Marine scientists from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) and other groups examining the ecological status of coral reefs across the Indian and Pacific oceans have uncovered an unsettling fact: even the best coral reef marine parks contain less than half of the fish biomass found in the most remote reefs that lie far from human settlements.

Singing humpback whales from different ocean basins seem to be picking up musical ideas from afar, and incorporating these new phrases and themes into the latest song, according to a newly published study in Royal Society Open Science that’s helping scientists better understand how whales learn and change their musical compositions.

As groups gather for the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco from Sept 12-14, WCS has released a video showcasing how communities in Madagascar are doing their part to fight climate change.  Watch the video here. Local indigenous communities in the Makira landscape have limited access to economic opportunities and relied on traditional forms of natural resource extraction such as illegal logging and land-intensive rice farming for their survival. These livelihoods not only ca...

Scientists have identified a portfolio of the world’s reefs most likely to survive the coming decades, using principles from the financial investment world.

An age-old challenge of determining the right amount of fish to harvest from the sea has finally been overcome with the creation of a new biomass-yield model that captures all the necessary factors for accuracy, according to a new WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society) study.  The study titled “Multicriteria estimate of coral reef fishery sustainability” appears online in the journal Fish and Fisheries. Knowing the highest volume of fish that can be taken from coral reefs without ...

May 1, 2018 – Marine scientists from WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), University of Warwick, and University of Queensland have identified two key factors that create the ideal conditions needed for high species diversity in coral reefs: thermal energy in the form of warm water and low climate stress. 

WCS is pleased to announce that two of its conservationists, Dr. Nyawira Muthiga and Dr.Tim McClanahan, have been awarded the 2018 Award for Conservation Excellence (ACE). Drs. Muthiga and McClanahan were nominated together as one finalist. The Award for Conservation Excellence (ACE) was created to recognize the extraordinary contributions made to wildlife conservation by the world’s leading scientists. Along with the other four finalists—Dr. Joel Berger and Dr. Ul...

December 1, 2017 -- WCS announced today that Edwin Kinyanjui, Giyanto “Gigi,” Rubén Cueva, and Bemahafaly Randriamanantsoa have been honored with a Conservation Hero Award from the Disney Conservation Fund. 

September 26, 2017 – A new WCS study published in the journal Ecosystem Health and Sustainability of fish traders in coastal Kenya shows that women largely occupied fisheries with the lowest profits and are not saving money while working in these fisheries. Management actions that intend to increase profits and sustainability, such as restrictions on use of gear that catch the smallest fish, have the potential to exclude female traders unless management also promotes social equity and gender coexistence.  

July 6, 2017 – Scientists conducting the first circum-global assessment of mitochondrial DNA variation in the Southern Hemisphere’s humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) have found that whales faithfully returning to calving grounds year after year play a major role in how populations form, according to WCS (Wildlife Conservation Society), the American Museum of Natural History, and a number of other contributing organizations.