After two devastating hurricanes, El Yunque national forest has built a new visitors center that hosts a vibrant arts festival
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
04/16/2026 - 06:00
Sustainability certification by Marine Stewardship Council may be obscuring labour abuses in seafood supply chains, say researchers
The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), which operates a “blue tick” scheme to indicate the sustainability of fish, has been accused of creating an “illusion” of ethical sourcing, after a study reported that widespread labour abuses have taken place on the fishing vessels it approves.
One in five vessels where the crew reported abuses to the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF) over the last five years took place on ships catching seafood certified as sustainable by the MSC, researchers found.
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04/16/2026 - 06:00
A tenfold increase in the number of immigration detentions has compelled many workers to barely leave the farms where they work
‘They want to keep denying us our rights’: workers in Vermont’s $5.4bn dairy industry fight for basic labor protections
Last spring, José Edilberto Molina-Aguilar was resting in his bedroom when a co-worker burst through the front door. Out his window, Molina-Aguilar, a 37-year-old dairy worker from Chiapas, Mexico, caught sight of the olive green uniforms of immigration enforcement officials who later claimed they had pursued a worker on to the farm property.
A farm manager told Molina-Aguilar and five of his co-workers at Pleasant Valley Farms, Vermont’s largest dairy, in Berkshire, about three miles from the Canadian border, to come outside.
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04/16/2026 - 06:00
For his project ‘De Oförtrutna’ (The Relentless), photographer Christer Björkman pictured Swedish scientists working in the spirit of Carl Linnaeus, the botanist who created the modern taxonomic system that classifies organisms based on appearance. Each scientist brought to the shoot a book and an item of importance to their work
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04/16/2026 - 02:00
This week’s best wildlife photographs from around the world
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04/16/2026 - 01:00
Map reveals most severe concentrations of ammonia emissions, which are dangerous to health and environment
Ammonia pollution hotspots have been identified in areas with some of the greatest numbers of intensive pig and poultry farms in Britain, research has revealed.
A new map for the first time reveals the most severe concentrations of ammonia emissions are clustered in Lincolnshire, Herefordshire and Norfolk. These regions all have a high density of intensive poultry and pig units that drive dangerous levels of ammonia, according to researchers from Compassion in World Farming (CiWF) and Sustain.
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04/16/2026 - 00:46
In today’s newsletter: The economic fortunes of the UK are intertwined with the price of the costly fuel – so why are we so slow to ditch it?
The economic fortunes of the UK are intertwined with the price of natural gas. It is an uncomfortable fact that we have all had to wrestle with in recent years. First, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine caused the biggest inflation shock in a generation as the price of natural gas exploded in 2022, sparking a cost of living crisis that shows little sign of abating. Now, the US and Israel’s attack on Iran threatens to heap further economic misery on the country.
As Rachel Reeves arrives in Washington DC for the International Monetary Fund spring meeting, the bad news for the chancellor keeps coming: the IMF downgraded Britain’s growth prospects, with the UK suffering more than any other wealthy nation as a result of the conflict in Iran – driven in part by soaring energy costs once again.
Middle East crisis | The US and Iran have been in indirect talks aimed at extending the two-week ceasefire beyond its expiry on 22 April, as Pakistan’s army chief arrived in Tehran to continue mediation efforts.
Environment | The world’s top 100 oil and gas companies banked more than $30m every hour in unearned profit in the first month of the US-Israeli war in Iran, according to exclusive analysis for the Guardian.
Politics | Rachel Reeves has stepped up her criticism of Donald Trump’s war on Iran, describing it as a “mistake” that has destabilised the global economy and damaged living standards around the world.
Media | The BBC is to cut as many as 2,000 jobs in the biggest downsizing of the public service broadcaster in 15 years. Staff were informed of the cuts, which will affect about 10% of employees, at a meeting on Wednesday.
UK news | Police are seeking two suspects believed to be behind an attempted arson attack on a synagogue in north London. The Met said two people “wearing dark clothing and balaclavas” approached Finchley Reform Synagogue just after midnight on Wednesday.
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04/08/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 09 April 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00196-z
Leveraging service providers to improve distant-water fisheries governance
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 | [email protected] +12077011069
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