09 Apr 2024
Deep-sea mining could begin in international waters as early as next year, yet policymakers are still disputing how to govern such activities. At the end of March representatives from the 36 member states of the council of the International Seabed Authority (ISA), the UN-affiliated regulator of deep-sea mining activities in international waters, met for talks […]
09 Apr 2024
New research from CSIRO, Australia’s national science agency, and the University of Toronto in Canada, estimates up to 11 million tonnes of plastic pollution is sitting on the ocean floor. Dr Denise Hardesty, Senior Research Scientist with CSIRO, said this is the first estimate of how much plastic waste ends up on the ocean floor, […]
09 Apr 2024
Sea ice cover in the polar oceans has a key role in climate, ecology and society. It influences global ocean circulation, the radiation budget, global climate sensitivity and ice sheet mass loss; it offers habitats for plankton and wildlife; and it provides a vital lifeline for native communities. Sea ice extent (SIE, the total surface […]
02 Apr 2024
According to the Environment Agency there were 3.6 million hours of spills compared to 1.75 million hours in 2022. Water UK, the industry body for sewerage companies, said it was ‘unacceptable’ but the record levels were due to heavy rain. Sewage spilling can be legal but environmentalists say it should only happen in exceptional weather. […]
02 Apr 2024
In reaction to the EU’s interim evaluation of its 2030 Biodiversity Strategy released on 13 March, the marine NGOs Oceana and Seas At Risk have published an assessment of Member States’ pledges on marine protection targets. They warn that EU Member States are set to miss targets to protect 30% of EU seas by 2030. […]
02 Apr 2024
Scotland’s First Minister, the Rt Hon. Humza Yousaf MSP officially opened the world’s first dedicated innovation centre for floating offshore wind on the 18th March. In Aberdeen’s Energy Transition Zone, ORE Catapult’s £9 million National Floating Wind Innovation Centre (FLOWIC), delivered in collaboration with ETZ Limited, has been designed to help the development of floating […]
02 Apr 2024
Although established indicators enable managers to monitor progress toward ending “overfishing” and “Illegal Unreported or unregulated (IUU) fishing”, there is no globally agreed definition or indicator for “destructive fishing”. The FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (CCRF) recommends: “States should prohibit dynamiting, poisoning and other comparable destructive fishing practices” (art. 8.4.2)”. However, a review […]
02 Apr 2024
The six main UK gull species – the black-headed gull, common gull, Mediterranean gull, lesser black-backed gull, herring gull and great black-backed gull – are all declining and either amber- or, in the case of the herring gull, red-listed. Photo: Tony Jolliffe/BBC. The herring gull is on the UK Red List of birds of […]
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