reciting biblical passages have appeared in the Javari valley, despite strict laws protecting Indigenous groups
Read more on this story: ‘A computer, a radio, a drone and a shotgun’: how missionaries are reaching out to Brazil’s isolated peoples
Missionary groups are using audio devices in protected territories of the rainforest to attract and evangelise isolated or recently contacted Indigenous people in the Amazon. A joint investigation by the Guardian and Brazilian newspaper O Globo reveals that solar-powered devices reciting biblical messages in Portuguese and Spanish have appeared among members of the Korubo people in the Javari valley, near the Brazil-Peru border.
Drones have also been spotted by Brazilian state agents in charge of protecting the areas. The gadgets have raised concerns about illegal missionary activities, despite strict government measures designed to safeguard isolated Indigenous groups.
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07/26/2025 - 23:00
Alga from south-east Asia is major threat to biodiversity, say experts as they warn of environmental catastrophe
Thousands of tonnes of an aggressive invasive seaweed from south-east Asia are piling up on the beaches of the strait of Gibraltar and Spain’s southern coast in what local environmentalists say is a major threat to the region’s biodiversity.
Since May, the local authority in Cádiz has removed 1,200 tonnes of the alga Rugulopteryx okamurae from La Caleta, the city’s most popular beach, including 78 tonnes in a single day.
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07/26/2025 - 19:00
The vast salt lake in the South Australian outback is dry for most of its life, having only filled to capacity three times in the past 160 years. So when water does arrive, this enormous landscape becomes a riot of colour
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07/26/2025 - 01:00
Water firms claim wet wipes, which shed microplastics and cause blockages, are main source of sewage pollution
Wet wipe producers should be charged to remove their pollution from England’s waterways, the author of a government review into reforming the sector has said.
Sewage has been a critical factor in the devastating pollution of our waterways, but other sources of pollution include microplastics, consumer products such as wet wipes, and the byproducts of modern manufacturing, such asPfas (“forever chemicals”), as well as fertiliser and pesticides from farming. Many of these have been linked to harmful effects on human health and the natural environment.
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07/26/2025 - 01:00
The public-spirited sport of spogomi is catching on across Britain, which boasts its world champion team
Armed with gloves, metal tongs and plastic rubbish sacks, hordes of determined litter-pickers will descend on Hackney Marshes in east London this weekend.
Spogomi, a Japanese litter-picking sport, has come to the UK. Invented in 2008, it was intended as a competition to encourage people to clean up public spaces. It is now played in schools across the country as people gamify collecting rubbish.
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07/26/2025 - 00:00
New technology also helps fruit yield, while strawberry, raspberry and blackberry output has risen
British blueberries are the latest fruit to benefit from the warmest spring on record, with the harvest up by almost a quarter so far this year.
Growers say the weather has produced an early crop with more and larger berries, while new varieties can bring higher yields and better resilience. About 5,133 tonnes are expected by the end of August, up significantly from almost 4,187 tonnes by the same point last year.
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07/25/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 26 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00142-5
“Our fish are not your marine biodiversity”: tensions in integrating fisheries into the BBNJ Agreement
07/25/2025 - 17:18
Two men led inquiry into 2019 debacle involving incorrect hurricane projections that tarnished federal agency’s record
Two high-ranking officials at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were placed on administrative leave on Friday, fueling speculation that the Trump administration was retaliating against them for actions taken during the president’s first term.
Jeff Dillen, who was serving as deputy general counsel, and Stephen Volz, who heads the agency’s satellites division, led the investigation into whether agency administrators abdicated their scientific ethics when they altered the forecast of a deadly hurricane to match statements made by the president.
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