Delger Erdenesanaa

New job, new beat: I'm now covering PFAS, pesticides and other chemicals in food, ag and water for @cenmag.bsky.social. Would love to connect with sources -- please do reach out with tips (or just intros)!

My new email is D_Erdenesanaa at acs dot org. Signal remains edelger dot 10.

How To OSINT the Ocean Image   The ocean may seem vast and opaque, but open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools are changing the way we monitor it.  From tracking illegal fishing and ship movements to uncovering pollution and...

P.S. If you want to hear about where I looked for data during the course of my reporting, I'm giving a presentation tomorrow alongside Saroj Pathirana, who investigated one of the largest-ever plastic spills in the ocean for the BBC: pulitzercenter.org/event/how-os...

How To OSINT the Ocean The ocean may seem vast and opaque, but open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools are changing the way we monitor it.  From tracking illegal fishing and ship movements to uncovering pollution and port…

Open-source intelligence (OSINT) tools are changing the way we can monitor the ocean. The @pulitzercenter.org is hosting a webinar on Tues, Sept 9, at 12pm US ET, for investigative journalists, environmental reporters & data enthusiasts looking to deepen their reporting using OSINT.

A Warning From a California Marine Heat Wave

And from December, what we've learned about the ocean's vulnerability to climate change in the 10 years since the infamous "Blob": www.nytimes.com/2024/12/01/c...

Rising Temperatures Are Scrambling the Base of the Ocean Food Web

From March, on how plankton, the foundation of the marine food web, are responding to warming waters: www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/c...

See How Marine Heat Waves Are Spreading Across the Globe

From June, on how marine heatwaves are becoming the new normal: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/c...

This wraps up my @pulitzercenter.org project on how climate change is playing out in the ocean. I'm really grateful for their support, and grateful to my editors, collaborators and above all the many many sources who spoke to me over the past year. I'll thread the other 3 stories below.

Humans Are Altering the Seas. Here’s What the Future Ocean Might Look Like. (Gift Article) Some marine ecosystems could soon be unrecognizable, according to new research. We mapped the possibilities.

Published a story with @rjnskl.bsky.social last week on the future of the ocean under growing human pressures -- and the future of cultures and economies built on the ocean and coastlines. www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

Highly recommend to any journalists with an ocean story to tell! You get the rare gift of time (and travel $) to pursue ambitious stories. You also learn a ton from the Pulitzer Center's data and research team, as well as from your cohort -- who will be impressive journalists from around the world!

The Cost of Sanctions: Dark Shipping Fleet Fuels Human Trafficking What’s the context? A clandestine network smuggling sanctioned oil around the globe has lured thousands of seafarers into dangerous jobs. NEW YORK - When the crew on board a small fishing vessel off.....

Efforts by countries like Russia and Iran to circumvent Western sanctions on their petroleum have spawned a black market at sea, leading to a surge in human rights abuses of the seafarers recruited.

Story by ORN Fellow @katiemcque.bsky.social for @contextnewsroom.bsky.social. bit.ly/4mjwAuE

This is such an important story for the ocean. Losing these sea stars meant losing whole forests of kelp, whole ecosystems. And although scientists have just identified the bacteria behind the disease, as this story points out, they already knew there was a "co-conspirator" in rising temperatures.

Update: Our friend @alecluhn.bsky.social was found alive this morning!

He is in good health with some injuries to his leg/foot. He is at a hospital in Bergen now. Thank you to the Norwegian helicopter team who found him and all the volunteers who searched in bad conditions. ❤️

In case I have any followers in Norway -- my colleague Alec Luhn is missing after a solo hiking trip in the Folgefonna / Nedre Buarbreen area. The Red Cross is searching, but if anyone has seen Alec by chance, they can call the local police at 02800 or email Morten.Fosse2@politiet.no with info.

See How Marine Heat Waves Are Spreading Across the Globe Sea surface temperatures in 2024 broke records and about a quarter of the world’s oceans are experiencing temperatures that qualify as a marine heat wave. In recent decades, the oceans have warmed...

If you're in the Northern Hemisphere, chances are you've endured a heatwave. But have you considered what this extreme heat looks like beneath the surface?

#ORN Fellow @edelger.bsky.social uncovers, for @nytimes.com, how marine heatwaves, once rare, are now recurring. bit.ly/44zgG81

Big thanks to the @pulitzercenter.bsky.social for sending me to France! Aside from reporting on the conference, I was able to meet and learn from Ocean Reporting Network colleagues from around the world. And thanks also to my colleague in the NYT Paris bureau Daphné Anglès for her invaluable help.

Interestingly, I discovered that the U.S. representatives sent by President Trump - including White House advisor Ed Russo - are more engaged with ocean issues than you might think. Together with Salesforce CEO & conference sponsor Marc Benioff, he called on countries to restore coral reefs.

Deep sea mining - which the U.S. is trying to unilaterally permit in international waters - was a flash point. So was bottom trawling, highlighted by the new David Attenborough film. Activists called on co-host France to ban trawling in its marine protected areas, and were ultimately disappointed.

There was progress toward ratifying the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction agreement - aka the high seas treaty - with 19 more countries ratifying last week. Once active, the treaty would offer a path toward protecting stretches of the high seas. 10 more ratifications are needed.

At U.N. Conference, Countries Inch Toward Ocean Protection Goal

Easy-to-miss news amid the chaos: At the 3rd UN ocean conference, countries declared 20+ new marine protected areas, but thousands more are needed to reach a goal of protecting 30% of the ocean by 2030. Questions also remain about how meaningful these protections are. www.nytimes.com/2025/06/14/c...

Big thank you to the @pulitzercenter.bsky.social for supporting this work! And to @harrystevens.bsky.social for the amazing graphics.

See How Marine Heat Waves Are Spreading Across the Globe

As politicians from around the world discuss the ocean in Nice this week for #UNOC3, the ocean itself continues to warm from climate change. My latest story dives into the toll this takes on marine wildlife and fisheries: www.nytimes.com/2025/06/09/c...

Nice example too of the @pulitzercenter.bsky.social Ocean Reporting Network sharing, eg) I learned about NASA’s PACE program from our editor @jessicaaldred.bsky.social, now @edelger.bsky.social latest gives a deeper dive! #ocean #climate #oceanreportingnetwork

I'm more grateful to my scientist sources than ever. And if anyone out there working on climate, ocean and marine life issues affected by cuts to NOAA and other federal agencies wants to talk, please reach out (Signal: edelger.10). Happy to talk off the record first, discuss anonymity, etc.

Inuit Scientists Adapt as Climate Change Threatens Sea Life and Food Security For Inuit, home is where the harvest is. But rapidly changing ice conditions in the North are threatening fishing practices Hauling lines from a hole drilled in the seasonal sea ice, Joey Angnatok...

Huge thank you to the @pulitzercenter.bsky.social for supporting this work. And if you're interested in the human end of plankton food chain, check out this story by my Ocean Reporting Network colleague @jennthornhillverma.bsky.social from Canada: pulitzercenter.org/stories/inui...

Rising Temperatures Are Scrambling the Base of the Ocean Food Web (Gift Article) Scientists are gaining new insights into how plankton supports life on Earth — just as climate change is changing everything.

I started reporting this -- on climate change and the smallest, most numerous residents of the ocean -- before the election. Amid the chaos, I think it's still important to tell the big picture story of what's happening to the planet. www.nytimes.com/2025/03/03/c... 🧪

The 1900 Galveston Hurricane has a little history lesson about what can happen when you restrict international scientific communication (Spoiler: 8,000 people died)

Gift link: cmf.houstonchronicle.com/politics/houston/article/noaa-galveston-weather-hurricane-20152145.php

FYI: USAID has been one of the world's largest and most important funders of global biodiversity conservation — a chronically underfunded area. It has supported efforts to protect forests, reduce illegal wildlife trafficking, and end violence towards women defending the environment.

The ocean was a huge part of the 2024 climate records. Data from Copernicus:

🌊 SST was record high from Jan-Jun 2024, and 2nd highest from Jul-Dec (after 2023)

📈 Annual SST reached record highs across nearly 1/3 (27%) of (extra-polar) ocean

🪸 All ocean basins experienced marine heatwaves

🌊🌡️🪸⚒️🧪

A Shrimper’s Crusade Pays Big Dividends on a Remote Stretch of Texas Coastline - Inside Climate News Five years after Diane Wilson’s landmark settlement with Formosa Plastics, money flows to “the bay and the fishermen.”

Most people called Diane Wilson crazy when she started complaining about pollution from Formosa Plastics in Texas. No one imagined the 76-year-old shrimper would end up controlling $70 million of the company’s money.

Across the Atlantic, fishermen ask themselves a potentially deadly question: Should I go? Climate change affects fishermen from South Carolina to Senegal, as warmer seas make a challenging livelihood even more uncertain. A fisherman's story.

Fascinating story by Borso Tall in Senegal about how warmer seas are fueling a hurricane of migration.

www.postandcourier.com/news/special...