UNESCO will celebrate the World Day for Glaciers and the World Water Day at its
Headquarters in Paris on 18-19 March 2026, launching the new Decade of Action for
Cryospheric Sciences (2025-2034) with dedicated sessions and side events including
five outlined in this article that highlight the vital links between cryosphere, water,
climate and social equity.
These days aim to drive forward Sustainable Development Goal 6 (water and sanitation
for all) and promote sustainable, equitable water management during the year America
is celebrating its 250th anniversary—or semiquincentennial.

Havre de Grace Maritime Museum – America at 250 Exhibition

The cryosphere, including glaciers, ice sheets, permafrost, sea ice and snow, stores
around 70% of Earth’s freshwater, yet it is shrinking fast. Glaciers are losing over 273
billion tonnes of ice annually, with significant acceleration in the last decade, severely
impacting global water security, infrastructure, and raising sea levels. Nearly 2–3 billion
people rely on seasonal melt for water, while rising seas threaten 1 billion people in
coastal areas. The cryosphere’s rapid, often irreversible, collapse disrupts ecosystems,
triggers disasters, and accelerates global warming.
The “Glacier Flag” a side event for World Day for Glaciers in Paris created by award
winning artists Alfons Rodriguez and Fatma Kadir that is on exhibit at the America at
250 Art Show hosted by the Havre de Grace Maritime Museum from January 31 too
July 5 th , 2026. It draws attention to strengthening research, monitoring, education and
policy action on cryospheric change.
Sofia Fonseca, the founder of Teiduma explained “This art show is a collective
exhibition, connecting USA’s maritime heritage, environmental consciousness, and
artistic interpretation of flags and landmarked lighthouses in a powerful celebration of
250 years of American history.
The exhibition brings together the work of Alfons Rodríguez alongside an international
group of artists and colleagues: Semine Hazar, Ian Hutton, Fatma Kadir, Maria
Krasnopolsky, Selva Ozelli, Ilhan Sayin, and Mary Tiegree.
The exhibition offers a reflective and visually compelling dialogue on USA’s history,
identity, landscape, and shared futures at this significant milestone.
Alfons Rodríguez‘s contribution, including works from The Melting Age series, situates
environmental awareness on melting glaciers within broader historical and cultural
narratives—reminding us that national anniversaries are also moments to reflect on
responsibility, resilience, and continuity.”

America at 250 at Havre de Grace Maritime Museum

Concord Point Lighthouse  by Semine Hazar the second-oldest lighthouse in MD which is located across the street from Havre de Grace Maritime Museum
America at 250 is also host to “Lighthouses” by Semine Hazar and the “Paradise Flag“
by Ian Hutton and Selva Ozelli which are side events for World Water Day in Paris
drawing attention to sustainable water management including groundwater and
freshwater flows.
The Havre de Grace Maritime Museum and its integrated Environmental Center serve
as a hub for both maritime heritage and regional water sustainability efforts. Located at
the confluence of the Susquehanna River and the Chesapeake Bay, the museum
actively promotes environmental stewardship through art exhibitions, citizen science,
habitat restoration, and water quality monitoring.  A meet the artists event will be hosted
by the museum on April 25 th .

Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University (LDEO) – Where
Science Meets Art

The Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO) is a world-renowned research
institution at Columbia University, founded in 1949 to study Earth’s natural systems.
LDEO scientists were among the first to map the seafloor, provide proof for the theory of
plate tectonics, continental drift, and develop a computer model that predicted El Niño
events. LDEO’s research covers everything from formation of the Earth, moon, and
solar system, as well as the movement of carbon and other materials through the Earth
System, including its atmosphere, oceans, and land, using different types of Earth
materials from sediments to cave deposits to tree rings to identify past climate shifts and
changes.
On March 25 th in celebration of World Glaciers and Water Days LDEO’s Interim
Director; Higgins Professor, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences,
Columbia University Dr. Steven L. Goldstein  is hosting a public lecture series event
titled:

“Climate and Ice: From Rising Seas to Shrinking Mountain Glaciers”

Professor Joerg M. Schaefer LDEO Geochemistry, Department of Earth and
Environmental Sciences & Columbia Climate School, Columbia University will explore
how fast ice is melting, where it is changing most rapidly, and how we can respond to
these challenges with LDEOs cutting-edge research including Greenland
Rising/Kalaallit Nunaat qaffappoq, a recent National Science Foundation–funded
collaborative project of LDEO, the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources (GINR),
and local Greenland communities that is vital for understanding these shifts and how
applying this science today can help build a safer, more sustainable future.

Time: 6:00 PM – 8:00 PM
Place: Monell Building, 61 Route 9W, Palisades, NY 10964
[REGISTER HERE]
Phone: (212)853-8861
Email: events@ldeo.columbia.edu

LDEO is also hosting the “Paradise” art show by Ian Hutton and Selva Ozelli and the
“Ocean Lovers – To the Core Flag CCL” by Selva Ozelli that are a side events for World
Water Day in Paris. The Ocean Lovers – To the Core Flag CCL is designed based on
core research by LDEO scientists as follows:

1. Dr. Dorothy Peteet is a prominent Senior Research Scientist at
   the NASA/Goddard Institute for Space Studies and an Adjunct Professor
   at Columbia University who specializes in the paleoecology of wetlands and
   lakes. She directs the New Core Lab at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory,
   where she utilizes sediment cores to reconstruct past climates and study modern
   carbon sequestration; and
2. Drs  William Ryan, Walter Pitman, Petko Dimitrov, and their colleagues who first
   proposed that a catastrophic inflow of Mediterranean seawater into the Black
   Sea freshwater lake occurred around 7,600 years ago, c. 5600 BCE with, rising
   Mediterranean waters breaching the Bosphorus strait, catastrophically flooding a
   freshwater lake and creating the modern, salty Black Sea potentially influencing
   ancient flood myths. Drs Ryan and Pitman cited submerged shorelines,
   preserved dunes, and marine fossils found in deep core samples. While the event
   is recognized, the speed and magnitude of the flood are still debated.

Ocean Lovers – To the Core Flag by Selva Ozelli for LDEO

National Lighthouse Museum (NLM)

The National Lighthouse Museum in Staten Island, NY, preserves maritime history at
the former U.S. Lighthouse Service General Depot. It focuses on sustainability through
educating the public on eroding shorelines and “super storms”. The museum promotes
coastal resilience and supports initiatives like the Waterfront Alliance  and the Living
Breakwaters project to protect coastal communities.

Aligning with broader goals of World Water Day, on March 4, 2026, NLM will participate
in the Waterfront Alliance  City of Water Day kick-off info session (1–2 PM ET) to
discuss this year’s theme centered on expanding the capacity of New York and New
Jersey communities to promote green infrastructure, water quality, and habitat
restoration for resilient, accessible waterfronts that support better water quality for
marine life.

This initiative and NLM’s harbor initiatives such as the March 29, tour of the New York
harbor with Author of over 100 books Bill Miller – Mr. Ocean Liner emphasize protecting
vital coastal and freshwater ecosystems through sustainable practices, fostering climate
resilience, and engaging in community-driven environmental solutions.

NLM is also hosting a meet the artist event titled Lighthouses are for [Ocean] Lovers
and Friends High Tea on March 14 th for the Ocean Lovers – Angel Fish Flag by Selva
Ozelli that is a side event for World Water Day in Paris drawing attention to sustainable
water management.

Ocean Lovers – Angel Fish Flag CCL by Selva Ozelli for NLM

The America at 250 exhibition along with the Flag CCL series of Selva Ozelli has been
endorsed by Freedom 250 which is a national initiative launched by President Donald
Trump to lead the celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence on
July 4, 2026. It is a public-private partnership aimed at honoring U.S. history, preserving
historic sites, fostering patriotism, and highlighting innovation.

World Water Day Flag CCL Series

Written by: Selva Ozelli

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.

[Contact Us Today — SEVENSEAS Media]

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.