21 Jan 2024

The IMO, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) and the International Labour Organization (ILO) are boosting coordination to tackle IUU fishing. Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a widespread challenge that covers a range of destructive fishing practices, occurring both in the high seas and within national territorial waters. It has been identified as […]

16 Jan 2024

The Environment Agency’s Restoring Meadows, Marsh and Reef (ReMeMaRe) team has initiated a project to develop a new national marine habitat restoration platform. Currently there is no centralised national resource collating the status of UK marine habitat creation and restoration projects.  This means it is difficult to know what projects are planned, where projects are […]

16 Jan 2024

Young Sea Changers Scotland, a new charity dedicated to training the next generation of marine advocates, launches across Scotland this month. Young Sea Changers Scotland (YSCS) was set up to address a lack of young people participating in formal discussions and decision-making processes affecting how our seas are managed for the future. In a 2018 […]

16 Jan 2024

The government has pledged to work with the tidal range sector to explore and take advantage of opportunities provided by tidal lagoons and barrages to reduce the country’s emissions and increase energy security. Tidal range involves building a barrage across a river or estuary, or a lagoon in a bay, then using the tides to […]

16 Jan 2024

The EU’s most senior court has stopped short of applying overfishing rules across all EU fish stocks in a case taken by Friends of the Irish Environment (FIE) and environmental lawyers Client Earth. The EU’s Court of Justice has ruled that EU ministers will be breaking the law if they approve overfishing of target stocks, but […]

16 Jan 2024

The Crown Estate has commissioned the University of Exeter to conduct an evidence review of social impact assessments in the marine space to enhance understanding of how to deliver social value through its marine activities. The review is a key stepping stone to building new data and evidence around how social, as well as economic […]

16 Jan 2024

Norway has become the first country in the world to move forward with commercial-scale deep-sea mining. The bill, passed in the Norwegian Parliament, will accelerate the exploration for precious metals which are in high demand for green technologies. Scientists have warned it could be devastating for marine life. Norway’s parliament voted 80–20 in favour of […]

16 Jan 2024

From Ireland’s Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage: Minister of State for Nature, Heritage and Electoral Reform, Malcolm Noonan TD has announced another significant addition to Ireland’s Natura 2000 network. The new Seas off Wexford Special Protection Area (SPA), which is to be designated under the EU Birds Directive, will cover more than 305,000 […]