The new ‘Wild Ennerdale National Nature Reserve’ will protect over 3,000 hectares of landscape comprising of water, forests and mountains. A new National Nature Reserve is being formally created today (15 November) by Natural England in Ennerdale, West Cumbria. It will be the largest nature reserve in the county and the 9th largest in England. […]
An independent panel of external experts is to be set up to assess the evidence surrounding the deaths of large numbers of crustaceans, such as crabs and lobsters, on the North East coast between September and December 2021. In a letter to the Environment Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee, Fisheries Minister Mark Spencer confirmed Defra’s […]
About the Infrastructure Scheme At least £65 million in grant funding is available through the Infrastructure Scheme. The scheme will fund projects that improve the UK seafood sector supply chain through investment in: improved capability at ports, harbours, processing, and aquaculture facilities the social and economic welfare of coastal communities fleet modernisation recreational sea fishing […]
The UK government has announced £156,000 to protect England’s island seabird populations against the threat of invasive predators. This is one of the first instances globally of a central government providing funding to protect seabird islands against these specific threats, Defra has said. The UK’s islands such as Coquet Island and the Isles […]
The Office for Environmental Protection (OEP) has said it was considering enforcement action against Defra after it failed to meet the deadline to set statutory targets as part of the Environment Act. Utility Week reported that newly appointed secretary of state, Therese Coffey, said the department had struggled to analyse the 180,000 responses to a […]
The Seabed User and Developer Group (SUDG) brings together the majority of UK marine industries, including renewable energy, marine aggregates, ports, subsea cables, recreational boating and marinas, oil and gas, nuclear energy, and carbon capture storage and utilisation. The group has written to three Secretaries of State to state they do not recommend moving away […]
The Environment Secretary has announced that the potential civil penalty is to rise from £250,000 to up to £250 million to help bring quicker enforcement action against water companies for causing pollution. The Minister will bring forward proposals to raise the civil penalty for water companies who pollute the environment by 1,000-fold. The […]
A fishing ban at Lindisfarne has been opposed by councillors, with claims by one it would turn it “into a museum”, the BBC has reported. The government is exploring creating a Highly Protected Marine Area (HPMA) which would see commercial and recreational fishing halted. Conservative-led Northumberland County Council heard this week such a move would “devastate” the […]