06 Jul 2026
Photo credit: Nick Russill Hundreds of jellyfish washed ashore at Summerleaze Beach in Bude, Cornwall, on 2 July, drawing crowds to a striking purple carpet of stranded animals beside the town’s sea pool wall. Scientists at Plymouth Marine Laboratory, who documented the stranding, said the mound was made up mostly of moon jellyfish, alongside blue […]
30 Jun 2026
Photo by Theirry Meier A new umbrella body, Marine Science UK (MSUK), has been launched to bring UK universities and research organisations together under a single voice, with the aim of feeding more coherent scientific evidence into government and industry decision-making on the ocean. A single voice for a fragmented sector According to its own description, […]
16 Jun 2026
Photo by Dear Sunflower A dramatic surge in common octopus populations off the south-west coast of England has spread as far as Scotland and Wales, with sightings now reported across a range of coastal sites that would have been almost unthinkable just a few years ago. New findings from the Marine Biological Association (MBA) confirm that […]
16 Jun 2026
Photo by Smithsonian Ocean productivity across large parts of the north-east Atlantic has been declining steadily for two decades, according to a new study by scientists at Plymouth Marine Laboratory (PML) published in Frontiers in Remote Sensing. The findings raise significant concerns about the future health of marine food webs, fisheries and the ocean’s capacity to absorb […]
26 May 2026
Photo by Naja Bertolt Jensen Food and beverage packaging has been confirmed as the world’s most common form of marine litter, in the first study to provide a globally harmonised overview of shoreline debris by usage type. Led by the University of Plymouth and published in the journal One Earth, the research brings together and evaluates more […]
14 Apr 2026
Photo by NOAA The government announced a £50 million Plymouth Defence Growth Deal on 9 April, cementing the city’s position as a leader in maritime autonomous systems and promising hundreds of new skilled jobs across the South West. The investment directly responds to commitments in the Strategic Defence Review to expand the UK’s autonomous maritime expertise, and […]
28 Oct 2025
Plymouth Marine Laboratory and University of Plymouth awarded £2m to revolutionise understanding of Atlantic Ocean ecosystems Photo by NOAA Plymouth Marine Laboratory and the University of Plymouth have been awarded £2 million to deploy artificial intelligence in creating the largest-ever study of vulnerable deep-sea habitats, with the project set to revolutionise understanding and protection of […]