14 Jul 2026
Bottom trawling is damaging the seabirds, dolphins and porpoises that many UK marine protected areas were created to safeguard, and should be banned across those sites, according to a new report from the campaign group Oceana UK. The report, Trawled and Mauled, argues that protection existing on paper is not being delivered in the water. […]
14 Jul 2026
The UK has ratified the High Seas Treaty, the international agreement that for the first time allows marine protected areas to be created in the ocean beyond national borders. The Foreign Secretary signed the document required for ratification, which was formally deposited with the United Nations in New York on 10 July, completing the final step […]
30 Jun 2026
Photo by Stanislav Lvovsky The 11th Our Ocean Conference closed in Mombasa, Kenya on 18 June with 320 new commitments valued at $6.4 billion, announced by more than 100 governments, businesses and civil society organisations across what Mongabay reported was a gathering of 6,000 delegates. It was the first time in the conference’s 11 editions that it […]
30 Jun 2026
Photo by Bosh Ar London Climate Action Week (LCAW) closed on 28 June after nine days of talks and events across the city. Europe’s largest city-wide climate gathering, now in its eighth year, brought together nearly 50,000 participants. Ironically, a record-breaking heatwave forced the cancellation of at least one LCAW session and many side events, […]
30 Jun 2026
Photo by Markus Spiske Greenpeace UK has announced plans to create new underwater boulder barriers in UK Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), a decade after the Brexit vote and five years after the Fisheries Act 2020 gave ministers full powers to protect them. As Afloat.ie reported, the charity argues those powers have gone largely unused, with destructive industrial […]
23 Jun 2026
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
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 […]
16 Jun 2026
Photo credit: Nicola / Adobe Stock The Caribbean island of Montserrat has joined the Blue Belt Programme, the UK Government’s flagship international marine conservation initiative, making it the eleventh UK Overseas Territory to enter the scheme and the fourth from the Caribbean. The announcement was made on 8 June, World Ocean Day, as the programme also marked its tenth anniversary. Known as the “Emerald Isle […]
