The Trump administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) stated that the action aims to boost the U.S. commercial fishing industry, lower consumer seafood costs, and improve American seafood competitiveness in global markets.

Conservation Backlash

The decision quickly drew sharp criticism from conservation groups and environmental advocates. Opponents argue that the proclamation damages pristine, biodiverse ecosystems by eliminating critical protections that allow marine life and fish populations to breed, feed, and grow safely. The Conservation Law Foundation, Natural Resources Defense Council, Earthjustice, and Center for Biological Diversity have filed a lawsuit challenging these proclamations. Click on this blog to find out what you can do to support these groups. Image Source Hawaii Public Radio

On World Oceans Day — June 8, 2026 — French Polynesia announced the designation of 515,000 square kilometers of new, fully protected marine areas across the Austral and Marquesas Islands. To put that in perspective: that is an area nearly twice the size of continental France, handed back to the ocean.

Conservation International has called it the single largest contribution to the global 30×30 goal — the international commitment to protect 30% of the world’s ocean by 2030 — ever made by one nation in one act.

In 2022, 175 nations agreed that plastic pollution had become a global emergency requiring a legally binding international response. The Intergovernmental Negotiating Committee — the INC — was tasked with producing a treaty by the end of 2024. Four years and five bruising sessions later, that treaty still does not exist. But the process is alive, and the next formal session is set for March 2027.

The scale of political momentum is itself historic. Never before have so many nations committed to a binding instrument covering the full lifecycle of plastics — from fossil fuel extraction through production, use, and disposal. By INC-5.2 in Geneva, up to 120 countries had coalesced around core provisions: phasing out the most harmful plastic products and chemicals, and ensuring decisions could be made by majority vote. That coalition is a genuine and hard-won achievement.

Button from the first Earth Day, 1970 Source: Th!rd Act.org

The first Earth Day took place on April 22, 1970 – 56 years ago! The seminal observance reportedly inspired 20 million Americans — at the time, 10% of the total population of the United States — to take to the streets, parks and auditoriums to protest the impacts of 150 years of industrial development which had left a growing legacy of serious human health impacts.

North Atlantic right whale named Cascade and her fourth calf were photographed swimming approximately 21 miles east of Ossabaw Island, Georgia. The North Atlantic right whales have given birth to 22 calves this season. Is this cause for hope for this endangered population?

Credit: Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute

Microplastics are widespread pollutants found from Arctic ice to ocean trenches, in coral reefs, whale stomachs, and human blood and breast milk. A global treaty to regulate plastics' full lifecycle is under negotiation in 2026, offering hope for reducing plastic pollution.