29 Aug 2023

The Seaside Heritage Network (SHN) is running a public vote for its first annual Bucket and Spade List – a top 10 of the UK’s best seaside places and experiences – which includes staples such as Blackpool Tower and Bournemouth’s beach huts, as well as the Victorian-era Kursaal in Southend, one of the world’s first amusement parks, the Observer […]

29 Aug 2023

A DNA sampling project seeking to gather information on eel numbers in the Somerset Levels has found the fish absent from large parts of the area, with man-made barriers likely to be a large part of the problem, ENDSreport wrote. Eel experts say they are shocked to find no evidence of the animal in the […]

29 Aug 2023

Marine mammals mistakenly eat plastic debris items such as plastic bags, food wrappers, ropes and abandoned fishing gear, or they become entangled in plastic items including fishing nets. Both scenarios can lead to injury and, in many cases, death. Now a recent US study has revealed that marine mammals face a more subtle plastic threat: microplastics. In the ocean, microplastics […]

29 Aug 2023

The International Union for Conservation Nature’s World Commission on Protected Areas (IUCN WCPA) has launched a freely available guide to achieving Target 3 or the “30×30 target” of the Global Biodiversity Framework and effectively and equitably conserving at least 30 per cent of the Earth by 2030. The publication guides readers through the target, breaking down the […]

29 Aug 2023

Hywind Tampen, the world’s largest floating offshore wind farm, was inaugurated by Equinor and its partners. Hywind Tampen consists of 11 8.6 megawatt (MW) turbines. It’s around 140 km (87 miles) off the Norwegian coast in a water depth of between 260 and 300 metres (853 to 984 feet). It produced its first power in […]

29 Aug 2023

The Environment Agency (EA) has removed a requirement for EDF to install an acoustic fish deterrent (AFD) into Hinkley Point C’s cooling system, which the company said could be dangerous to maintain.  Environmental groups say millions of fish could be killed per year. The reactor cooling system tunnels will take in 132,000 litres of water per […]

23 Aug 2023

The Guardian reports that the nationwide Water Framework Directive (WFD) annual health check of England’s water bodies which used to take place annually, will now take six years to complete, prompting anger from campaigners and politicians, as public alarm grows over the state of the nation’s rivers and coasts. It says that, in 2019, the […]

23 Aug 2023

New data from the World Resources Institute’s  Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas show that 25 countries — housing one-quarter of the global population — face extremely high water stress each year, regularly using up almost their entire available water supply. And at least 50% of the world’s population — around 4 billion people — live under highly water-stressed […]