As the world meets to agree its latest plans to combat climate change at the UN Climate Change COP27, and others simultaneously meet in the often overlooked COP14 Ramsar discussions, WWT’s new Wetlands For Carbon Storage Route Map calls for the creation of at least 22,000 hectares of coastal saltmarsh by 2050 to help the UK government […]
A new dataset of intentional disabling of Automatic Identification System devices by fishing vessels provides insights into illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activity Data from the shipboard Automatic Identification System (AIS), which was created as a collision avoidance tool, can provide information about global fishing activity, including illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. Fishing vessels may […]
Crown Estate Scotland has confirmed that all three successful ScotWind Clearing applicants now have seabed option agreements in place meaning that their projects can move into the development stage. Full seabed leases are granted at a later stage once applicants have the necessary consents from regulators, such as Marine Scotland, and have secured grid connections and financing. […]
The UK government has announced £156,000 to protect England’s island seabird populations against the threat of invasive predators. This is one of the first instances globally of a central government providing funding to protect seabird islands against these specific threats, Defra has said. The UK’s islands such as Coquet Island and the Isles […]
The Chair of the Environment Food and Rural Affairs Committee of the UK Parliament, the Rt Hon Sir Robert Goodwill MP, has written to Defra with its interim conclusions relating its exploration of the sealife mortality issue off the North East coast. The letter states: There is clearly a need for further data and research on […]
Denmark to Launch North Sea Energy Island Tender in Spring 2023. The tender for the construction and operation of the Danish North Sea Energy Island is now expected to be launched in Spring 2023, as a new political agreement has been reached on the tender rules, which include significant requirements in the areas of working […]
The UK Parliament Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee held a hearing into the deaths of large numbers of crustaceans off the Yorkshire coast since October 2021. There have been conflicting theories about the reasons for the deaths of the crabs and lobsters. The Government has attributed the cause to a marine ‘algal […]
A cross-party group of MPs has called for a tripling of the floating offshore wind target, from 5GW by 2030 to 15GW by 2035, a restoration of 30 per cent of UK saltmarshes and seagrass meadows by 2030, and greater ambitious for nature restoration targets. The ten point plan for climate and nature […]