23 Apr 2026
Photo by Brandon on Unsplash Scientists are increasingly detecting common human drugs making their way into rivers, lakes and oceans around the world, with largely unknown consequences for aquatic wildlife. A first-of-its-kind study has revealed traces of cocaine polluting rivers and lakes may accumulate in the brains of salmon and disrupt their behaviour, with […]
23 Apr 2026
Photo by Martin King on Unsplash United Utilities and the Environment Agency (EA) are going to place two monitoring buoys into Lake Windermere in Cumbria next week, as part of a year-long study to continuously assess the body of water. United Utilities has said the trial would help it and the Environment Agency (EA) […]
23 Apr 2026
Photo by Iain on Unsplash The UK and Ireland’s largest freshwater lake, Lough Neagh, is under threat from commercial sand dredging, according to new research published in the Journal of Environmental Management. The study, led by Queen’s University Belfast in collaboration with Newcastle University, is reportedly the first-of-its-kind and researchers found that disturbance created […]
26 Mar 2026
Image description: Ecologically damaging Blue Green algae blooms (cyanobacteria), close up from river bank along Lough Neagh, Northern Ireland. A High Court challenge has been launched by an eel fisherman against the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) over the Lough Neagh pollution crisis. The judicial review his being brought against DAERA by eel fisher […]
19 Mar 2026
Image description: A child standing on a paddleboard wearing a green safety jacket and brightly-coloured swimming trunks. Photo by Ben White on Unsplash The deterioration of water quality in the UK’s largest lake now threatens to intersect with another public health crisis, the rise of bacteria resistant to antibiotics, the so called ‘Superbugs’. As […]
30 Oct 2025
Image description: Colourful Oil Spill on Muddy Ground. Photo by Abdulrahman Abubakar / Pexels The Royal Society has issued a stark warning about the risks posed by unregulated chemical mixtures in UK rivers, lakes, and coastal waters. Its latest report, Chemical mixtures in aquatic environments: understanding and preventing harm, argues that current regulatory frameworks are […]
20 Mar 2025
A new study has revealed that a staggering majority of the world’s lakes have changed colour in the last 40 years. The research team analysed data sets containing 32 million satellite observations from over 67,000 lakes. Photo description: Lake Bled surrounding Bled Island in Slovenia.The island has several buildings, the main one being the […]
16 Oct 2024
Reported in The Guardian A freshwater lake that attracts more than 30,000 swimmers a year is under threat of closure from an Environment Agency (EA) plan to reduce flooding that will channel in polluted river water, according to campaigners. Almost 50,000 people have signed a petition calling on the EA and Surrey county council to reroute the flood […]