Jon Corsiglia🌊 #WorldOceanDay 2026.
The theme is REIMAGINE.
So let’s do that. Here’s every ocean win from the past year that most people missed.
A full thread of good news, with honest caveats.
🧵
#OceanNews #BlueEconomy
2/
Sept. 15, 2025: The WTO Fisheries Subsidies Agreement entered into force.
After 20+ years of talks, govts are now legally banned from subsidizing illegal fishing and the overfishing of depleted stocks.
$22B/yr in harmful subsidies. Now illegal.
⚖️🐟
#SustainableFishing #OceanPolicy
3/
Jan. 17, 2026: The High Seas Treaty entered into force.
Nearly half the planet’s surface now has a legally binding conservation framework for the first time in history.
Two decades of negotiations. One new era.
🌍🛡️
#HighSeasTreaty #BBNJ #WorldOceanDay
4/
Nov. 2025: Every single shark and ray proposal passed at CITES CoP20.
70+ species got new trade protections. Whale sharks, manta rays, oceanic whitetips: full commercial trade bans.
First time this has ever happened by unanimous support.
🦈🙌
#Sharks #CITES #OceanConservation
5/
Oct. 2025: The IUCN downlisted green sea turtles from Endangered to Least Concern.
28%+ global population growth since the 1970s. They skipped Vulnerable and Near Threatened entirely.
Decades of beach protection. This is what it looks like.
🐢💚
#SeaTurtles #ConservationWins #WorldOceanDay
6/
For the second year in a row, Iceland’s largest whaling company canceled its fin whale hunt in 2025.
Japan’s whale meat market keeps shrinking. The economics no longer work.
The market doing what advocacy alone couldn’t.
🐋📉
#Whaling #OceanWins #MarineLife
7/
Humpback populations rebounded from ~10,000 at their lowest to an estimated 80,000 today.
A researcher who spent 5 years in the field without spotting one in 2000 now sees them “almost every day.”
🐋🌊
#HumpbackWhales #WildlifeRecovery
8/
The 2024-25 North Atlantic right whale calving season: 23 mother-calf pairs.
Most since 2009. Fourth-highest ever. Total population: ~380.
Scientists are cautiously optimistic. Every calf matters when you have 380 left.
🐋🍼
#RightWhales #OceanHope #WorldOceanDay
9/
Between April 2025 and March 2026, scientists found 1,121 new marine species.
54% more than the prior year’s record. A ghost shark. A worm living in a glass sponge castle. Corals, crabs, anemones.
We are still learning what we are protecting.
🔬🌊
#OceanCensus #MarineScience
10/
The Ocean Cleanup removed 25M kg of plastic in 2025 alone.
Total removed to date: 50M+ kg.
Their new 30 Cities Programme targets a third of all river plastic entering the sea by 2030.
♻️🌊
#PlasticPollution #OceanCleanup
11/
April 2026: The UN confirmed 10%+ of the world ocean is now under some level of protection.
But only 3.3% is fully protected. To hit 30x30 by 2030, we need to protect an area the size of the Indian Ocean in 4 years.
Progress is real. So is the math.
🗺️⏱️
#30x30 #MarineProtection #WorldOceanDay
12/
Every one of these wins happened while ocean temps rose and coral bleached.
The wins are real. The urgency is real.
REIMAGINE means holding both in mind and working harder.
Happy #WorldOceanDay. Now let’s go.
🌊🌍
#OceanEconomy #BluePlanet #EcoEconomyInsider