What's Current in
Ocean and Beaches
On the water and on the sand, our research explores ocean health and evolution so we can better understand how to protect and preserve the largest area of Earth.
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NOAA Satellites
Sea surface temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean were already far higher than average by the first week of June 2026 due to El Niño.
El Niño has become more intense over last 40 years than the previous 1,000 years
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Elena Zhukova
There’s a cacophony of acoustic signals below the range of human hearing, many quite intense, that you can pick up with the right “ears.”
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David Huang
San Dieguito Lagoon, one of Beheshti’s primary research sites.
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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Monitoring fishing activity far from shore presents a challenge for resource management and marine conservation.
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A commercial fishing vessel near Kodiak Island, Alaska
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Matt Perko
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Cargo vessel congestion at the Los Angeles/Long Beach port complex during the COVID pandemic
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Geospatial information about how women use the ocean is an important part of marine spatial planning, but tends to be hidden in the data
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Merry Passage
Southern California’s population of giant sea bass is recovering from overfishing, but progress is slow.
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Melody Jue
A scuba diver pictured with a colony of soft corals in Fiji, 2020
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Shane Gross
Sharks are often observed with hooks, scars or other evidence of encounters with fisherman. This Caribbean reef shark was spotted in the Bahamas with a wire leader hanging from her mouth. It has been illegal to catch sharks in the Bahamas since 2011.
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Courtesy Image
Untold amounts of toxic waste were carelessly, though legally, disposed of off the California coast. Their presence continues to haunt human and wildlife health.