AWI Quarterly Articles | Marine Wildlife

Efforts to protect octopuses from commercial farming continue, with legislation proposed this year in several states to prohibit octopus farming and the sale of farmed octopus products. Campaigns by animal protection and environmental groups have...

In May, Colorado enacted SB25-168, the nation’s most comprehensive state law to combat wildlife trafficking. The law is unique among state laws in that it prohibits the selling, possessing, transporting, importing, or exporting of any...

In April, the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) issued a proposed rule that would undermine protections for habitat that threatened and endangered species need to survive by...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, within the Department of Commerce, is among a host of federal agencies with science-based missions that have been rocked by deep budgetary and staffing cuts imposed by the Trump...

For several years, AWI has opposed a project to divert fresh sediment-rich river water into Barataria Bay in an effort to restore Mississippi River Delta land lost to erosion. Delta restoration is a laudable goal...

In March, the South Atlantic Fishery Management Council (SAFMC)—a regional body responsible for managing federal fisheries from North Carolina to Florida—met in Jekyll Island, Georgia. One item on the docket, Amendment 56, included a proposal...

A SeaWorld Orlando trainer was injured while handling an orca in the park’s medical pool in September 2024. The injury (rumored to be a broken arm, but never confirmed by media) was serious enough to...

This year’s commercial whaling season began in April with the first kills by Norway and Japan. Although Norway’s quota allows up to 1,406 minke whales in total to be killed by the 15 registered whaling...

Since 2013, with the release of the documentary Blackfish, the campaign to end the captive display of cetaceans has made strong progress. Locations where free-ranging cetaceans were still captured for sale to dolphinariums have shuttered...

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is well known for its weather-related work, which for decades has included studying the science of climate change. Less familiar to the general public are the functions of NOAA...