Positive News

The EU has agreed to ban the export of plastic waste that ends up in ports of countries that cannot process it, a hopeful step towards high-polluting nations recognizing their role in the global plastic crisis and taking accountability for responsibly recycling their plastic waste. Legislative changes like this have the potential to prevent plastic waste from polluting waterways and reaching the ocean. 🇪🇺 | Source: The Guardian

The Ḵwiḵwa̱sut’inux̱w Ha̱xwa’mis First Nation, whose territory lies just north of Vancouver, has declared a new 40,000-hectare protected area on B.C.’s remote mid-coast, restoring their right to Indigenous-led land stewardship. The Atla River supports pink, chum, coho, and sockeye salmon — the First Nation is working to protect all salmon migratory routes in the next phase of restoration and protection! 🌊 | Source: The Narwhal

A new citizen science whale identification program uses artificial intelligence and crowdsourced photos to recognize individual whales by their unique tails, so far identifying 68,000 humpback whales worldwide! Using sightings from whale watchers across the globe, the program streamlines data collection to offer fascinating, collaborative insight into one of the ocean’s most peaceful populations. 🐋 | Source: Happywhale

In a recent study, researchers and coastal ecologists in the Netherlands have discovered that old pear trees can be used to make artificial reefs and attract a surprisingly rich amount of biodiversity in a short period of time. Their organic branching structures lend themselves well to becoming “tree reefs,” mimicking a natural process that will eventually biodegrade, leaving behind dozens of species of peaceful marine life. 🍐 | Source: Mongabay

Hydropower has long been a vital source of energy, with every pull of river current or swell of an ocean wave an opportunity to harness an abundant, clean natural resource. Recent changes in UK energy tariffs have led to renewed reinvestment in hydropower, with over 1,500 schemes providing small-scale, local sources of energy across the country. 🇬🇧 | Source: 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