A New Scene Off the Coast of Greenland. Where pack ice lined the coast just 20 years ago, thousands of baleen whales now gather in the summer. Off the coast of East Greenland, a veritable “feeding community” of three whale species has established itself—a direct result of climate change, as a new study in the journal “Frontiers in Marine Science” shows.
Federal Government Scraps Controversial Fee Plans. Good news for Baltic Sea conservation: The Federal Ministry of Transportation has decided that planting seagrass beds in the Baltic Sea will be possible free of charge in the future - provided the measure is in the public interest. This brings an end to a conflict we had previously reported on.
Habitat Shapes Hormones and Body Structure: Any diver who has ever observed a school of striped surgeonfish (Acanthurus triostegus) above a reef sees fully formed, finely patterned fish. What many people don’t know is that these animals arrive at the reef far from fully developed—and exactly how they “assemble” themselves there depends largely on where they come ashore.
Trump’s “America First” Fisheries Policy Reaches the Pacific’s Protected Areas. On June 11, 2026, U.S. President Donald Trump signed the proclamation “Restoring American Commercial Fishing in the Pacific.” It reopens parts of three Pacific Marine National Monuments to commercial fishing by U.S.-flagged vessels: Papahānaumokuākea near Hawaii, the Mariana Trench Monument, and Rose Atoll near American Samoa. In total, this covers nearly 1.3 million square kilometers of ocean area.
A Very Special Courtship. For animals of this size, even the most intimate of acts is a logistical challenge. Whales and dolphins must find each other underwater - without solid ground, without hands, and with the constant need to surface regularly to breathe.
Ship noise affects whale communication. Sperm whales are considered the largest toothed whales on Earth—and apparently also remarkably adaptable communicators. A new study shows that as soon as ship noise is heard in the water, the animals measurably alter their characteristic click sounds.
Development of an Artificial Wreck. The wreck of the Hephaestus off Gozo—a former oil tanker that ran aground near Qawra (Malta) in February 2018—is one of the newer artificial reefs off Malta. After salvage operations, it was determined that repairing the vessel would not be cost-effective.
Dive under police supervision. Normally, I don’t ask too many questions when I plan to explore a body of water as a diver. In this particular case, however, I took the precaution of obtaining official permission. That’s because the lake is located in a Natura 2000 protected area in the Carpathian Mountains in Romania.
The dune landscapes of Boa Vista are among the most ecologically valuable coastal habitats in the Cape Verde Islands—and are coming under increasing pressure. Illegal encroachment, uncontrolled vehicle traffic, and growing tourism are putting stress on sensitive ecosystems that have evolved over millennia. Without effective protective measures, permanent damage is imminent.
Over the weekend, nine activists from the Captain Paul Watson Foundation jumped into the Stadtbach stream during Memmingen’s Fishermen’s Day to protect trout from being caught. Videos now circulating online show something that should not be downplayed: The activists were shoved, kicked, and struck with a landing net. The police have launched an investigation.