In recent times, the internet has become flooded with articles, influencers and companies focused on conservation and preserving the planet. It has never been easier to educate yourself on the topics, and to find out how you can help preserve ocean (and planet) health. You can follow bloggers and Instagrammers that purely focus on the environment and how we can help save it, and you don’t have to scroll far down your Facebook feed to see someone sharing a video or an article on how important it is. But some have started to say that it’s becoming a bit too much.

PADI divers that have participated in a Dive Against Debris Survey, or taken the Dive Against Debris Speciality Course, have contributed key data – as citizen scientists – to a groundbreaking new study published in Science Direct. The first global analysis of its kind, the study evaluates the relationship between debris found on shorelines and debris found on corresponding seafloors.

Upstream Solutions, an advocacy group that fights plastic pollution by encouraging bans on single-use plastics (SUPs), has accused the plastics industry of “exploiting” the COVID-19 outbreak to lobby for increased production of SUPs.

The natural coastal defenses provided by mangrove forests reduce annual flooding significantly in critical hotspots around the world. Without mangroves, flood damages would increase by more than $65 billion annually, and 15 million more people would be flooded, according to a new study published March 10 in Scientific Reports.

At least 26 percent of our oceans need urgent conservation attention to preserve Earth's marine biodiversity, a new study has found. Experts have said the international community needed to rapidly increase marine conservation efforts to maintain the health of the world's oceans.

A tiny Pacific Island nation is reimagining ocean conservation with guidance from Stanford researchers and international experts. In January Palau is closing 80 percent of its ocean waters to fishing, creating one of the largest marine protected areas in the world. It is the largest percentage of a country's exclusive water with a fully protected designation—an area twice the size of Mexico.

The Special Report on the Ocean and the Cryosphere, released today by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), makes for grim reading. The ocean is the life-support system for our planet. It pumps nutrients around the globe, helps to regulate weather patterns and produces half of the oxygen we breathe. By absorbing 90% of the excess heat in the atmosphere and 30% of the CO2, it has so far protected us from the worst effects of the climate crisis. 

When will we see significant changes in the ocean due to climate change? A new study finds that some changes are noticeable already, while others will take up to a century.

Hundreds of sharks and rays have become tangled in plastic waste in the world's oceans, new research shows. The study says such entanglement – mostly involving lost or discarded fishing gear – is a “far lesser threat” to sharks and rays than commercial fishing, but the suffering it causes is a major animal welfare concern.

To commemorate World Oceans Day on 8 June, Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) and Our Singapore Reefs (OSR) kicked off a three-year collaboration to promote the importance of Singapore’s marine biodiversity with a Dive Against Debris® survey.