Marine Mammal Scientist Dr. Eman Khwaja joins today's Conservation Spotlight on Ocean Decoded Live. Known online as @whale_detective, she's built a following by explaining humpback whale behavior and marine science in a calm, clear way that host Andrew says he wanted to spotlight because it makes complex research approachable to…
Deep sea hydrothermal vents are home to some of the most extreme ecosystems on the planet. New research suggests they are far less isolated from the rest of the ocean than scientists assumed. In this episode of Ocean Decoded Live, we break down a striking new study on vent-dwelling limpets,…
Marine snow looks exactly like it sounds: a constant, gentle drift of dead plankton, waste, and organic debris sinking from sunlit surface waters down toward the seafloor. It is one of the ocean's most important and least noticed processes, quietly moving carbon and nutrients from the surface into the deep…
How dolphins catch fish is getting a fascinating new answer, thanks to newly published footage. Researchers from the University of the Sunshine Coast, led by marine mammal expert Alexis Levengood, captured the first-ever video of dolphins using seashells as tools to catch fish, a hunting technique called shelling. A dolphin…
New Orca Hunting Behaviour caught on camera is as wild as it sounds, and we're breaking down exactly what's happening and why. Orcas were caught on video doing something researchers say they'd never really documented before: one orca holds a dead mola mola (ocean sunfish) while another rams straight through…
Deep Sea Trawler decks are where Matthew Gianni's story in ocean conservation actually begins, and today we're telling it. He's the co-founder and political/policy advisor for the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, based in Europe, but he didn't start out as a marine biologist or policy expert. He started as a…
Deep sea hydrothermal vents just got a lot more interesting. Researchers at the University of Tokyo, led by marine biologist Takuya Yahagi, found that three limpet species living at hydrothermal vents carry chemical traces on their shells suggesting they spend their youth feeding in sunlit shallow waters before returning to…
Ocean Sand Mining is facing fierce pushback from local fishers in Indonesia, and we're breaking down why. In this segment of Ocean Decoded Live, we cover a new marine sand dredging proposal off Nubing Island in Indonesia's Riau Islands province, framed by officials as "marine sediment management." No company has…
US Deep Sea Mining just took a major step forward in American waters. In this breaking news episode of Ocean Decoded Live, we break down the federal government's newly posted proposed leasing notice for a deep sea mining sale in the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), a notice…
Ocean Mining News just got a major update: the U.S. Marine Minerals Administration has published a Proposed Leasing Notice for a potential minerals lease sale in federal waters off the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands. The agency frames the move as support for domestic critical minerals supply chains and…
Ocean Protection in Antarctica Needed: that's the message coming out of this year's krill fishery closure. The Antarctic Krill Fishery shut down early for the second year in a row on August 12, 2026, just one day after World Krill Day, after vessels hit the 620,000-tonne catch trigger limit [VERIFY]…
Crown of Thorns Starfish (COTS) are one of the biggest drivers of coral mortality across the Indo-Pacific, ranking second only to coral bleaching. In this episode of Ocean Decoded Live, host Andrew looks at why these native starfish, harmless in small numbers, become a serious threat to coral reefs when…
36 New Feeding Behaviours For Whale Sharks have been documented for the first time, thanks to camera tags attached directly to the animals themselves. Researchers Christine Barry (Murdoch University, Australian Institute of Marine Science) and Luciana C. Ferreira (AIMS) led the study, tagging whale sharks at a gathering site near…
Humpback Whales Are Back in the waters off Rio de Janeiro, marking one of the ocean's most remarkable recovery stories. Brazil's humpback population fell to fewer than 1,000 individuals by the late 1980s after centuries of commercial whaling, and has since rebounded to an estimated 30,000, according to Thiago Ferrari…
Mangrove Forest Conservation is having a genuinely surprising moment. On today's Ocean Decoded Live, host Andrew Lewin breaks down a new global study, reported by The Conversation and phys.org, that used four decades of satellite data to track mangrove forests worldwide. Mangroves are unusual coastal plants: their roots rise above…
Today on Ocean Decoded Live, we're covering two major ocean science and conservation stories. First, a new perspective piece published in the journal Coral Reefs reflects on the surge of renewed research into crown-of-thorns starfish, one of the biggest drivers of coral mortality across the Indo-Pacific. We break down what…
Coral Reefs Protected across a huge stretch of the Pacific just got a boost. Solomon Islands have become the latest Pacific nation to sign on to the Melanesian Ocean Corridor of Reserves (MOCOR), a massive transboundary marine protected area first announced by Papua New Guinea, Vanuatu, and Fiji at the…