Where Sharks Still Rule. Palau is one of the few places on Earth where the locals are outnumbered by sharks. This tiny island nation in the western Pacific has a population of just 18,000 - and its waters hold one of the densest shark populations anywhere. More sharks than tourists is not a marketing gimmick here, it is simply how things are.
In late July, brothers Nate and Nelson Rouette caught a young tiger shark off Falmouth, Massachusetts - a catch the experienced sport fishermen hadn’t expected. They had actually been hoping for the more common brown sharks. “I saw those horizontal stripes and knew right away: That’s a tiger shark,” Nate Rouette, who works as a social media manager for On The Water magazine, told the AP news agency. The brothers released the juvenile, which was about 1.50 meters long, shortly afterward.
More than 3,000 known archaeological sites—shipwrecks, harbor structures, and sunken settlement remains—lie dormant on the seabed off the coast of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. For most people, they remain invisible, as they are inaccessible without diving equipment. That is exactly what the new FREIWASSERMUSEUM-DIGITAL (FWM-D) aims to change, as volunteer underwater archaeologists and heritage preservationists from Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania are unveiling today.
Octopuses Instead of Mackerel: Ecosystems in Flux. July 2026 didn’t just set heat records on land: The highest surface temperatures ever recorded were also measured in the oceans surrounding Europe. A new report by the research initiative World Weather Attribution (WWA) shows that this record-breaking heat can largely be attributed to climate change—with significant consequences for marine food chains and ecosystems.
FRESH Protocol Aims to Make Cases Comparable. Since 2005, a pattern has repeatedly emerged in the U.S. and Australia: Following hurricanes, heavy rains, or floods, dolphins near the coast develop extremely painful skin lesions—comparable to severe burns. Experts refer to this as “freshwater skin disease” (FSD).
16,000 Stingrays on a Football Field. On some beaches in Southern California, the sand is barely visible these days—not because of sunbathers, but because of stingrays. A prolonged heat wave in the Pacific is driving record numbers of the animals toward the coast.
21 Dolphins Stranded—Twelve Survived. On August 12, a dramatic rescue operation took place on a beach west of Daingean Uí Chúis in County Kerry, Ireland: 21 common dolphins had stranded, including adults and calves. Rescuers were able to guide twelve back into the Atlantic, but for nine, it was too late—they had already died before the rescue teams arrived.
Third Consecutive Attack on U.S. Climate Research. This is already the third incident of this kind we’ve had to report on in recent months: Following the repeal of fisheries protection zones in the Pacific and the shutdown of hundreds of deep-sea sensors in the Atlantic and Pacific, one of the most important climate reports in the U.S. - the annual Arctic Report Card - is now being targeted.
Round-headed dolphins form their own population. About 9,000 Risso’s dolphins (Grampus griseus), also known as round-headed dolphins, live in British waters - significantly more than the estimated 2,000 animals in the western Mediterranean. A new genetic study now shows that British dolphins rarely interbreed with their counterparts from the Azores, the Mediterranean, or the rest of the North Atlantic.
A diver, a rock - and a sensational discovery. About three nautical miles off the coast of Mazara del Vallo in western Sicily, a piece of trade history has lain on the seabed for over 2,000 years. The wreck was discovered in early August - according to Italian Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli, one of the most significant underwater archaeological discoveries of recent years.