20 Jun 2023

A Marine Management Organisation investigation using aerial surveillance, Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) records and analysis of e-log and sales note information resulted in the owner and master of a vessel admitting a total of seven charges at Plymouth magistrates. The court was told the vessel was spotted and photographed fishing for scallops in the closed […]

20 Dec 2022

The Dogger Bank marine protected area (MPA), has experienced a 98% decrease in bottom towed fishing since a ban was introduced, according to research by the Marine Conservation Society (MCS). In June 2022, a byelaw came into force that banned damaging fishing activities from four English offshore MPAs. Between June and October (2015-2019), an average […]

02 Aug 2022

Work has started in the North Sea on what is expected to be the world’s largest offshore wind farm. SSE and Equinor hail first of 277 units that will support GE Haliade-X turbines at massive development off eastern England. The first of 277 turbine foundations are being installed at Dogger Bank, off the Yorkshire coast, […]

03 May 2022

Work has begun to install the first length of cable for what will be the world’s largest wind farm, firing the starting pistol on offshore construction. Energy Voice has reported that tier one supplier NKT is leading the work to fit the Dogger Bank A nearshore, HVDC export cable off the coast of Yorkshire. It […]

01 Mar 2022

Chris Grayling, MP, is introducing a Ten Minute Rule Motion entitled ‘Marine Protected Areas (Bottom Trawling)’. We covered previously that a study noted that Brexit may bring some benefits to the environment as it has enabled the UK to reclaim the autonomy to designate offshore marine protected areas. For example, this has enabled a proposal to […]

07 Feb 2022

Part of the UK Government’s ‘Benefits of Brexit’ document contains a small section entitled ‘Flourishing offshore Marine Protected Areas’. The report talks of ‘one of the biggest challenges for the UK previously was securing other countries’ endorsement for offshore Marine Protected Areas management measures through the Common Fisheries Policy process. Now that we are an […]

22 Sep 2020

Activists on the Greenpeace ship Esperanza have started to place granite blocks on the seabed inside the Dogger Bank protected area in the North Sea to prevent bottom trawling. This follows on from their investigation which found industrial bottom trawlers systematically breaking the law by switching of their Automatic Information System (AIS) while fishing on […]

21 Sep 2019

The UK’s next wave of offshore windfarms will generate electricity from renewable energy at no extra cost to consumers after record low-subsidy deals fell below the market price for the first time. Offshore wind costs had tumbled by a third to about £40 per megawatt hour, which is less than the price of electricity in […]