Since 1976, the Magnuson-Stevens Act, and measures added in its 1996 and 2006 reauthorizations, have been a cornerstone of US ocean conservation. 

A new study published in Conservation Letters identifies reefs globally that have the potential to survive the growing threat of climate change and to help revive degraded marine ecosystems if they are protected from other threats.

WCS welcomed the decision by the UNESCO-World Heritage Committee to remove the Belize Barrier Reef Reserve System from the “List of World Heritage in Danger.”

Glover’s Reef Marine Reserve, BELIZE (October 19, 2017) – Congressman Eliot Engel (D-NY) visited the WCS research station at Glover’s Reef Marine Reserve on a Congressional delegation to Belize last month. The focus of the trip was to survey the impact of U.S. foreign assistance programs on livelihoods and conservation in one of the world’s most biodiverse areas.

WASHINGTON  (October 12, 2017) – A new bill to undermine the Antiquities Act would only make it much more difficult to conserve the last wild areas of our country which act as recreational opportunities, economic drivers and critical wildlife habitat.

St Julian's, MALTA (5 October 2017) – WCS announced three new commitments to saving the world’s oceans at the Our Ocean conference in Malta.

NOAA released new rule creating the Seafood Import Monitoring Program, which establishes reporting and recordkeeping requirements to help prevent illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU)-caught seafood and misrepresented seafood from reaching U.S. markets

NEW YORK (October 28, 2016) – WCS applauded the decision by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources to protect the Ross Sea, a part of the Southern Ocean near Antarctica, as a marine protected area.

WASHINGTON (December 7, 2015) – Today, the House of Representatives took a step toward cleaner waterways and healthy wildlife by passing the Microbeads-Free Waters Act [by unanimous consent?]. The bill, led by Rep. Frank Pallone (D-NJ) and Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), contains needed restrictions on the tiny pollutants contained in personal care products that are harming wildlife across the country.