23 Jun 2026
Scottish ministers failing legal duties to protect seafloor, watchdog finds
Photo by Thimo van Leeuwen Scottish Ministers have been both non-compliant with, and ineffective in implementing, their legal duties to protect and restore the seafloor, according to a new report published on 23 June by Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS), the independent body that monitors environmental law in Scotland. The findings landed on the same day campaigners […]
23 Jun 2026
UK backs coastal communities with £13.9 million Blue Planet Fund boost
Photo by Denys Nevozhai The UK has committed £13.9 million to international programmes tackling ocean protection, coastal resilience and plastic pollution, with Marine Minister Emma Hardy announcing the funding at the eleventh Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, Kenya. The money is channelled through the Blue Planet Fund, the UK’s flagship ocean financing vehicle, which marks its fifth anniversary this […]
23 Jun 2026
Overfishing edges up again despite record aquaculture growth, FAO finds
Photo by Paul Einerhand Global fisheries and aquaculture production hit a record high in 2024, even as the share of the world’s fish stocks classed as biologically sustainable fell for the second report running, according to The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2026 (SOFIA 2026), the Food and Agriculture Organization’s flagship biennial assessment. The […]
23 Jun 2026
Sea ice the size of France missing from West Antarctica as heatwave hits
Photo by Dylan Shaw A vast area of winter sea ice has failed to form off West Antarctica’s Bellingshausen Sea, with scientists warning the region may now be entering a permanently reduced state with consequences for penguins, krill and some of the continent’s most significant glaciers. The gap was first reported in detail by […]
23 Jun 2026
French Polynesia reaches 30% ocean protection in landmark contribution to 30×30
Photo by Gerland Schömbs French Polynesia has become the world’s largest contributor to the global 30×30 ocean protection target, after President Moetai Brotherson announced on 7 June that a further 520,000 km² of the territory’s waters will be fully protected from extractive industries. The move brings the total share of French Polynesia’s exclusive economic zone under full protection to around 30%, an area covering roughly 1.4 million […]
23 Jun 2026
Trump administration reverses plan to dismantle ocean observatories
Photo by Ian Hutchinson The US National Science Foundation (NSF) has abandoned its plan to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI), a $368 million network of more than 900 instruments, after a bipartisan revolt in Congress. The agency confirmed on 18 June that it “will not proceed with further removal or descoping of equipment from the […]
23 Jun 2026
Global governance failing to address ocean acidification, study finds
Photo by Josiah Nicklas International governance frameworks are poorly equipped to deal with the combined threat that ocean acidification poses to global food security, according to a new study led by researchers at the UCL Energy Institute, launched during the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa. The research, published in Environmental Research: Food Systems, maps […]
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