A study of bottlenose dolphin deaths in the Gulf of Mexico conducted between 2010 and early 2013 has concluded the highest number of strandings and deaths occurred in areas most impacted by the 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. In comparison, Gulf Coast areas of Texas and Florida, which experienced little to no oiling, saw few statewide increases in stranded dolphins during the same period.

According to Department of Conservation officials, at least 198 pilot whales had become stranded on the beaches of New Zealand's South Island. At least 24 of the whales have already died with Conservation officials and local volunteers scrambling to save the remaining individuals.

It was the first thorough exploration of the cold, oxygen-rich waters north of Bodega Head, a small promontory that lies along the California's Sonoma coast just 70 miles north of San Francisco. Submarine canyons, such as Bodega Canyon, extend from the continental shelf to the deep sea – making their exploration a difficult but worthwhile endeavour. The canyons are important because they act as a refuge for important species of fish and provide a habitat for sensitive species of deep-water corals and sponges.

Isabelle Côté, a Simon Fraser University professor of marine ecology and conservation, has co-authored a new study that finds little would be lost by eliminating high seas fishing.

In this study Côté and her colleagues evaluated the impact of closing deep-sea fishing on fisheries' catches and values, and their economic consequences for individual countries, identifying which nations would stand to financially gain or lose.