Earth Insight published a report titled "Fossil Fuel Threats to the Ocean: Marine Life and Coastal Communities at Risk" in collaboration with a dozen civil society groups. The report identifies fossil fuel expansion in 11 countries as a threat to marine and coastal ecosystems and recommends that governments halt extractive activities in marine protected areas and stop approving new offshore oil and gas projects in or near these areas.

According to the report, more than 25 percent of marine and coastal protected areas across the examined countries fall within zones at risk for oil and gas development. Over 40 percent of coral reefs and nearly one-third of mangrove forests in these countries also fall within such risk zones. Tyson Miller, executive director of Earth Insight, said, "It is alarming to see the research findings and the sheer scale of fossil fuel expansion trajectories threatening the health and future of our shared ocean."

The report indicates that 50 percent of areas used by whales and other marine mammals for migration, feeding, and breeding converge with designated oil and gas exploration and extraction areas. Muturi wa Kamau, a member of the Kenya Oil and Gas Working Group, said Kenya is preparing to open ecologically sensitive areas for fossil fuel exploration. He noted clashes between fishers and oil exploration crews where fishing nets became entangled with seismic survey equipment, adding, "For communities, that essentially means no fish catch for that day."

In Kenya, proposed offshore oil and gas blocks overlap with 100 percent of the country's coastal coral reefs, mangrove forests, and marine protected areas. In the U.S., a proposed 800-mile liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline would transport gas from Alaska's North Slope to Cook Inlet. Researchers state the infrastructure would threaten salmon fisheries, halibut, and herring, and jeopardize the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale.

The report warns that LNG activity could increase large-vessel traffic through Cook Inlet by 40 to 70 percent. This increase would add underwater noise that could inhibit beluga whales' ability to hear, communicate, and find food. Ben Boettger, an energy policy analyst for Cook Inletkeeper, said current shipping traffic in Cook Inlet already exceeds beluga whale harassment thresholds on a near-daily basis.

Underwater noise and increased risk of ship strikes are recurring threats to marine mammals. Proposed LNG tanker routes in Mexico's Gulf of California would pass through habitats for endangered blue whales, California gray whales, orcas, and the critically endangered vaquita porpoise. Proposed offshore oil and gas activities could affect North Atlantic humpback whales in Norway's Barents Sea, pygmy whales in Australia's Otway Basin, and southern right whales in Argentina's Gulf of San Matías.

The global conservation goal known as "30x30" was adopted under the 2022 Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, aiming to protect 30 percent of the world's land and oceans by 2030. Nearly 200 countries are working toward this goal, though the U.S. is not a party to the framework. Miller said country commitments to protect 30 percent of the ocean by 2030 offer a unique opportunity to restrict fossil fuel blocks and concessions to uphold the integrity of marine protected areas and dependent communities.