Welcome to the March issue of SEVENSEAS. This month, our coverage turns toward the Persian Gulf, where an unfolding military crisis carries consequences that reach far beyond geopolitics, into marine ecosystems, global supply chains, and the daily lives of civilians worldwide. Across four connected articles, we examine the Strait of Hormuz as a war zone, the ecological toll beneath the conflict, the civilian supply-chain fallout, and Iran’s rich but imperiled biodiversity from mountain forests to coral communities. This issue features our March Cover Conservationist, Jacqueline Rosa, a URI graduate student bridging oyster science and the working waterfront in Narragansett Bay, alongside a powerful personal essay on queer travel through North Korea, Afghanistan, and Ethiopia. You’ll also find global updates on coral reef science, robotic restoration technology, deep-sea discovery, cetacean conservation across the Pacific, and new momentum in international plastics policy. Together, these stories carry a thread that runs through all of our work: that understanding the natural world, even in its most difficult moments, is never separate from protecting it.

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Meet Jacqueline Rosa, Connecting Oyster Science to Coastal Livelihoods

A URI oceanography graduate student investigates how water quality and gear type shape oyster growth in Narragansett Bay, forging direct links between scientific research and the livelihoods of coastal communities. [Read more]

From issue #129: Student Tracks Rhode Island Oyster Farm

URI researcher Jacqueline Rosa spent 18 months monitoring water chemistry and testing 2,700 oysters across three gear types to help the state’s $9 million aquaculture industry adapt to acidification. [Read more]

They Warned Me. I Went Anyway. A Story of Queer Travel and Compassion.

From Pyongyang to Kabul to Ethiopia’s Omo Valley, one traveler discovers that human warmth and compassion rarely follow the script that headlines and travel warnings try to write for it. [Read more]

Twenty-Eight New Species and a Record Coral Reef Surface Off Argentina

A Schmidt Ocean Institute expedition aboard Falkor (too) documented 28 suspected new species and also found the world’s largest known cold-water coral reef along Argentina’s deep, largely unexplored continental shelf. [Read more]

From Zagros Peaks to Persian Gulf Coral, Iran’s Biodiversity at Stake.

Iran straddles Central Asia, the Caucasus, and the Indian Ocean, harboring ancient forests, vital migratory flyways, and fragile coastal ecosystems now placed under extraordinary strain by the widening regional conflict. [Read more]

Below the War Zone, the Persian Gulf’s Marine Ecosystems Face New Risk

While headlines track oil prices and military escalation, a quieter catastrophe is unfolding beneath the Persian Gulf’s waterline, threatening coral reefs, dugongs, and marine ecosystems that will outlast any ceasefire. [Read more]

The Strait of Hormuz Has Become a War Zone. What That Means for Oceans

Coordinated strikes turned the narrow waterway that carries one fifth of global oil into an active battlefield, with consequences for marine ecosystems and energy markets that will ripple for years. [Read more]

How the Hormuz Crisis Will Reach Your Fuel Pump and Grocery Store

Burning tankers and military strikes feel distant over morning coffee, but the Strait of Hormuz crisis is already moving toward your fuel costs, grocery prices, and electricity bills at home. [Read more]

Half the World’s Coral Reefs Bleached During a Single Three-Year Event

A sweeping study published in Nature Communications analyzed over 15,000 reef surveys and found that 51 percent of global coral reefs bleached during the 2014 to 2017 marine heat wave. [Read more]

A Seagrass-Planting Robot Named Mako Passes Its Great Barrier Reef Run

An underwater robot named Mako successfully planted seagrass seeds in turbid, fast-moving waters off Gladstone, completing the first robotic seagrass restoration trial ever attempted on the vast Great Barrier Reef. [Read more]

Guy Harvey Foundation and CCA Florida Join Forces for Ocean Classrooms

Two of Florida’s leading conservation organizations announced a new partnership bringing co-branded coastal education into classrooms, sponsoring hands-on teacher training, and committing a $25,000 youth scholarship for future ocean leaders. [Read more]

Nine Pacific Nations Unite in Fiji to Shield Whale Migration Corridors

Government officials, Indigenous leaders, and marine scientists from nine Pacific island nations gathered in Fiji to advance the regional protection of critical whale and dolphin migratory pathways across shared waters. [Read more]

Global Plastics Treaty Finally Gets a New Chair After Months of Stasis

Six months of paralysis in UN plastics treaty negotiations ended when member states at INC-5.3 in Geneva elected Chile’s Julio Cordano to lead talks stalled over virgin plastic production limits. [Read more]

Editor’s Note: Why We Are Featuring Iran Now

Iran is once again dominating headlines.

From widespread public demonstrations that surged across Iran in late 2025 into early this year, to the current escalation and the breaking of war, the country is being discussed globally in the context of politics, conflict, and human suffering. The loss of life and instability unfolding are real and devastating. Nothing in this feature is intended to diminish that reality.

But there is something else that often goes unspoken.

For years, inside and outside of environmental circles, people have quietly asked me a question. Sometimes with curiosity. Sometimes with hesitation. Sometimes almost with guilt.

“What is actually there?”

They were referring to biodiversity.

In today’s world, there is pressure to already know. When the breadth of human knowledge appears to sit at our fingertips, asking basic questions can feel uncomfortable. If a place overlaps with your professional field or your moral concern, you are expected to understand it fully.

Curiosity, however, should never carry shame.

At SEVENSEAS Media, we see questions as bridges. When a region becomes defined only by conflict, it becomes even more important to remember that it is also defined by landscapes, species, ecosystems, culture, and people who have lived in relationship with nature for millennia.

Iran is not only a geopolitical flashpoint. It is a country of vast mountain ranges, ancient forests, wetlands, deserts, coral communities, migratory flyways, and one of the most strategically significant marine corridors in the world. It sits at the intersection of terrestrial and marine biodiversity, connecting ecosystems across Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian Ocean.

It is home to coastal communities whose fishing traditions stretch back centuries, to wetlands that host migratory birds crossing continents, and to marine systems that sustain life far beyond their shorelines.

This feature has been in development for some time. In light of current events, we believe it is important to move forward thoughtfully and with care.

Education is not a distraction from suffering. It is part of long term resilience.

At SEVENSEAS Media, we promote education and peace across cultures and living in harmony with nature. We believe that understanding biodiversity can humanize places that are otherwise reduced to headlines. Conservation, at its best, transcends politics and builds shared responsibility for the natural world.

In the articles that follow, we explore the geography of Iran, its terrestrial biodiversity, its migratory importance, and its ocean and coastal ecosystems. We touch on traditional fishing cultures, current pressures, conservation challenges, and the organizations working to protect what remains.

As always, we are not here to simplify complexity. We are here to make space for informed curiosity and careful understanding.

In moments of conflict, it can feel easier to look away. We choose instead to look closer, and to recognize that ecological systems persist regardless of political borders.

This story is developing rapidly. Details may shift as the situation evolves. Last verified: March 3, 2026.

In the early hours of March 1, 2026, the narrow waterway that carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply became something it had never been in modern history: an active battlefield. Following coordinated U.S. and Israeli strikes on Iran, which began February 28 under the operation name “Epic Fury,” the Strait of Hormuz has descended into a maritime crisis with consequences that will ripple far beyond energy markets.

At least three commercial oil tankers have been struck by projectiles in the waters near the Strait. The Palau-flagged tanker Skylight was hit five nautical miles north of Khasab, Oman, injuring four crew members and forcing the evacuation of all twenty aboard. The crude carrier MKD Vyom took a projectile above the waterline that sparked an engine room fire. A third vessel, the Sea La Donna, also reported being attacked. Maritime authorities have noted that none of these vessels had any obvious military affiliation, a detail that underscores the indiscriminate nature of the threat now facing merchant shipping.

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps has issued radio warnings via VHF broadcasting that no ships are permitted to transit the Strait. Although Tehran has not declared a formal blockade, the practical effect has been devastating. Tanker traffic through the corridor has collapsed by approximately 70%, according to vessel tracking data from Windward Maritime Intelligence. More than 150 tankers, including crude oil carriers and liquefied natural gas vessels, have dropped anchor in open Gulf waters rather than risk the crossing. At least 40 very large crude carriers, each holding around two million barrels of oil, are now idling inside the Persian Gulf.

The response from the global shipping industry has been swift and unprecedented. Maersk, the world’s largest container shipping company, suspended all vessel crossings through the Strait until further notice. CMA CGM activated emergency security measures, ordering all Gulf-bound vessels to shelter and rerouting ships via the Cape of Good Hope, adding roughly 15 to 20 days to transit times. Hapag-Lloyd, MSC, and several Japanese shipping giants have followed suit. The World Shipping Council issued a statement emphasizing that seafarers must not be targeted or placed at risk by armed conflict.

The insurance market has effectively sealed the door that military action left ajar. Steamship Mutual issued a formal cancellation of war risk coverage for the Persian Gulf and adjacent waters, effective 72 hours from March 1. Without insurance, even willing operators cannot legally sail. The Joint Maritime Information Center has elevated the regional maritime risk level to “CRITICAL,” its highest classification, warning that further attacks are almost certain.

On the military side, the U.S. has reported destroying at least nine Iranian warships in the Gulf of Oman, with operations continuing. These sunken vessels now sit on the seafloor of one of the world’s most ecologically fragile marine environments, carrying fuel bunkers, lubricants, and munitions that will corrode over time.

Brent crude surged approximately 10% to around $80 per barrel within hours of the first strikes, up from roughly $73 before the weekend. Analysts at JPMorgan and Barclays have warned that prices could spike to $100 or higher if the disruption persists. For an ocean that already bears the weight of the world’s heaviest shipping traffic, the consequences of this crisis extend well beyond barrels and balance sheets.

SEVENSEAS will continue to follow this story as it develops, with particular attention to the marine environmental impacts that are already unfolding beneath the headlines. In the articles that follow, we examine what this conflict means for the Persian Gulf’s irreplaceable marine ecosystem, and what ordinary people can do to prepare for the ripple effects that are heading their way.

Written by: Junior Thanong Aiamkhophueng

Attribution: This article draws on maritime intelligence reporting from gCaptain’s 36-hour operational analysis of the Strait of Hormuz crisis; Windward Maritime AI’s 48-hour intelligence breakdown on vessel tracking and AIS data; Kpler market intelligence on oil flow disruption and commodity pricing; Euronews and France 24 coverage of the tanker attacks near Khasab, Oman; Al Jazeera’s analysis of IRGC radio warnings and commercial shipping suspension; the Joint Maritime Information Center’s CRITICAL-level threat assessment; Axios reporting on U.S. naval operations under Operation Epic Fury; Bloomberg coverage of tanker anchorage patterns and insurance withdrawal; and the World Shipping Council’s statement on seafarer safety. Strait of Hormuz naval vessel photo by Sahar Al Attar/AFP via Getty Images. For further reading, visit gCaptain, Windward Maritime Intelligence, and the Joint Maritime Information Center.

Editor’s Note: Why We Are Featuring Iran Now

Iran is once again dominating headlines.

From widespread public demonstrations that surged across Iran in late 2025 into early this year, to the current escalation and the breaking of war, the country is being discussed globally in the context of politics, conflict, and human suffering. The loss of life and instability unfolding are real and devastating. Nothing in this feature is intended to diminish that reality.

But there is something else that often goes unspoken.

For years, inside and outside of environmental circles, people have quietly asked me a question. Sometimes with curiosity. Sometimes with hesitation. Sometimes almost with guilt.

“What is actually there?”

They were referring to biodiversity.

In today’s world, there is pressure to already know. When the breadth of human knowledge appears to sit at our fingertips, asking basic questions can feel uncomfortable. If a place overlaps with your professional field or your moral concern, you are expected to understand it fully.

Curiosity, however, should never carry shame.

At SEVENSEAS Media, we see questions as bridges. When a region becomes defined only by conflict, it becomes even more important to remember that it is also defined by landscapes, species, ecosystems, culture, and people who have lived in relationship with nature for millennia.

Iran is not only a geopolitical flashpoint. It is a country of vast mountain ranges, ancient forests, wetlands, deserts, coral communities, migratory flyways, and one of the most strategically significant marine corridors in the world. It sits at the intersection of terrestrial and marine biodiversity, connecting ecosystems across Central Asia, the Caucasus, the Arabian Peninsula, and the Indian Ocean.

It is home to coastal communities whose fishing traditions stretch back centuries, to wetlands that host migratory birds crossing continents, and to marine systems that sustain life far beyond their shorelines.

This feature has been in development for some time. In light of current events, we believe it is important to move forward thoughtfully and with care.

Education is not a distraction from suffering. It is part of long term resilience.

At SEVENSEAS Media, we promote education and peace across cultures and living in harmony with nature. We believe that understanding biodiversity can humanize places that are otherwise reduced to headlines. Conservation, at its best, transcends politics and builds shared responsibility for the natural world.

In the articles that follow, we explore the geography of Iran, its terrestrial biodiversity, its migratory importance, and its ocean and coastal ecosystems. We touch on traditional fishing cultures, current pressures, conservation challenges, and the organizations working to protect what remains.

As always, we are not here to simplify complexity. We are here to make space for informed curiosity and careful understanding.

In moments of conflict, it can feel easier to look away. We choose instead to look closer, and to recognize that ecological systems persist regardless of political borders.

This story is developing rapidly. Details may shift as the situation evolves. Last verified: March 3, 2026.

The headlines are dominated by oil prices, geopolitical brinkmanship, and military escalation. But below the waterline of the Persian Gulf, a quieter catastrophe is taking shape, one that will outlast any ceasefire.

The Persian Gulf is not the barren petrochemical corridor that its reputation might suggest. It is a semi-enclosed sea of roughly 241,000 square kilometres, averaging just 35 metres in depth, connected to the wider Indian Ocean only through the 56-kilometre-wide Strait of Hormuz. Within this shallow, hypersaline basin lives a marine community that has adapted to conditions most ocean species could not survive: summer surface temperatures regularly exceeding 35°C, salinity levels above 45 PSU, and winter cooling that can plunge below 18°C. The organisms that thrive here are not merely surviving. They are demonstrating resilience strategies that climate scientists around the world are studying with increasing urgency.

Approximately 60 species of reef-building coral have been documented in the Gulf, including the endemic Acropora arabensis, found nowhere else on Earth. These corals withstand water temperatures of up to 36°C, well beyond the 32°C threshold that triggers bleaching in most tropical reefs. Researchers have increasingly turned to Persian Gulf coral populations as living laboratories for understanding how reef organisms might adapt to a warming planet. The Gulf also supports the world’s second-largest population of dugongs, after northern Australia, with an estimated 7,500 individuals grazing on seagrass beds along the coasts of Qatar, Bahrain, the UAE, and Saudi Arabia. Over 700 species of fish, populations of hawksbill and green sea turtles, Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, whale sharks, and migratory seabird colonies all depend on this ecosystem.

The Immediate Threats

The environmental risks now facing this ecosystem are layered and compounding.

Oil contamination is the most visible concern. At least three commercial tankers have been struck by projectiles, with one confirmed ablaze and producing thick plumes of black smoke near Omani waters. A burning tanker does not simply release crude oil; it generates a toxic cocktail of partially combusted hydrocarbons, heavy metals, and particulate matter that settles across surrounding waters. With more than 150 laden tankers now anchored in open Gulf waters, the risk of collision, grounding, or further military targeting grows with each passing day. The shallow depth of the Gulf, averaging just 36 metres, means that spilled oil reaches the seafloor and coastal habitats far more quickly than in open ocean environments.

The sinking of at least nine Iranian warships introduces a different category of pollution. Sunken military vessels carry bunker fuel, hydraulic oils, lubricants, and munitions, all of which corrode and leach into surrounding waters over years and decades. A 2023 IUCN brief estimated that globally, over 8,500 shipwrecks are at risk of leaking approximately six billion gallons of oil. The Persian Gulf’s warm, shallow conditions accelerate corrosion, meaning these newly sunken warships could begin releasing contaminants faster than wrecks in colder, deeper waters.

Underwater noise pollution from military operations, including sonar, detonations, and sustained engine activity from hundreds of anchored vessels, adds biological stress. Marine mammals such as dugongs and dolphins rely on acoustic communication for feeding, mating, and navigation. Prolonged noise disruption can displace populations from critical habitats, with consequences that persist long after the sound stops.

Reports of potential mine-laying by Iranian forces introduce yet another dimension. Naval mines are indiscriminate by design; they threaten not only vessels but also the seabed itself, disturbing sediment and destroying benthic habitats when detonated. GPS jamming, confirmed across the region, increases the likelihood of navigational accidents among the hundreds of ships now attempting to shelter in place.

History’s Warning

The Persian Gulf carries the scars of previous conflicts. During the 1991 Gulf War, an estimated 4 to 11 million barrels of crude oil were deliberately released into its waters, covering more than 600 kilometres of Saudi coastline. Research conducted by Jacqueline Michel in 2010 found that oil had penetrated up to 50 centimetres into Gulf sediments and remained detectable 12 years after the spill. A 2017 study by Joydas et al. found “alarming levels” of hydrocarbons persisting in secluded bay areas more than 25 years later. While fish and bird populations showed encouraging recovery by 1994, the long-term contamination of sediments and coastal habitats tells a more complicated story.

The Gulf ecosystem did recover from 1991, a testament to its remarkable resilience. But it recovered into a world with fewer stressors. Today, the same ecosystem faces compounding pressures from coastal development, desalination plant discharge, climate-driven temperature extremes, and chronic oil pollution from routine shipping. A 2024 review published in Marine Pollution Bulletin found that 63.5% of the Gulf’s key habitats and species remain “data-deficient,” while 21.2% show documented decline. The margin for absorbing another major environmental shock has narrowed considerably.

What Comes Next

The environmental consequences of this crisis will not be determined by the conflict’s duration alone, but by what happens when it ends. After 1991, clean-up efforts focused almost exclusively on oil recovery from the water’s surface, while coastal habitats were largely neglected. If history offers any instruction, it is that the environmental response must begin alongside the military and diplomatic response, not after it.

International bodies, including the Regional Organization for the Protection of the Marine Environment (ROPME) and the International Maritime Organization, will need to coordinate rapid environmental assessment once conditions allow. Monitoring of coral communities, seagrass beds, and dugong populations should be prioritized, alongside sediment sampling near tanker anchorage sites and sunken vessel locations.

The Persian Gulf’s marine life has survived environmental extremes that would have destroyed ecosystems elsewhere. It has endured the largest deliberate oil spill in history and emerged, battered but functional. Whether it can absorb another round of military trauma on top of everything the 21st century has already thrown at it is a question that marine scientists are watching with deep concern, and one that the rest of us should be paying attention to as well.

Written by: Junior Thanong Aiamkhophueng

Attribution: This article draws on marine biodiversity research published in Marine Pollution Bulletin (2024) on habitat status across the Persian Gulf; peer-reviewed ecological analysis from PMC on critical research needs for Gulf coral reef ecosystems (Feary et al., 2014); EBSCO Research’s overview of the Persian Gulf ecosystem including dugong populations and endemic coral species; the IUCN’s 2023 issues brief on marine pollution from sunken vessels; ScienceDirect review of habitat and organism status across six Gulf countries; gCaptain and Windward Maritime Intelligence reporting on vessel attacks and anchorage patterns; France 24 and Al Jazeera coverage of mine-laying risks and GPS jamming; historical oil spill research by Jacqueline Michel (2010) on sediment penetration and Joydas et al. (2017) on long-term hydrocarbon persistence; CNN’s 2010 retrospective on 1991 Gulf War oil spill recovery; Wikipedia’s compiled entry on the Gulf War oil spill; and Maritime Education’s profile of Persian Gulf marine habitats and biodiversity. Persian Gulf coral reef satellite image by NASA Earth Observatory. For further reading, visit the IUCN Marine Programme, the Regional Organization for the Protection of the Marine Environment (ROPME), and NASA Earth Observatory.