A huge marine reserve in the Pacific Ocean has led to the recovery of tuna and other migratory fish around its borders. Carefully placed no-fishing zones can help to restore tunas and other large, iconic fish species, according to a study published in Science. The Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaii is almost four times […]
Following advice from the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), the EU Commission closed 87 sensitive marine areas in EU waters to bottom fishing. The closed areas amount to 16,000 km2of EU waters, of which nearly 9,000 km2 are within the Irish Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Thanks to the Deep-Sea Access Regulation, waters below […]
An expert led ‘Biodiversity Deep Dive’- commissioned by Welsh Government to assess how nature recovery across land and sea can best be accelerated – has set out its recommendations. The recommendations centre around the United Nation’s ’30 by 30’ goal, which aims to protect and effectively manage 30% of the planet’s marine and […]
More than 200 scientists have signed a statement calling for the prohibition of bottom trawling, and other industrial activities, in the EU’s Marine Protected Areas (MPAs). The statement was led by Enric Sala, of National Geographic Pristine Seas, and the press statement follows here: September 12, 2022 – More than 200 scientists have signed a statement calling for […]
New research has been published in Marine Policy which assessed the extent to which the fishing activity of vessels using bottom-contacting mobile gears (trawls, dredges and demersal seines) were impacted by the construction of 12 offshore windfarms in the UK EEZ. The paper, ‘Windfarms, fishing and benthic recovery: Overlaps, risks and opportunities’, by Frith Dunkley and Jean-Luc […]
A new peer-reviewed research paper in the Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science journal has found that Feature-based MPAs in the UK may not be not fulfilling their potential to recover biodiversity. The paper, authored by researchers from the University of Plymouth and the Government of Jersey, found that removal of bottom-towed fishing from whole-site Marine […]
Greenpeace UK has placed 18 limestone boulders on the seabed in the South West Deeps (East) Marine Conservation Zone with the aim of disrupting industrial fishing. The environmental group dropped the boulders into the ocean about 200 miles (322km) off Cornwall from its ship Arctic Sunrise. It aims to create a barrier making […]
A new study released which focusses on the scale of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) needed to protect large mobile marine animals. MPAs, particularly large MPAs, are increasing in number and size around the globe in part to facilitate the conservation of marine megafauna under the assumption that large-scale MPAs better align with vagile life histories; […]