September 30, 2026
Back from the brink: Stories of Endangered Ocean Animals
BY: sarahholcomb
Faced with threats like industrial fishing, climate change, ship traffic, and plastic pollution — sometimes all at once — thousands of marine species around the world are fighting to survive. But history shows that policy protections can successfully bring struggling species back from the brink. Meet six ocean animals that have faced — or are facing — the threat of extinction and discover how policy change can make the difference.
Green sea turtle
South Atlantic Ocean Subpopulation: ~77,000 adults
Status: Healthy
Historically hunted for their meat, shells, and eggs, green sea turtles were near extinction. Even after poaching was banned in the United States, they continued to struggle — getting entangled in fishing gear, struck by boats, and losing their nesting beaches. In 1978, the Endangered Species Act provided a lifeline. Protections under this U.S. law led to critical conservation efforts that included reducing incidental catch in fishing gear, safeguarding nesting sites, and restoring vital habitats. When shrimp trawling threatened green turtles in the southeastern U.S., the Endangered Species Act helped spur the government and fishing industry to innovate a new shrimp fishing gear that lets turtles escape. In Florida, green sea turtle nests soared from nearly zero in 1978 to over 200,000 in recent years. Photo ©Oceana/Steve De Neef
Juan Fernández fur seal
Population: ~250,000
Status: Healthy
Once thought extinct, the Juan Fernández fur seal has made one of the most remarkable comebacks in marine conservation. Found only in Chile’s remote Juan Fernández archipelago and Desventuradas Islands, the species was hunted nearly to extinction for its fur during the 18th and 19th centuries. In 1965, a surviving colony of 200 animals was rediscovered. Thanks to legal protections, an end to commercial hunting, and stronger marine conservation measures — including marine protected areas and management plans that Oceana helped create — the species dramatically rebounded. Today, its population is estimated at over 250,000. While climate change and disease remain threats, these fur seals’ success shows what’s possible when marine wildlife is given a chance to recover. Photo ©Oceana/Eduardo Sorensen
Humboldt penguin
Population: 23,800 adults
Status: Endangered
Along the stark desert coasts and rocky cliffs of Chile and Peru lives the Humboldt penguin, who, unlike its Antarctic relatives, nests in sun-baked landscapes in one of the driest regions on Earth. But warming oceans, industrial fishing, oil pollution, and habitat disturbance have put enormous pressure on the population. Thanks to a decade of campaigning by Oceana and its artisanal fisher allies, Chile established the Humboldt National Reserve in 2023. When the Dominga mining company sought to gain access to this key habitat, Oceana and its allies led a campaign opposing the mining project, using legal action, advocacy, and scientific evidence to push regulators and courts to conserve the area for the marine life and communities who depend on it. These penguins are currently endangered, so ensuring the protections hold will be critical to their future. Photo ©Oceana
Whale shark
Population: Unknown
Status: Endangered
The whale shark — the world’s largest fish — can grow up to 12 meters (40 feet) long, roughly the length of a school bus, yet it feeds almost entirely on tiny plankton. In the last 75 years, whale shark populations have dropped by at least 50% globally. In the Philippines, home to the world’s second-largest known whale shark population, these gentle giants were once hunted for their meat and fins. The country’s nationwide ban on catching, processing, and selling whale sharks in 1998 helped turn the tide, and set a standard for other countries around the world. In 2025, after campaigning by Oceana and its artisanal fisher allies, the Philippine government strengthened those protections by establishing the Panaon Island Protected Seascape, a vast marine sanctuary that includes important habitat for whale sharks and other marine life. Recovery remains challenging — whale sharks grow slowly and still face threats from fishing, accidental capture, vessel strikes, and illegal hunting. Still, with strong protections and sustained conservation efforts, these iconic ocean giants could make a comeback. Photo ©Oceana/Steve De Neef
Brown pelican
Population: ~70,000 breeding pairs in California
Status: Healthy
Nearly wiped out by the feather trade, then poisoned by pesticides, California’s brown pelican population is the original success story of the U.S. Endangered Species Act (ESA). In the late 1800s, these iconic coastal birds were hunted relentlessly for their feathers, prized in high fashion. Then, in the 1950s, they faced a new threat: DDT. This toxic pesticide made its way up the food chain, causing pelican eggshells to thin and break before chicks could hatch. Their numbers plummeted. Listed as endangered in 1970 under the precursor to the Endangered Species Act, the brown pelican’s turning point came when DDT was banned in the United States in 1972 and with habitat protection thanks to the ESA. As DDT contamination levels dropped, their populations rebounded. By 2009, they were removed from the endangered species list. Photo ©Oceana/Patrick Mustain
North Atlantic right whale
Population: 380 individuals
Status: Critically endangered
The North Atlantic right whale is one of the world’s most endangered large whales, with only around 380 individuals remaining after centuries of commercial whaling nearly drove the species to extinction. Named the “right” whale to hunt because it swam slowly and typically floated after death, the species received international protection after commercial whaling bans were introduced in the 20th century.
Yet recovery has been slow. Today, North Atlantic right whales migrate through some of the busiest fishing and shipping corridors along the eastern coasts of the United States and Canada, where entanglements in fishing gear and vessel strikes remain the leading causes of death. Photo: ©Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute/NOAA Permit #26919 funded by United States Army Corps of Engineers
Oceana and its allies are currently campaigning to protect the U.S. Endangered Species Act from attacks that attempt to weaken it, arguing that removing those protections will push species like the North Atlantic right whale closer to extinction. Species that have recovered throughout the past century offer hope for the North Atlantic right whale: If given the chance, they can thrive once more.
While some marine animals have remarkably rebounded, for most, recovery is not an obvious before-and-after. As the pressures facing our oceans grow and change, the importance of policy protections only grows more clear. Protecting and strengthening legislation, such as the Endangered Species Act in the United States, directly affects whether species recover or slip toward collapse. These stories are still urgently unfolding — and we all have a role to play in what happens next.
