Marine conservation milestones | Good News for Humankind

New Zealand coast, for article on Māori co-management marine reserves

New Zealand opens five marine reserves under Māori co-governance model

By Peter Schulte / August 26, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Māori co-governance of ocean territory just got a concrete, working model. Five new marine reserves along New Zealand’s southeastern coast grant the Kāi Tahu equal decision-making authority alongside the government, with a jointly run ranger team conducting restoration and research across protected seabed, reefs, and kelp forest. The full reserve network remains incomplete, one area faces a boundary dispute, and current coverage falls far short of global conservation targets. Research consistently shows conservation succeeds when the people who know a place best hold real authority over it — and this model may become a blueprint for Indigenous ocean governance worldwide.

image for article on Wild Coast communities

South Africa’s top court permanently blocks Shell oil off the Wild Coast

By Peter Schulte / August 25, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

South Africa’s highest court has handed Indigenous and rural fishing communities a permanent, binding victory — one that sets a new legal standard for who gets a say before oil companies drill near vulnerable coastlines. The Constitutional Court ruled that Shell and Impact Africa never meaningfully consulted the Mpondo and other communities whose livelihoods and spiritual lives are tied to the Wild Coast, also citing international climate obligations. Whether South Africa will reform its consultation process — or force the next community into the same grueling legal fight — remains an open question.

Whale fin, for article on Antarctic whale recovery, for article on humpback whale recovery

Humpback whales rebound from near-extinction after 1986 hunting ban

By Peter Schulte / August 2, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Humpback whales are staging one of the most remarkable comebacks in modern conservation history, with southern hemisphere populations growing from fewer than 10,000 at the peak of commercial whaling to more than 100,000 today. Last December, a South African couple counted 299 humpbacks gathered in a single group — what experts describe as likely the largest such sighting on record. It’s a living signal of what decades of sustained international protection can achieve. But the recovery is fragile: shipping traffic around southern Africa quadrupled after 2023, raising serious collision risks for whales that took generations to return.

image for article on French Polynesia marine protection, for article on marine protected areas

French Polynesia protects 540,000 sq mi of ocean, hitting the global 30% target

By Peter Schulte / June 22, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

French Polynesia’s ocean protection milestone shows what’s possible when communities lead from the start — over twelve years of public meetings, cultural expeditions, and local scientific studies shaped every boundary. The fully protected zones cover waters around the Austral, Marquesas, and Western Society islands, sheltering sharks, whales, and species found nowhere else, while artisanal fishing zones preserve traditional livelihoods alongside strict conservation. Enforcing boundaries across some of Earth’s most remote ocean remains a real challenge. Still, this community-rooted model offers a hopeful blueprint as nations race toward the 30% goal.

Tuna swimming, for article on tuna stock health, for article on tuna stock health

No major commercial tuna stocks remain overfished, ISSF report finds

By Peter Schulte / June 9, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Tuna recovery has reached a milestone that ocean scientists have been working toward for generations — for the first time since scientists began tracking these stocks in 2011, none of the world’s 23 major commercial tuna stocks are classified as overfished. That turnaround reflects decades of international cooperation, science-based catch limits, and harvest strategies that now cover more than half of the global tuna catch. Getting all 23 stocks out of the danger zone while total catch was simultaneously rising shows that abundance and sustainability can move together. It’s a hopeful proof of concept for global fisheries management everywhere.

Coral underwater, for article on marine protected area

Papua New Guinea announces one of the world’s largest no-take marine reserves

By Peter Schulte / May 31, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Papua New Guinea just pledged to protect roughly 200,000 square kilometers of Pacific Ocean — an expanse nearly the size of the United Kingdom.
The proposed Western Manus Marine Protected Area sits inside the Coral Triangle, often called the Amazon of the seas, and a 2024 National Geographic Pristine Seas expedition there documented deep-sea species never before recorded in PNG waters — including the elusive yokozuna slickhead. Researchers also noticed fewer large predators than expected, a quiet signal that even these remote waters need a break from fishing pressure.
If Papua New Guinea follows through with real enforcement, this single reserve would mark a meaningful step toward the global goal of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030 — and a hopeful model for ocean stewardship everywhere.

Seastar underwater, for article on South Arran marine protected area

Seabed life triples in Scottish marine zone a decade after trawling ban

By Peter Schulte / May 18, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Scotland’s South Arran Marine Protected Area is teeming with life again, ten years after bottom trawling was restricted across much of the zone. Scientists pulled up just 100 liters of sediment and counted more than 1,500 organisms representing over 150 species — spoon worms, tower snails, and tiny “gardeners of the seabed” that quietly cycle nutrients and lock carbon into the ocean floor. Researchers found three times more organisms and twice the species diversity compared to nearby unprotected waters, all without any active restoration. The lesson is beautifully simple: lift the nets, wait, and life returns. For Europe’s battered seafloors — and for marine recovery efforts worldwide — South Arran is a quiet, powerful proof of concept.

Parrot in Colombia, for article on Colombia marine protection

Colombia has now protected 47% of marine areas and 26% of land and inland waters

By Peter Schulte / May 6, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Colombia has already protected 47.4% of its marine and coastal areas, blowing past the global 30×30 goal that 196 nations pledged in 2022. On land, it has reached 26.3% and is aiming for 34% by 2030, with much of that progress shared with Indigenous communities, Afro-descendant territories, and private landowners. The country’s approach blends a Switzerland-sized ocean sanctuary off the Pacific coast with more than 1,400 small civil society reserves, including a recovering cloud forest where mountain springs have returned and neighbors are planting native corridors. As the world falls behind on biodiversity targets, Colombia offers something rare: a working, inclusive model that other countries can actually learn from.

Antarctic whale populations are officially rebounding

By Peter Schulte / May 6, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Antarctic whale recovery is producing scenes scientists hadn’t witnessed in over a century. Near the South Orkney Islands in early 2026, researchers aboard a Sea Shepherd vessel watched groups of more than 100 humpback whales feeding together, with blows stretching “from horizon to horizon.” Humpback numbers are now approaching what they were before industrial whaling began, a comeback traced directly to the global moratorium on commercial whaling. The next challenge is already here: industrial krill trawlers, some 100 times the size of a humpback, are working the same waters, and scientists are calling for a 30-kilometer no-fishing buffer to protect the food web. It’s a reminder that ecological recovery is possible — and that protecting it requires the same cooperation that made it happen.

Salmon in river, for article on coho salmon recovery

Coho salmon returns surge 10x on California’s Mendocino Coast over last decade

By Peter Schulte / April 28, 2026 / Good News For Humankind

Coho salmon are back on California’s Mendocino Coast in numbers no one alive expected to see: more than 30,000 endangered adults returned to spawn this past season, roughly ten times the count from a decade ago. Biologists who once walked miles of empty stream are now finding fish tucked under their boots and spawning in channels barely a foot and a half wide. The turnaround follows decades of patient work — over 100 restoration projects, removed culverts, and rebuilt floodplains — meeting a rare stretch of favorable ocean conditions. It’s a reminder that endangered species can come back when communities commit to the long, unglamorous work of healing the places they depend on.