The Marine Conservation Society has released its first Wildlife Sightings report, publishing last year’s findings from its long-running citizen science project.     The project asks the public to report jellyfish and marine turtle sightings in and around the UK and Ireland’s shores. The charity collects and analyses reports of these species to identify […]

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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 […]

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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. […]

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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 […]

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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 […]

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