Positive News

A British paleontologist believes he might have found fossilized phytoplankton, an ancient ancestor of the carbon-hungry algae of today, dating back to the Cambrian period over 535 million years ago! The discovery could help explain a huge gap in the fossil record for phytoplankton, unveiling a unique insight into the history of our ocean and the enigmatic microfossils that populate our sea and shores. 🌊 | Source: The Guardian

A “sea-weeding” program launched in Australia has seen a 600% increase in coral recovery rates in just three years, with volunteer coral gardeners, citizen scientists, and marine biologists observing a recovery in both reef diversity and coral abundance! This manual method of coral gardening — akin to conventional garden weeding — keeps excessive macroalgae in check — an innovative, affordable, and natural solution helping to protect our reefs. 🌱 | Source: Good News Network

Marine scientists have uncovered a small number of highly resilient staghorn coral colonies hardy enough to survive a bacterial infection that nearly wiped out the species from Caribbean waters! Fifteen disease-resistant “super corals” have been identified, signaling a hopeful future for the next generation of corals. Restoration efforts can use corals with these robust genetic makeups, or “genotypes,” to revitalize our ocean’s vulnerable reefs. 🪸| Source: Positive News Magazine

A new Canadian startup has developed an innovative buoy-based desalination system that uses the kinetic energy of the ocean to turn seawater into crystal-clear freshwater. Hundreds of millions of people rely on desalination to generate safe freshwater for drinking or industrial processes. The over 20,000 desalination plants active worldwide are largely dependent on fossil fuels. This new wave-powered development has the potential to decarbonize the entire desalination industry, with each buoy producing up to 13,000 gallons of drinking water per day! 🌊 | Source: Good News Network

Through novel seafloor laser mapping, researchers have discovered two new deep-sea cold-water coral reefs off the coast of the Galápagos Islands, a hopeful example of healthy reefs resistant to the heat stress and coral bleaching often found in shallower waters. Scientists believe that the rich diversity of stony corals found at depths of up to 420 meters have supported marine biodiversity for thousands of years, with one of the reefs stretching more than 800 meters — nearly the length of eight soccer fields! 🪸 | Source: Mongabay

The tiny island nation of Dominica has announced the world’s first marine reserve for endangered sperm whales, restricting ship traffic, tourism, and fishing to protect the marine mammals from further harm. Most of the sperm whales that roam the coast of Dominica belong to the Eastern Caribbean Clan, a collection of fewer than just 300 animals that now swim in over 300 square miles of safer waters. 🇩🇲 | Source: Mongabay

The Congolese government has approved a major expansion of the Conkouati-Douli National Park, increasing the marine reach by 2,900 square kilometers into the Atlantic Ocean — an area more than twice the size of New York City! The Conkouati-Douli National Park is a UNESCO-recognized coastal area that is home to a magnificent diversity of marine life, as well as over 8,000 chimpanzees often found hanging out on the lush mangrove coast. 🐒 | Source: Afrik 21

Chemical engineers in Massachusetts are developing a process to equip ships with the ability to turn collected plastic pollution into “blue diesel” on board, using an innovative chemical process called hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL) to convert harvested plastic pollution into a usable fuel. Our ocean is littered with expansive swathes of plastic pollution — the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" covers an area bigger than Texas. Technology like HTL is beginning to turn the tide of plastic pollution, repurposing trash into fuel, and hope into action. ⛴ | Source: Good News Network

Cornwall local and marine life rescue volunteer Lizzi Larbalestier has been awarded an Animal Action Award for caring for injured seals off the southeast coast of the U.K., even turning her holiday home into a makeshift animal hospital to care for the pups. Now in their third birthing season, the hospital saw 3,000 calls to respond to injured, malnourished or displaced marine life just last year, with hopes to fully rehabilitate 100 local Cornish seals annually. 🦭| Good News Network

Australian coral scientists have been collaborating with technologists to develop AI-powered robots that can automate and accelerate coral restoration and rehabilitation, experimenting with artificial skeletons made of recycled stone waste to hold coral fragments. Manual rehabilitation is a slow, laborious, and expensive task, with current efforts rehabilitating just 1 hectare annually — with this new technology, a coral startup hopes to increase that number dramatically, eventually restoring 100 hectares of reefs every year! 🪸 | Source: Bloomberg