20 Sep 2022

The European Commission decided on Thursday 15 September to close parts of the Northeast Atlantic to bottom fishing. The measure is aimed at protecting vulnerable ecosystems in the deep sea, the Brussels Times reported. The Commission said it was closing “87 sensitive zones” off the coasts of France, Portugal, Spain and Ireland for bottom fishing […]

20 Sep 2022

The Cornish Fish Producers’ Organisation (CFPO) has released a statement regarding Greenpeace UK’s boulder-dumping in the South West Deeps (East) Marine Conservation Zone. Greenpeace UK published a piece ‘5 reasons why Greenpeace built another underwater boulder barrier’ and the CFPO have responded in a statement “Whilst not wanting to overly engage in the headline-grabbing media campaign, the […]

20 Sep 2022

New research has been published in Marine Policy which assessed the extent to which the fishing activity of vessels using bottom-contacting mobile gears (trawls, dredges and demersal seines) were impacted by the construction of 12 offshore windfarms in the UK EEZ. The paper, ‘Windfarms, fishing and benthic recovery: Overlaps, risks and opportunities’, by Frith Dunkley and Jean-Luc […]

15 Sep 2022

The way rivers function is significantly affected by how much sediment they transport and deposit. River sediment — mostly sand, silt and clay — plays a critical ecological role, as it provides habitat for organisms downstream and in estuaries. It is also important for human life, resupplying nutrients to agricultural soils in floodplains and buffering […]

15 Sep 2022

Many water companies provide discounts to developers to incentivise building new homes that use less water and avoid letting surface water enter the public sewer system. To ensure water companies are doing what they can to incentivise developers, Ofwat reviewed the current incentives offered to developers. Ofwat has released a review of water companies’ environmental […]

15 Sep 2022

Bans on filling public swimming pools, maintaining ponds, washing cars and cleaning offices and shops could be put in place as England continues to run out of water, the Guardian reported. Despite recent showery periods, the country, particularly in the south and east, has not received enough rain to refill depleted rivers and reservoirs. Leaked documents […]

15 Sep 2022

There is a pressing need to prepare and adapt to the environmental and wider impacts of climate change, Natural Resources Wales (NRW) said as it confirmed that all parts of Wales have now moved to drought status. With the South West, South East and parts of Mid Wales already in drought, the Wales Drought Liaison […]

15 Sep 2022

The Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs has launched a 12-week consultation on proposals for new water efficiency labelling to protect water supplies and cut energy bills. Based on 2019 prices, the label could save £125 million on water bills and £147 million on energy bills over 10 years, as well as 1,200 million […]