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# Earth to Sea News, Issue No. 20
- URL: https://www.earthtoseanews.com/issue-20/
- Published: 2026-09-15T20:43:30.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-15T20:43:30.000Z
- Description: Eight new stories this Wednesday morning, from the marine parks to the canoe country of Minnesota.
- Author: Nicole McMahon
- Tags: #newsletter

| Issue No. 20 . 16 September[![Earth to Sea News. Independent good news, from the earth to the sea](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0d/06/0d067be9-327f-4730-b9c3-5f0cdd2bc6fa/content/images/2026/08/masthead-stacked-issue14.jpg)](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/)[](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0d/06/0d067be9-327f-4730-b9c3-5f0cdd2bc6fa/content/images/2026/08/email-wave-orange-1.png)![Lord Howe Island and its lagoon from Mount Eliza, Mounts Lidgbird and Gower behind](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0d/06/0d067be9-327f-4730-b9c3-5f0cdd2bc6fa/content/images/2026/09/marine-parks-review.jpg)Lord Howe Island and its lagoon from Mount Eliza, Mounts Lidgbird and Gower behind. Photo: Fanny Schertzer, CC BY 2.5.Wednesday begins out past the headlands, where Australia keeps 44 marine parks most of us will never see, and this month found their seabird islands thriving; the plans for their next ten years are open for comment until the 30th. Then a raft of native reeds cleaning a lagoon on Phillip Island, a Kyoto lab that learned white from snow, a fund for the toughest coral in the Red Sea, Iceland filling its ditches back in for the plovers, two studies on why a shared meal and a shared piece of good news make us happier, and a million acres of canoe country kept clean in Minnesota.![Soft corals in full colour on a reef, small orange fish around them](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0d/06/0d067be9-327f-4730-b9c3-5f0cdd2bc6fa/content/images/2026/09/marine-parks-review-coral.jpg)CONSERVATIONHave your say on 44 marine parksOff the Coral Sea, seabird islands have just been found healthy from end to end. Behind them, Parks Australia is writing six new plans for every Commonwealth marine park, and the public window is open until 4pm on Wednesday 30 September.[READ THE FULL STORY →](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/marine-parks-review/)More good news![A floating wetland raft planted with reeds on a river, a stand in for the Cowes raft](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0d/06/0d067be9-327f-4730-b9c3-5f0cdd2bc6fa/content/images/2026/09/phillip-island-wetlands.jpg)INNOVATIONS[A reed raft cleans Phillip Island's water](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/phillip-island-wetlands/)On a treatment lagoon at Cowes, a floating garden the size of a tennis court and a half has spent two years quietly doing the work of machinery, and the numbers from the world first trial are in.[READ →](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/phillip-island-wetlands/)![Water droplets beading on a green lotus leaf](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0d/06/0d067be9-327f-4730-b9c3-5f0cdd2bc6fa/content/images/2026/09/kyoto-white-foam.jpg)INNOVATIONS[Kyoto learns white from snow and lotus](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/kyoto-white-foam/)Published in Nature this week: a plastic film that is brilliantly white and sheds water like a lotus leaf, with no titanium dioxide and none of the forever chemicals that usually do that job.[READ →](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/kyoto-white-foam/)![Red Sea reef edge seen from a sandstone cliff at Ras Mohammed, Egypt](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0d/06/0d067be9-327f-4730-b9c3-5f0cdd2bc6fa/content/images/2026/09/egypt-coral-fund-reef.jpg)GLOBAL GOOD NEWS[Egypt backs the world's toughest coral](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/egypt-coral-fund/)From Hurghada to Marsa Alam, the reefs of the Red Sea shrug off heat that bleaches coral elsewhere. Now they have a fund of their own, help for the small businesses that live by them, and mooring buoys so boats stop dropping anchor on them.[READ →](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/egypt-coral-fund/)![Wetland pools reflecting mountains near Borgarnes, Iceland](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0d/06/0d067be9-327f-4730-b9c3-5f0cdd2bc6fa/content/images/2026/09/iceland-peatlands.jpg)GLOBAL GOOD NEWS[Iceland fills its ditches back in](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/iceland-peatlands/)Thirty four thousand kilometres of ditches drained Iceland's lowland bogs last century. An eight million euro project is now closing them, one landowner at a time, for the birds that fly there every spring to nest.[READ →](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/iceland-peatlands/)![Friends raising glasses over a picnic board in a park](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0d/06/0d067be9-327f-4730-b9c3-5f0cdd2bc6fa/content/images/2026/09/shared-meals.jpg)SUSTAINABLE LIVING[One more shared meal, and life feels better](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/shared-meals/)Researchers at Oxford, Harvard, UCL and Gallup put a number on something every family table already knows: people who eat with others more often are happier, wherever in the world they live.[READ →](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/shared-meals/)![Three friends laughing together outdoors on a sunny day](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0d/06/0d067be9-327f-4730-b9c3-5f0cdd2bc6fa/content/images/2026/09/sharing-good-news.jpg)SUSTAINABLE LIVING[Good news lands when it is felt together](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/sharing-good-news/)A new study from the University of California San Diego on what happens when we share good news finds the magic is not in understanding the teller. It is in feeling glad alongside them.[READ →](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/sharing-good-news/)![A yellow canoe on the shore of a still lake in Minnesota](https://storage.ghost.io/c/0d/06/0d067be9-327f-4730-b9c3-5f0cdd2bc6fa/content/images/2026/09/boundary-waters.jpg)GLOBAL GOOD NEWS[Canoe country, kept clean by a signature](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/boundary-waters/)Minnesota has stopped state permits for copper mining across the watershed that feeds the Boundary Waters, the great American wilderness where the only way through is by paddle.[READ →](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/boundary-waters/)Enjoyed this issue?Good news travels when people pass it on. Get our stories free every week, send this issue to someone who needs it, and if it made your morning, you can help us keep this publication going.[Subscribe free](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/subscribe/) [Send to a friend](mailto:?subject=Earth%20to%20Sea%20News%2C%20good%20news%20about%20our%20living%20planet&body=I%20thought%20you%20would%20like%20this.%20Free%20every%20week%3A%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.earthtoseanews.com%2Fsubscribe%2F) [Help us keep this publication going](https://www.earthtoseanews.com/support/)Follow along on [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/earthtoseanews), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/61591852114093) and [YouTube](https://www.youtube.com/@earthtoseanews), we are @earthtoseanews on all three, with a good news story every day. |
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