- UN agrees to negotiate legally binding treaty to protect biodiversity of high seas
- New international agreement prohibits commercial fishing in high seas of central Arctic Ocean for 16 years
- UN passes non-binding resolution to end plastic waste entering oceans; moving towards binding treaty to ban plastic waste entering oceans
- 2017 warmest year on record for global ocean
- Arctic sea ice at lowest levels on record
- Coral bleaching events now occurring too often for ecosystems to recover
- Program launched to study ocean soundscapes and effects of sound on marine organisms
- US proposes plan to open most of outer continental shelf to oil and gas development; proposal open for comment until March 9
- Seychelles adding two MPAs as part of MSP initiative
- Marine planning visioning workshops being held across England in February and March
- Welsh draft national marine plan open for comment until March 29; plan worries some environmentalists
- Ireland publishes roadmap for development of national marine spatial plan
- Formal consultation process for Belgian maritime spatial plan to begin in early 2018
- Spanish-language massive open online course (MOOC) on marine litter running now
- Summer school on interdisciplinary approaches for sustainable oceans announced; applications due March 26
- “Marine Spatial Planning (MSP) in a nutshell” video now available in French, Spanish, and Portuguese
- Open-access overview of seabed mining – including state of development and environmental impacts – available
- Join a Fishackathon event and code for marine conservation on Feb 10-11
And if you need a pick-me-up, we recommend checking out Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s Top 20 Ocean Conservation Wins of 2017. In particular, she notes that during 2017 South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar, Argentina, Montserrat, Mexico, and Brazil all committed to developing national marine spatial plans.
And if you still need something to cheer you up, try swimming around in these virtual reality 360° videos from the #OurBluePlanet project: Turtley-Awesome, Hammerhead Sharks, and Barracuda Tornado, and Diving Under Icebergs With A Seal In Antarctica.