In the first project of its kind, scientists are trying to answer if the future of Alaska’s streams and tundra may depend not on survival of the fittest but on how species adapt together
On Alaska’s North Slope, scientists tread carefully across clumps of tussock grasses toward a fast-flowing stream draining the imposing Brooks Range of ice and snow. Near Galbraith Creek, they string out a mist net for white-crowned sparrows. The birds have recently arrived from southerly latitudes, intent on feasting on the insects that will soon descend on the tundra like storm clouds.
The Arctic summer is short-lived, and sparrows have only a few weeks to establish territories, find mates, lay eggs and raise their chicks on a steady diet of bugs. From every ensnared bird, the scientists collect blood, feather and faecal samples to see what they are eating and how that changes over the summer.
Galbraith Creek on Alaska’s North Slope
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/09/2026 - 06:00
09/09/2026 - 01:00
Green leader says ministers must stop ‘hiding the truth’ about threat to UK security from climate and nature crisis
Zack Polanski has challenged Andy Burnham’s government to publish an unredacted version of an explosive report by the UK’s spy chiefs that found the collapse of overseas ecosystems would have catastrophic consequences for the UK’s national security.
The Green party leader in England said the prime minister should come clean about the scale and impact of the climate and nature crisis and called on the government to publish in full the report that warns the UK faces devastating security consequences.
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09/08/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 09 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00243-9
The WTO Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies is the first global treaty to restrict the use of harmful fishing subsidies. The agreement is a critical step towards reigning in the destructive subsidies that have fueled the rapid depletion of global fish stocks. However, these important new rules are being undermined by the significant number of countries—including some of the world’s biggest fishing nations—that have refused to ratify the treaty.
09/07/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 08 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00238-6
Linking blue economy sectors to ecosystem services and socio-economic priorities: a framework for integrated maritime spatial planning
09/07/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 08 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00242-w
Dynamics of distant water fishing fleets in Southeast Asian countries
09/02/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 03 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00241-x
Author Correction: Perceived fairness of conservation decision-making more strongly influenced by absence than presence of procedural equity criteria
09/02/2026 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 03 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s44183-026-00231-z
Many knowledges for One Ocean
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023
Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program.
World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html.
Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs.
World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world.
World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org.
media contact
Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory | director@thew2o.net +12077011069
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