27 Nov 2025

Image description: A woman wild swimming in the Lake District. Image by Jaz Blakeston-Petch on Unsplash   The Environment Agency has published its 2025 bathing water classifications, showing 87% of England’s 449 designated bathing sites are now rated ‘Excellent’ or ‘Good’. Since last year, the number of “excellent” sites has risen from 289 to 297, […]

27 Nov 2025

Image description: Close up of nurdles washed up on sand. Photo by Sören Funk on Unsplash   Plastic nurdles – tiny pellets used by the plastics industry to manufacture larger products – have been found in 84% of the UK’s most important nature sites, according to environmental charity Fidra. The organisation discovered nurdles in 168 […]

27 Nov 2025

  Families affected by Corby’s toxic waste scandal have been testing waterways in a town to detect if they were contaminated. Children in Corby, Northamptonshire, have been born with birth defects, believed to have been caused when the town’s steelworks were demolished and dismantled in the 1980s. Earthwatch Europe, a charity that supports residents investigating […]

25 Nov 2025

Photo by Ben Wicks   The North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission’s annual meeting has ended in deadlock after most members rejected EU proposals to set mackerel and blue whiting quotas in line with scientific advice, raising fears of continued severe overfishing. The meeting, held in London from 11th to 14th November, failed to reach comprehensive […]

25 Nov 2025

Photo by Simon Spring   Following decades of sovereignty disputes and forced displacement, the government of Mauritius has announced plans to maintain a ban on commercial fishing across an area of the Indian Ocean larger than France, whilst establishing a groundbreaking marine protected area that explicitly incorporates cultural considerations and traditional fishing practices. The Chagos Archipelago Marine […]

25 Nov 2025

Photo by Julia Oberhauser   Ocean Winds has been awarded rights to develop a third floating offshore wind site in the Celtic Sea by The Crown Estate, completing the deployment of up to 4.5GW of capacity made available through Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5. The 50-50 joint venture between EDPR and ENGIE secured the 358 km² site following a […]

25 Nov 2025

Photo by Annie Spratt   Plastic bio-bead pollution from a Southern Water treatment works failure has now been found in the sensitive saltmarsh habitat at Rye Harbour Nature Reserve, approximately two miles south-west of Camber Sands where millions of the pellets first washed ashore in early November. Sussex Wildlife Trust confirmed on 14 November that monitoring had […]