npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 17 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00163-0
The global ocean faces unprecedented challenges from overfishing, pollution, and climate change. The Central Arctic Ocean Fisheries Agreement is a rare, if not unprecedented, example of precautionary action in marine management. Further action is needed to address other forms of industrial activity in the region. Done well, this example can provide a model for sustainable ocean management around the world, based on sound evidence, inclusive governance, and long-term thinking.
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
10/16/2025 - 17:00
States who received funding under an EPA project aimed to expand solar energy for low-income communities
Nearly two dozen states are suing the Trump administration over its cancellation of a $7bn grant program aimed at expanding solar energy in low-income communities, according to court papers.
In a statement on Thursday, California’s attorney general, Rob Bonta, announced two lawsuits by a group of states that received grants under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Solar for All program. The EPA’s administrator, Lee Zeldin, announced the termination of the program in August. The agency said in an email that it would not comment on pending litigation.
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10/16/2025 - 12:57
Premium charge aims to combat steep rise in SUVs and other larger vehicles which are ‘a danger to other road users’
Cardiff council will force drivers with larger vehicles to pay more for parking, becoming the first local authority in the UK to impose a parking premium to combat the dangers of larger vehicles.
Councillors voted on Thursday to approve a new parking plan for the city whereby owners of larger vehicles will be charged more for parking permits because their cars “take up more parking space and are a danger to other road users”.
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10/16/2025 - 11:00
Critics say referendum on rewriting country’s eco-friendly constitution is president’s latest pro-extractivist move
Indigenous and environmental leaders in Ecuador say they are facing a wave of state intimidation ahead of a national referendum next month on whether to rewrite the world’s only constitution that recognises the rights of nature.
The pressure is being applied by the rightwing president, Daniel Noboa, who has begun his second term with a Trumpian agenda of consolidating power and sweeping away legal and social barriers to extractivist businesses, such as mining.
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10/16/2025 - 10:07
Exclusive: Document sets draft pledge for leaders gathering at climate summit to increase use of controversial fuels
Brazil will ask countries to quadruple the global use of “sustainable fuels”, including controversial biofuels, despite concerns from environmental experts, the Guardian has learned.
A leaked document seen by the Guardian sets out a draft pledge for world leaders gathering for the Cop30 climate conference next month in Brazil to increase the use of “sustainable fuels” – chiefly biofuels and biogas, but also hydrogen – in the next decade by four times compared with 2024 levels.
By 2030, biofuel crops would require land the size of France, which would make it equivalent to the sixth-largest country in terms of arable land use globally
A fifth of vegetable oil is used for cars rather than food.
That 3,000 litres of water are needed to drive 100km on biofuels.
That solar panels could create as much energy as biofuels while using just 3% as much land.
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10/15/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 16 October 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00146-1
The right tools for the job: Considerations for the implementation of an ecosystem-based management approach for marine ecosystems
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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