Defra has released six Fisheries Management Plans for consultation alongside a raft of other measures. In its press release Defra said that ‘the UK is introducing a world class system of fisheries management. This draws on the best available science and the expertise of our fishermen to ensure our fish stocks are healthy and sustainable long […]
A pod of more than 50 pilot whales has died after a mass stranding on a Scottish beach. Marine rescuers were called to the scene at Traigh Mhor in North Tolsta, on the Isle of Lewis, to reports that dozens of the mammals were in difficulty. The British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) charity tried […]
Plans for a wind farm off the Yorkshire coast capable of powering more than a million homes have been approved, two years after a planning application was first made. Energy Secretary Grant Shapps granted consent for phase four of the Hornsea windfarm development, which will involve over 180 turbines around 43 miles off the coast […]
More than half of the world’s oceans have become greener in the past 20 years, probably because of global warming. The discovery, reported in Nature, is surprising because scientists thought they would need many more years of data before they could spot signs of climate change in the colour of the oceans. Satellite data shows that […]
The Crown Estate has announced alterations to the leasing process for Offshore Wind Leasing Round 5 – The Celtic Sea. The seabed manager has provided further details on how it will run the tender process for the first commercial-scale floating wind farms in the Celtic Sea, off the coast of Wales and the South West […]
The first three Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMAs) in England are now under the highest level of protection, as their designations come into effect. In a press release from Defra, the government has said that: ‘the Highly Protected Marine Areas represent a huge leap forward in the UK government’s ambitious marine conservation targets and commitments to […]
By Jan Geert Hiddink, in The Conversation: You might remember newspaper articles in 2021 claiming that towing nets over the seabed to catch fish (known as bottom trawling) releases as much carbon as all flights taken each year. It turns out that the assessment behind this claim overestimated how much CO₂ is released in the process of bottom trawling […]
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) said its Marine Environment Protection Commission has adopted a “historic… strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping”. Compared with 2008 levels, the United Nations’ global shipping regulator said nations had agreed to cut total annual emissions of greenhouse gases “by at least 20 percent, striving for 30 percent, […]