Pacific Ocean

The rapid intensification of Hurricane Polo in the Pacific Ocean has prompted some weather analysts to call the storm a “Category 6” as it threatens the Mexican coastline this weekend.

Hurricane Polo, which is churning in the Pacific, grew to a Category 5 storm early Tuesday a mere 24 hours after it was deemed a hurricane.

The U.S. Southern Command sank a “floating refueling station supporting illicit at-sea drug trafficking operations in the Eastern Pacific.”

A trio of hurricanes is dancing in the Pacific Ocean, with one of them expected to give Southern California a rare tropical rainmaker over the weekend.

At least one sea otter, and maybe a copycat, has developed a thing for stealing and mounting the boards of surfers in Santa Cruz, California.

Marine mammals are getting sick and dying in alarming numbers along the California coast, according to one marine rescue group that tracks such trends.

Three Scottish brothers set a world record Saturday for completing the fastest unsupported row across the full Pacific Ocean.

A severe algae bloom has left thousands of marine animals, including sea lions, dolphins, and whales sick or dead along the Southern California coast.

The Pacific Ocean orca mother who made headlines in 2018 for carrying the body of her dead calf for over two weeks is in mourning again.

Australia and New Zealand are looking for an explanation from China on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly (UNGA) for its unusual test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) into the Pacific Ocean on Wednesday.

Nobody panic (yet) but U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres sent out another global climate “SOS” at a Pacific islands summit on Tuesday, delivering his second warning in under a week that rising seas are set to deliver humanity a fatal blow in the region.

The fate of lost American aviator Amelia Earhart in the late 1930s may have finally been solved thanks to a team looking for clues.

A small plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of San Francisco, California, after “flying erratically” Sunday evening.

Oceanographers have found a dumping ground of what appears to be World War II-era weaponry 3,000 feet underwater near Los Angeles, California.

A Greek shipping company has pleaded guilty to smuggling sanctioned Iranian crude oil and agreed to pay a $2.4 million fine.

President Joe Biden claimed his administration has plans to build a railroad from “the Pacific all the way across the Indian Ocean.”

A Dutch non-profit group called The Ocean Cleanup released a report on September 1 that found the bulk of the plastic debris in the so-called North Pacific Garbage Patch consists of discarded fishing equipment from Japan and China.

Illegal Chinese fishing boats are responsible for the majority of man-made ocean waste found near or in the Galapagos Islands Marine Preserve, which is located off Ecuador’s Pacific coast, the Latin American news site Infobae reported on Monday.

China’s state-run Global Times on Wednesday suggested that a recent increase in Chinese naval activity near waters surrounding the Japanese archipelago will soon “become routine,” as Beijing ramps up its militaristic ambitions across the greater Pacific Ocean.

China’s military deployed its “most powerful bombers” to conduct drills near Taiwan on Wednesday just 48 hours before U.S. President Joe Biden embarked on a six-day East Asia tour on Friday in what observers believe may have been a show of defiance against Washington’s support of Taipei’s sovereignty, China’s state-run Global Times reported on Thursday.

A Peruvian oil tanker spilled much of its contents into the waters of the Pacific Ocean on Saturday affecting at least two miles of Peru’s central coast after waves sparked by Tonga’s volcanic eruption and tsunami that day in the South Pacific rocked the actively discharging ship, Peruvian government officials said Monday.

The navies of both China and Russia dispatched a joint group of 10 vessels to sail through Japan’s Tsugaru Strait — which links the Sea of Japan with the Pacific Ocean — on Monday, Japan’s Defense Ministry said.

Tokyo cannot delay plans to release 1.25 million tons of contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean starting in 2023 because such a setback would foil Japan’s goal of decommissioning Fukushima’s nuclear reactor, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio said on Sunday.

France has pulled out of a planned defence summit with Britain amid an ongoing row between Paris, London, Canberra, and Washington D.C. over submarines.

The French government is seething over Australia’s decision to drop a troubled multi-billion French submarine deal in favour of collaboration with Britain and America, describing it as “treason”.

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) – France would have known Australia had “deep and grave concerns” that a submarine fleet the French were building would not meet Australian needs, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Sunday after the contract’s cancellation set off a diplomatic crisis.

Australia said Saturday it was noting with regret France’s recall of its ambassador over the surprise cancellation of a submarine contract in favour of a U.S. deal.

The Chinese government is allowing toxic wastewater from a state-run power plant in northeastern China’s Liaoning province to flow into the Bohai Sea — a minor section of the Pacific Ocean’s Yellow Sea — despite recently criticizing Japan for its planned release of nuclear wastewater into the Pacific Ocean.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in ordered officials on Wednesday to explore filing an international court injunction against Japan over its recent decision to release 1.25 million tons of contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean.

Japan’s air force recently deployed F-15 fighter jets to intercept two Russian nuclear-capable Tupolev Tu-95MS bombers flying over the Sea of Japan, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on Thursday.

Authorities in Palau said on Monday they recently detained a Chinese fishing vessel and its 28 crew members for illegally fishing in the tiny Pacific nation’s waters.

The Pacific nation of Palau urged the U.S. this week to build military bases on its island territory amid growing Chinese influence in the western Pacific region.

An “SOS” message scraped onto the beachfront of a tiny Pacific island directed the aircrew from an Australian navy assault ship to three missing sailors, military authorities said Tuesday.

Expedition crews believe they have discovered two Japanese aircraft carriers that have been missing for nearly 80 years in the Pacific Ocean, which were sunk in the famed Battle of Midway.

Environmental authorities in Japan are planning to flush over one million tons of radioactive water into the ocean after running out of space to contain it, according to a report from the Daily Telegraph.