Is Great Nicobar Island India's Hormuz like-chokepoint against China
| | NEW DELHI, India, 3 June 2026 (Al Jazeera) - The southernmost point of India, the Great Nicobar Island, is closer to the coasts of Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia than it is to the Indian mainland. No Indian prime minister has visited the island, which is the size of Hong Kong, since Indira Gandhi in 1984. India does not even conduct a full census on the island, relying on estimates of its population; the latest guess is that fewer than 10,000 people live there. Yet the island is now in the eye of a political storm over an $11bn project planned by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to turn Great Nicobar into a major strategic and economic outpost in the Indian Ocean. |
How did Fair Isle become awash with forever chemicals?
| | FAIR ISLE, UK, 2 June 2026 (Guardian) - When the wind picks up on Fair Isle, Britain’s most remote inhabited island, puffs of seafoam start to drift across fields like tumbleweed. The pale yellow blobs are ubiquitous enough to hold their own place in the island’s mythology: known as the butter churned by a local troll, Lukki Minni. As well as a familiar feature of rough weather, scientists now think seafoam and seaspray might hold the answer to a Fair Isle mystery. In 2024, utility data revealed that the wild outpost known for knitting and rare birds has higher levels of toxic Pfas - "forever chemicals" - than any other public drinking water in Scotland, despite there being no obvious industrial sources on the island. |
Evidence of real pirates of the Caribbean found in Bahamas
| | LONDON, UK, 2 June 2026 (Guardian) - The first shipwrecks linked to the real pirates of the Caribbean in the Bahamas have been discovered by an international team co-directed by a British marine archaeologist. Blackbeard and Calico Jack Rackham were among pirates who, between the 1690s and 1720s, turned Nassau on the island of New Providence into a hideout where they plotted their next heists on the high seas and divided up their plunder. Now, following the first-ever official permission to dive in the closed zone of Nassau harbour, an expedition has found six wrecks, three of which can be traced to the “golden age of piracy”. |
Dismay as Trump officials to dismantle key ocean monitoring system
| | LONDON, UK, 2 June 2026 (Guardian) - The Trump administration plans to dismantle a $368m deep-sea observation system that has for more than a decade provided crucial data on ocean systems and climate change. In a notice, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that it had “initiated descoping of the Ocean Observatories Initiative” (OOI), a vast ocean observation network comprising more than 900 instruments that collect data on ocean health, including current patterns, climate variability and marine biodiversity. |
Caribbean hot sauce producers warn of shortages and higher prices
| | ST. JOHN'S, Antigua, 1 June 2026 (BBC) - Hot pepper sauce in Caribbean cuisine is as pervasive as ketchup in the US. The fiery flavouring is a staple of dining tables regionwide, the obligatory accompaniment for everything from rice and peas, to curries and stews. But a shortage of the particular chilli pepper used to create the quintessential Caribbean condiment is threatening to stifle supply, while sending costs for the region's producers soaring. |
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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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ARCTIC COUNCIL |
| | UArctic Congress 26-29 May 2026, Torshavn, Faroe Islands |
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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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ANATOMY OF ISLANDS |
| | 14th Anatomy of Islands symposium 15-17 Oct, 2026, Jelsa, Hvar Island, Croatia |
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SICRI |
| | Island Studies International Conference 25-28 June, 2026, Tacloban City, Leyte Islands, Philippines |
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IWRA |
| | 2nd Islands Water Congress 9-11 Dec, 2026, Montego Bay, Jamaica |
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