04 Aug 2026

Photo by Ray Harrington   Permission has been refused for this year’s guga hunt, the centuries-old harvest of young gannets on the uninhabited Hebridean island of Sula Sgeir, after NatureScot’s board concluded the cull could harm a gannet population still recovering from avian flu. The decision, confirmed on 3 August, brings to a halt Scotland’s last remaining […]

04 Aug 2026

Photo by Raul Ling   A public consultation has opened on a draft Fisheries Management Plan (FMP) for the Irish Sea’s demersal fisheries, setting out proposed measures to rebuild depleted cod and whiting stocks while reviewing how Nephrops, the region’s most valuable catch, is managed in future. A joint plan across three administrations The draft Demersal […]

04 Aug 2026

Photo by Nicholas Doherty   Seatrium Offshore Renewable Services (ORS) has started construction of a new strategic operations hub in Lowestoft, investing in a facility that will underpin its delivery of major European offshore wind programmes, including four converter platforms for grid operator TenneT and ongoing work on RWE’s Sofia wind farm. A hub for […]

04 Aug 2026

Photo by Oleksandr Sushko   Plans for Sussex’s first commercial seaweed farm have been submitted to Chichester District Council and the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), with the entrepreneur behind the scheme hoping it will be the first of many along the county’s coast. From Countryfile to Bracklesham Bay Andrew Payne-Cook, 48, plans to site the […]

04 Aug 2026

Photo by Clement Souchet   The French government has awarded almost €260 million to five ports to upgrade the infrastructure needed to manufacture, assemble and deploy floating offshore wind turbines, in a move that could “strengthen our industrial and energy sovereignty,” according to France’s transport minister. The funding will support projects at Cherbourg, Brest, Nantes-Saint-Nazaire, […]

28 Jul 2026

Photo Credit: AdobeStock   Deprivation in coastal communities has reached a point where it can no longer be dismissed as a hidden or unknown problem, MPs argued in a Westminster Hall debate, as members from across the parties pressed the government to recognise the specific pressures facing seaside and island communities in how it measures […]

28 Jul 2026

Photo Credit: AdobeStock   Defra has rejected the central recommendations of a cross-party committee report on rebuilding trust with the fishing industry, including calls for a Sea Use Framework and new regional forums giving fishers a formal role in policy. The rejection came in the government’s formal response to the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs […]

28 Jul 2026

Photo Credit: AdobeStock   The Crown Estate has launched a competitive tender to find a new developer for the Morgan offshore wind site in the Irish Sea, months after the previous developers abandoned the project. The up to 1.5GW site, which could power around 1.5 million homes, was returned to the market on 24 July […]