Nancy Knowlton, a coral reef biologist at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History says, many marine conservation efforts around the globe are seeing good results.

“There are a lot of successes out there, and most people don’t know about them,” Knowlton says. It’s important to share those successes, she adds, to avoid paralyzing feelings of hopelessness and to spread the knowledge of approaches that work.

Read more for some glimpses of a few bright spots in the pitched battle for the blue planet.