China launches a floating island unlike anything seen before
| | LONDON, UK, 23 April 2026 (ECONEWS) - China has launched what it describes as the world’s first ultra-large deep-sea floating research platform in Shanghai, built to support work from marine ecosystems to advanced offshore equipment. The platform is designed for full-ocean-depth exploration down to about 32,800 feet, a range that reaches into parts of the sea we rarely study up close. |
Divers use underwater speakers to help dying coral reefs
| | LONDON, UK, 24 April 2026 (Guardian) - The northern coast of Jamaica once served as the backdrop for scenes in the James Bond thriller No Time to Die. But today, beneath those same turquoise waves, a real-life mission is unfolding: the race to pull a dying coral reef back from the brink. However, the tools a team of divers are carrying to the seafloor are not what you would expect to find in a marine biologist’s kit. They are installing waterproof speakers at the bottom of the ocean, and the man leading the team is not a scientist. |
Open dumping bury Sri Lankan cities in waste problem
| | COLOMBO, Sri Lanka, 23 April 2026 (Mongabay) - Sri Lanka generates around 8,000-10,000 metric tons of municipal solid waste daily, with Colombo contributing about 500 metric tons, while more than 260 open dumpsites, including 20 large ones, continue to operate countrywide. Systems are gradually shifting toward composting, waste-to-energy incineration and engineered sanitary landfill disposal, but weak segregation, limited capacity and continued reliance on open dumping persist. |
Marshall Islands’ reefs among the most pristine on Earth
| | AUCKLAND, New Zealand, 23 April 2026 (PMN) - Local communities in the Republic of the Marshall Islands (RMI) are living alongside some of the most intact marine ecosystems left on the planet, according to international researchers completing a major ocean survey across the Pacific nation’s outer atolls. The findings come from the National Geographic Pristine Seas (NGPS) programme, which has returned to the Marshall Islands for a second time to study reef health, marine life, and climate impacts across seven remote atolls. |
The 'big durian': one day in Jakarta, the world's largest city
| | JAKARTA, Indonesia, 23 April 2026 (Guardian) - In December, the United Nations officially designated Jakarta as the world's largest city, hosting a staggering 42 million inhabitants. Michael Neilson speaks to several people who call the ‘big durian’ home – about the positives and the negatives – and how community and the city’s infamously dry humour get them through. |
UK firm completes world-first offshore ocean heat energy platform
| | GLASGOW, UK, 22 April 2026 (EV) - UK-based Global OTEC has completed the offshore installation of what it said is the world’s first purpose-built floating ocean thermal energy platform. The company said the deployment brings its ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) technology one step closer to commercial deployment in tropical island markets. OTEC systems generate electricity by harnessing the temperature difference between warm surface water and cold deep ocean water. |
Record puffin count on small island for second year running
| | CARDIFF, Wales, 22 April 2026 (BBC) - A record number of puffins have been counted for the second year running on a small island off Pembrokeshire. The Wildlife Trust of South and West Wales, said 52,019 puffins were documented on Skomer Island this year - 8,000 more than in 2025. As well as a growing population of puffins, Skomer is also home to 350,000 breeding pairs of manx shearwaters and thousands of guillemots and razorbills. |
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IWRA |
 | | 1st Islands Water Congress 4-6 Sept, 2024, Torshavn, Faroe Islands |
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ANATOMY OF ISLANDS |
| | 12th Anatomy of Islands symposium 26-28 Sept, 2024, Jelsa, Hvar Island, Croatia |
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CIS |
| | Critical Island Studies 4th international conference 3-4 Oct, 2024, Manila, Philippines |
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CBD |
| | COP16 21 Oct-1 Nov, 2024, Cali, Colombia |
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UNFCCC |
| | COP29 11-22 November, 2024, Baku, Azerbaijan |
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ISLAND DYNAMICS |
| | DARKNESS II conference, 20-23 January 2025, Nuuk, Greenland |
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JICAS |
| | Islands And Island Studies conference 3-7 June, 2025, Jersey, Channel Islands |
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UNITED NATIONS |
| | UN Ocean Conference 9-13 June, 2025, Nice, France |
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UPEI |
| | 3rd international conference on SIS and SNIJs 16-20 June, 2025, Charlottetown, PEI |
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GSIS |
| | Global Sustainable Islands Summit 20-22 April, 2026, Gran Canaria, Spain |
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SICRI |
| | Island Studies International Conference 25-28 June, 2026, Tacloban City, Leyte Islands, Philippines |
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ISISA |
| | 20th Islands of the World Conference 7-11 July 2026, Shinan County, Jeollanam-do, South Korea |
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SPREP |
| | 11th Pacific Islands Conference for Nature Conservation and Protected Areas, 7–11 September 2026, Noumea, New Caledonia |
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