22 Jan 2023

Last week we covered the story of the Marine Management Organisation (MMO) launching a consultation on a proposed byelaw to ban bottom-towed gear in 13 MPAs to protect marine ecosystems in England. The area covered is over 4,000 km2 and combined with existing MMO byelaws, this will bring the total area protected from bottom-towed gear by MMO […]

22 Jan 2023

More than 100 applications have been submitted to drill for new oil and gas in the North Sea, the BBC has reported.  A total of 115 bids have been received and the successful applicants will be announced later in 2023.     The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA), which regulates the sector, said a total […]

22 Jan 2023

The Crown Estate (TCE) announced that it has signed Agreements for Lease for six offshore wind projects which could begin to generate around 8GW of green electricity by 2030, enough for more than seven million homes.     Three of the six projects are located off the North Wales, Cumbria and Lancashire coast, and three are […]

22 Jan 2023

The Scottish Wildlife Trust launched the Oceans of Value film on the 11th January 2023, which is now available on YouTube and Ecoflix.     Oceans of Value captures interviews with 26 local people in Orkney to unearth their values and relationship with the sea, how they have seen the marine environment change and how they would like to […]

22 Jan 2023

A record number of baby seals have been spotted on a five-mile stretch of coast in Norfolk, the Guardian has reported. A total of 3,796 seal pups have been born so far this winter, while 1,169 adults have been spotted by volunteers.     This year’s figure is almost double the count during the winter of […]

22 Jan 2023

News release from Crustacean Compassion: Following the inclusion of decapod crustaceans in the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, Crustacean Compassion has commissioned the “The Snapshot”, the first benchmark to assess decapod crustacean welfare standards within the UK food supply chain. 30 UK seafood producers, processors, and retailers were evaluated in the benchmark, which assessed their […]

17 Jan 2023

The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has several current and upcoming general member vacancies in the ten regional Inshore Fisheries and Conservation Authorities (IFCA) across England. MMO will be seeking to appoint to fill current vacancies and create a reserve list for upcoming vacancies. These voluntary roles require candidates who can take a balanced approach to […]

17 Jan 2023

A popular beach has lost its coveted Blue Flag status due to a decline in bathing water quality. Saltburn was the only beach between Whitby and Sunderland to be given the internationally recognised certification in 2022, the BBC reported. However, its bathing water quality, based on Environment Agency samples, has fallen from “excellent” to “good”. […]