A Greenpeace investigation has reported that supertrawlers have doubled the time they spend fishing in UK MPAs in the first 6 months of 2020 compared to the whole of 2019. Click here. Last year these vessels, including the four largest supertrawlers in the world, spent 2,963 hours, the equivalent of 123 days fishing in UK […]
The forthcoming Environment Bill will require all areas in England to establish Local Nature Recovery Strategies to help a broad range of groups to deliver priorities for nature recovery at a local and national level. The five pilot areas for production of LNRSs have now been announced. These will be in Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Greater Manchester, […]
Alistair Sinclair, national co-ordinator of the Scottish Creel Fishermen’s Federation (SCFF) commented that the body is acting “after years of frustration” in dealings with both Holyrood and its Marine Scotland agency. The SCFF has lodged a judicial review of the decision to refuse an application for a fisheries pilot scheme in the Inner Sound of […]
Wales is one of the only places in north-west Europe with regular sightings of the Critically Endangered Angelshark (Squatina squatina) over the last decade. This species is protected in Wales, through inclusion on both the ‘Wildlife and Countryside Act’ and ‘Environment (Wales) Act’ but little is known about its status, ecology or location of important […]
The Royal Dutch Shell-led CrossWind consortium has won the lease rights to develop a novel offshore wind farm in the Dutch sector of the North Sea. The 760 megawatt farm will use about 70 giant Siemens Gamesa turbines, but it also incorporates five unusual energy demonstrator projects. According to Shell and co-developer Eneco, the site […]
Across the world’s oceans, the average long-term temperature shift associated with ocean warming has been estimated at just over 20 kilometers, about 13 miles, per decade. By comparison, marine heatwaves have displaced temperatures an average of approximately 200 kilometers, roughly 120 miles, in a matter of months. In effect, marine heatwaves are shifting ocean temperatures […]
Eastern Atlantic bluefin tuna was on the verge of collapse less than two decades ago but is now considered to be sufficiently recovered and well managed for a small Japanese company to receive accreditation by the Marine Stewardship Council Click here The assessment process started in 2018 and has been subject to formal objections from […]
An environmental review of the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) has been published by Defra. providing insights into the effectiveness of the EMFF scheme in delivering environmental benefits (one of the key thrusts of the scheme). One of the benefits of the EMFF is that the scheme has broad eligibility criteria. Interviews with stakeholders […]