30 Aug 2022

Saving the Whales Again: Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the International Whaling Commission’s global ban on commercial whaling and looking ahead. Lucy Babey, Head of Science and Conservation, Deputy Director, at ORCA and Chair of the Link Marine Mammals Group, reflects on the 40th anniversary of the International Whaling Commission’s global ban on commercial whaling.  […]

30 Aug 2022

New research on the vulnerability of the UK’s seabed carbon stores to the pressures from bottom trawling by fishing boats could help protect vulnerable shelf seas.     Researchers from the University of St Andrews have collaborated with Scottish Government scientists to develop a new predictive approach that will help assess how vulnerable the UK’s seabed […]

30 Aug 2022

Failure in efforts to create global ocean treaty A fifth effort to pass a global agreement to protect the world’s oceans and marine life has failed. Numerous news outlets, including the BBC, reported that talks to pass the UN High Seas Treaty had been ongoing for two weeks in New York, but governments could not agree […]

30 Aug 2022

UK Government launch Storm Overflows Discharge Reduction plan / Hundreds of coastal overflow sites ‘not included’ in UK government sewage plan / UK accused of threatening health and marine life on the French coast.      Marine Conservation Society analysis says 600 coastal overflow sites will continue to spill Government plans to reduce sewage spills in English […]

30 Aug 2022

The Environment Agency has released a research report, ‘The extent and zonation of saltmarsh in England 2016 – 2019’ The report examines the overall picture of change in saltmarsh extent in England over a decade: 2006-2009 to 2016-2019. In 2011, the Environment Agency published the first saltmarsh national inventory mapped from aerial imagery captured between 2006 […]

25 Aug 2022

Defra have responded (22/8/22) to the recent coverage around recent surface water flooding and storm overflow discharges, including the claims concerning the faulty sewage monitors in England and Wales. The UK government press office wrote in their recent blog post: ‘Untreated sewage can be devastating to human health, local biodiversity and our environment which is […]

25 Aug 2022

Nearly everyone can identify a pond, but what, exactly, distinguishes it from a lake or a wetland? A new study co-led by Cornell University offers the first data-driven, functional definition of a pond and evidence of ponds’ distinct ecological function, which could have broad implications for science and policy. “The lack of a universal pond […]