08 Jun 2021

The UK’s Joint Nature Conservation Committee (JNCC) is a co-leader of a new global partnership to elevate Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) as a key tool in addressing the twin crises of biodiversity loss and climate change. Ahead of the UN climate change (COP 26) and biodiversity (COP 15) conferences scheduled later this year, Chile, Costa Rica, France, […]

08 Jun 2021

A new study, led by the universities of Exeter and Oxford, and published in Nature Geoscience (paywall), pinpoints the causes of monthly and annual Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) variation and finds a differing picture at two key locations. The AMOC, which carries warm water from the tropics northward and makes areas including north-west Europe warmer than […]

08 Jun 2021

Global marine renewables leader Ørsted has set an ambition to deliver net-positive biodiversity impacts from all new renewable energy projects it commissions from 2030 at the latest.  “The accelerated global build-out of renewable energy which is needed to decarbonise global energy systems and stop global warming at 1.5°C must take place in balance with nature.” […]

08 Jun 2021

The shock to UK marine science due to the Covid-19 pandemic has been stark, with significant disruption to sea-going research across all disciplines and sectors. Representatives of the marine science community, led by Cabot Institute researcher Kate Hendry and supported by the National Oceanographic Centre Association of Marine Science National Capability Beneficiaries, initiated a survey of the UK marine science community in […]

08 Jun 2021

A new tranche of monitoring and progress reports from the Skomer MCZ has been added to the NRW website.  In addition to the 2019 Annual Report, the  Project Status Report 2019-20 lists 42 MCZ monitoring projects (mostly biological but including hydrography and human activities), summarises some of these and provides detailed updates on several others.  There […]

08 Jun 2021

Liabhán chor gréine, or the Great Fish of the Sun, more prosaically known as basking sharks, occupy Irish territorial waters and its EEZ throughout the year. The global population of breeding individuals has been estimated at approximately 8,000-10,000 worldwide, a high proportion of which may at times be present in Irish waters. Basking sharks are protected in […]

08 Jun 2021

Hundreds of fishing fleets that go ‘dark’ are suspected of illegal fishing.  In a global case study of possible AIS avoidance, vessels primarily from China switch off their tracking beacons to evade detection while they engage in possible illegal fishing.  Click here and here.

01 Jun 2021

In the advance of the June G7 meeting in Cornwall, the International Programme on the State of the Ocean (IPSO) convened a virtual workshop of international scientists to highlight the critical importance of the ocean and outline a plan of action to ensure a sustainable ocean future for nature and people. Ocean scientists from G7 countries, […]