oceans

Counter-piracy operations are conducted in the Gulf of Aden and the east coast of Somalia. (file)
US Navy/Ja'lon A. Rhinehart

Global response needed to counter rising security threats at sea

9 August 2021
Peace and Security

Despite an overall decrease in maritime traffic due to the COVID-19 pandemic, piracy and armed robbery of ships rose by nearly 20 per cent during the first half of last year, a senior UN official told the Security Council on Monday. 

Discarded fishing lines and hooks are also deadly; this decomposing green turtle was ensnared in the Bahamas in the Caribbean Sea.
UN World Oceans Day/Shane Gross

FROM THE FIELD: Ghost in the seashell

31 May 2021
Climate and Environment

“Ghost fishing” occurs when abandoned fishing gear dumped in the ocean traps and kills fish or other underwater life, and it is causing devastation to marine environments, warns the UN food agency, FAO.

A turtle swims in the ocean in Martinique in the Caribbean.
Coral Reef Image Bank/Michele Roux

Ocean benefits increasingly undermined by human activity, UN assessment reveals

21 April 2021
Climate and Environment

Greater understanding of the ocean is essential if the world is to recover better from the COVID-19 pandemic and achieve agreed targets on sustainable development and climate action, UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Wednesday in launching a major study on what he called “the life support system of our planet.” 

A school of fish gathers off Lang Tengah Island in Malaysia.
Coral Reef Image Bank/Yen-Yi Lee

News in Brief 22 March 2021

22 March 2021
News in Brief
  • 1.4 million TB sufferers lost out on treatment during first year of COVID-19 
  • DR Congo abuses against civilians continue unabated: Bachelet 
  • Oceans under threat like never before, warns World Meteorological Organization 
Audio -
3'36"
A lighthouse off the coast of Florida in the United States.
Coral Reef Image Bank/David Gros

Oceans under threat like never before, warns World Meteorological Organization 

22 March 2021
Climate and Environment

Climate change has hit the world’s oceans hard, UN weather experts said on Monday, in a call for lifesaving monitoring and early warning services that were interrupted by COVID-19 to be ramped up again, to protect shipping and coastal communities at risk. 

A school of fish in Quintana Roo, on the Yucatán Peninsula's Caribbean coast of Mexico.
Coral Reef Image Bank/Philip Ham

‘Make peace with nature’, UN chief urges at Ocean Decade launch

3 February 2021
SDGs

January marked the beginning of what many within the UN and beyond view as “the most critical decade of our lives”, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) said on Wednesday, launching a major initiative to protect the world’s oceans through the next ten years.

 

Staff at the Katwa Ebola treatment Unit in Butembo in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo disinfect boots and wash clothes. (August 2019)
UN Photo/Martine Perret

News in Brief 8 June 2020

8 June 2020
News in Brief
  • Emergency funding announced for DR Congo amid new Ebola outbreak
  • ‘Once-in-a-generation’ chance to reset our link to world’s oceans: UN chief
  • Record levels of fish consumption show need for sustainable management: FAO
Audio -
3'16"
Billions of people around the world depend on the Ocean for their main source of protein.
Coral Reef Image Bank/Erik Lukas

‘Dogged pragmatism’ needed to save Ocean: UN Special Envoy

2 June 2020
Climate and Environment

‘Dogged pragmatism’ is needed to save the Ocean as the world grapples with the coronavirus pandemic, according to the UN Secretary-General's Special Envoy for the Ocean.

A beach clean-up in Mumbai, India, illustrates how plastic debris in the ocean leads to the deaths of millions of seabirds every year (file photo).
UN Environment Programme

COVID-19 could help turn the tide on ocean health in Asia-Pacific

13 May 2020
SDGs

The COVID-19 pandemic could help turn the tide on the well-being of oceans in the Asia-Pacific region, according to a UN report published on Wednesday.

Beveridge Reef, located within the waters of Niue in the central Pacific Ocean.
© UNDP/Vlad Sokhin

2020: the year for action, to ‘rise up’ and safeguard ocean life 

5 February 2020
Climate and Environment

With the ocean in deep crisis, members of civil society and philanthropic organisations are urging governments and corporations to take bold action to safeguard the ocean.  After a two-day preparatory meeting in New York ahead of June’s UN Ocean Conference in Portugal, activists handed over what they termed “A Blue Call to Action” to the UN Secretary-General António Guterres, on Wednesday.