06 Oct 2019

Scientists have warned that existing levels of tuna fishing are unsustainable after researchers found that global catches have increased more than 1,000% over the past 60 years. A study in the journal Fisheries Research estimated that about 6m tonnes of tuna are now caught annually, a rate that “risks driving tuna populations to unsustainable levels […]

29 Sep 2019

Global warming has already reached 1°C above the pre-industrial level, due to past and current greenhouse gas emissions. There is overwhelming evidence that this is resulting in profound consequences for ecosystems and people. The ocean is warmer, more acidic and less productive. Melting glaciers and ice sheets are causing sea level rise, and coastal extreme […]

29 Sep 2019

North Sea cod was awarded a certificate of sustainability by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) two years ago, but the latest news is these certificates are going to be suspended because of stocks dropping below the safe biological level. The latest scientific advice from ICES is that the stock is below the safe biological level […]

29 Sep 2019

How might fishing and farming policies be created to protect employment opportunities and the environment after Brexit? Scientists and key figures present their ideas in a paper for the British Ecological Society. The paper highlights the need for UK policy makers to adopt an “ecosystem based” approach, which prioritises the protection of natural assets and […]

29 Sep 2019

The UK has announced a new global alliance to help drive urgent action to safeguard the world’s ocean and protect its precious wildlife. The Global Ocean Alliance will push for the trebling of existing globally-agreed targets so at least a third of the ocean is safeguarded in Marine Protected Areas over the next decade. It […]

29 Sep 2019

The Royal Research Ship (RRS) Sir David Attenborough, formally named last week, was commissioned to replace the James Clark Ross and the Ernest Shackleton, which between them gave almost 50 years’ service in support of UK polar science. It was commissioned by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) – part of UK Research and Innovation, […]

21 Sep 2019

In her hard-hitting speeches to the UN Climate Change summit and the US Congress, climate activist Greta Thunberg criticises “feel-good” stories about how we are going to fix everything and to “face the reality, the facts, the science”.  Quoting from last years IPCC report she gave some stark warnings about the today’s emissions levels and […]

21 Sep 2019

With decades of experience studying and documenting global overfishing, in a recent interview Daniel Pauly sets out the three main actions he believes are needed to renew globally depleted fisheries. The first of these would be to end government subsidies for industrial fishing fleets as reducing the size of the world’s industrial fleet would bring […]