Authorities relocated 80,000 residents from China’s capital after registering rainfall of up to 543 mm in some districts
More than 30 people have been killed by heavy rain and flooding in Beijing and a neighbouring region, state media have reported, as tens of thousands more were evacuated from China’s capital.
State broadcaster CCTV said that as of midnight on Monday, 28 people had died in Beijing’s hard-hit Miyun district and two others in Yanqing district as of midnight. Both are outlying parts of the sprawling city, far from the downtown.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
07/28/2025 - 19:59
07/28/2025 - 12:24
Environment secretary says Defra will be launching changes to post-Brexit scheme for sustainable farming
Farmers in England will get new payments for cleaning up the waterways near their land, the environment secretary has said.
Agricultural pollution affects 40% of Britain’s lakes and rivers, as fertiliser and animal waste washes off the land into waterways.
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07/28/2025 - 10:00
Two huge swarms have made themselves at home inside author Pip Harry’s house – but learning to live together revealed bees can be excellent housemates
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As a child, I was allergic to bees. Just one sting on my fingertip could swell my whole arm. I was allergic to most things – dust, cat hair, pollen – and was always clutching an inhaler, sniffling into my sleeve and keeping a safe distance from stinging insects.
As an adult, when my family bought our first house, a mid-century gem nestled in thick bushland on Sydney’s northern beaches, I wasn’t expecting a visit from my former nemesis. But one warm spring day, we heard the unmistakable hum of 20,000 of those honey-producing insects.
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07/28/2025 - 10:00
Undocumented migrants form the backbone of the ‘salad bowl of the world’ – Trump’s crackdown has led to hyper-vigilance
Driving into the Salinas valley, about two hours south of San Francisco, hand-painted signs fly by, advertising cherries, pistachios, avocados and garlic.
From above, the valley looks like a quilt stitched together out of a thousand shades of green – the fields of lettuce, spinach and strawberries that give the region its nickname, “the salad bowl of the world”.
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07/28/2025 - 05:00
Microplastics have been found in the placentas of unborn babies, the depths of the Mariana Trench, the summit of Everest and the organs of Antarctic penguins. But how do they travel through the world, and what do they do to the creatures that carry them? Here is the story of how plastic contaminates entire ecosystems – and even the food we eat. Illustrations by Claire Harrup
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07/28/2025 - 02:29
Experts welcome move by NSW government, saying nets are ineffective at preventing shark bites and ‘indiscriminately’ kill marine life
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A trial to remove shark nets from three Sydney and Central Coast beaches has been welcomed by scientists who say the nets create a false sense of security and are ineffective at preventing shark bites.
Shark nets, about 150 metres long and installed roughly 500 metres offshore at selected beaches in New South Wales and Queensland, were “like a table tennis net on a soccer pitch”, said Lawrence Chlebeck, a marine biologist at Humane World for Animals.
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07/27/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 28 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00140-7
Scenario planning from the bottom up: supporting inclusive and ecosystem-based approaches to marine spatial planning
07/25/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 26 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00142-5
“Our fish are not your marine biodiversity”: tensions in integrating fisheries into the BBNJ Agreement
07/22/2025 - 23:00
npj Ocean Sustainability, Published online: 23 July 2025; doi:10.1038/s44183-025-00143-4
Substantial gains and little downside from farming of Totoaba macdonaldi
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 | [email protected] +12077011069
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