08 Jul 2023

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 […]

08 Jul 2023

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 […]

08 Jul 2023

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 […]

08 Jul 2023

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, […]

08 Jul 2023

A new report by MPs has found some marine wildlife is being failed by the UK government. Protections for whales, dolphins and seals are poorer compared to other countries, the Parliamentary Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee (Efra) found. Some of the threats include underwater noise, pollution in the water and climate change, the BBC […]

04 Jul 2023

Proposals for a series of Highly Protected Marine Areas (HPMA) have been scrapped, the Scottish Government has confirmed. Proposals had previously been put forward to create HPMAs in at least 10% of Scotland’s waters – which would have restricted fishing and other activities. Plans to deliver increased protection for Scotland’s marine environment will be revised, […]

04 Jul 2023

The Welsh Government has opened its Tidal Lagoon Challenge Fund. The fund is worth £750,000 and will support innovative research that will help to reduce or remove the barriers that are preventing tidal range schemes being developed. The fund was first announced in March at the Marine Energy Wales conference by the First Minister and […]