New to Ocean Rising? This is what you need to know.

This is where everything starts.

The ocean is being killed, and the people responsible are getting away with it.

I’m Luke McMillan. I came to ocean journalism after two decades in humanitarian crises and conservation work—from Rwandan refugee camps and Gaza to whaling ports, policy rooms, and field research across Madagascar, Seychelles, and the Canary Islands. That work taught me how institutions fail. Now I document those failures in ocean governance.

I write for The Guardian, BBC Wildlife, and Oceanographic Magazine. I’m Head of Hunting and Captivity at Whale and Dolphin Conservation. When whaling stories break, I’m the person broadcasters call.

Ocean Rising is where the ocean stories that matter most get investigated properly. Long-form reporting. Science made clear. No fluff, no spin, no clickbait.

3,500+ subscribers. 80+ countries. You’re part of it.

---

Start with these:

Breaking News: Our Planet Has Hit Its First Climate Tipping Point Coral reefs are dying beyond recovery. This is what that actually means.

I’m a Person Too: The Legal Revolution That Could Save Whales A new movement, grounded in Indigenous law and legal precedent, seeks to grant whales the right to live, thrive and be heard.

Emergency Broadcast: A Message to the Room in Geneva The Global Plastics Treaty could change everything. But only if the world’s leaders are brave enough.

The Mountains Beneath the Ice How Antarctica’s hidden peaks reveal a quieter, older resilience.

The Deep Brief #16 Your end-of-week ocean intelligence. This is what the weekly briefing looks like.

---

Free subscribers get: Breaking news. The Deep Brief. Voice for the Blue podcast.

Paid subscribers get: Full investigations. Extended Deep Briefs. Ten Minutes of Blue. Paid-only podcast episodes. Behind-the-scenes WDC updates. Direct replies. Early chapters from my book Finlay and the Whale (2027).

£6/month or £50/year.

If you’re not ready to pay, that’s fine. Read. Learn. Stick around.

- Luke