Scotland’s biggest horse mussel bed and a “faceless and brainless” fish-like creature were recorded during government-backed surveys this year. The work covered almost 2,200 square miles – equivalent to an area one and a quarter times the size of the Cairngorms National Park. The Scottish government has hailed the finds made during the surveys. WWF […]
» 2012
- Scottish marine biodiversity surveys produce interesting results
- 90% of investment in London Array windfarm is from abroad
- UK supermarket plans to sell sustainably fished tuna
- Flame shell reef in Scottish seas could be the world’s largest
- UK Fisheries Ministers applauds “EU fisheries deal”
- EU 2013 fishing quotas “defy scientific advice” say marine conservationists
- Scottish company has visionary proposals for the sustainable farming of salmon on land
- Over-fishing in the EU is a solvable problem” says fisheries expert
- UK Fisheries Minister says EU controls on UK fishing fleet are too strict
- Marine Conservation Society says “UK’s MCZ plans are too limited”
- UK governments announces 31 new MCZs from of a possible list of 127 sites
- Sea Shepherd adds ex-Japanese government vessel to its anti-whaling fleet
- Should the UK’s Pitcairn Islands become the world’s largest no-take marine reserve?
- Coral Sea marine national park established
- Suffolk Coastal Erosion
- Greenpeace forces Waitrose to re-evaluate its commercial ties with Shell and Arctic oil exploration
- The demise of Scroby Island
- Latest Study on the North Atlantic Conveyor/Gulf Stream
- Elevated cancer levels at Dalgety Bay, Fife
- New Pembrokeshire power station to be investigated for impact on SAC
The Guardian reports, 2nd October 2012, “The project briefing for Britain’s world-leading offshore wind farm is given by a Dane, the crew on the transfer boat from Ramsgate harbour are Norwegian and the lunch served 20 miles off the coast on a converted ferry is served up by Latvians. They call it the London Array […]
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Sainsbury’s is to solely use Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified skipjack tuna from the Maldives in its own label canned product from next year. Already the UK’s largest retailer of MSC-certified sustainable fish in the UK – selling more than 130 products carrying the logo – the supermarket says the move is a significant step […]
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The discovery of a large shellfish reef on the west coast of the UK could be the biggest find of its kind in the world, experts believe. The reef made up of more than 100 million brightly coloured and rare flame shells, or Limaria hians, was found in Loch Alsh, a sea inlet between Skye […]
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The UK has hailed an EU fisheries deal on catches for next year as good for the fishing industry and good for “the health of our seas”. The fisheries minister, Richard Benyon, emerged from the talks after fending off a range of quota cuts on the grounds that the need for more reductions was not […]
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Fishing fleets will be allowed to extract more fish from European waters than scientists advise is safe next year, after negotiations in Brussels on the EU’s fishing quotas. But there may be fewer discards, if predictions by fisheries ministers are correct. Nearly half of the quotas set were in excess of the best scientific advice, […]
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Scottish salmon is facing a challenge to its reputation as one of Britain’s best loved everyday luxuries, with scares over diseases and sea lice, heavy use of pesticides and seal killing raising fears about its environmental impact. A new fish-farming company called Fishfrom believes it can help solve the industry’s problem, and even partly solve […]
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Aniol Esteban, New Economics Foundation, writes in The Guardian 17th December 2012: “From fish and chips after work to smoked salmon at a Christmas party; jellied eels to Stargazy pie: fish is part of our culinary heritage. Overfishing is emptying our seas, ruining once profitable fisheries, and costing us dearly in reduced landings and lost […]
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Britain will oppose proposals to curtail cod catches in the North Sea next year. Environment minister Richard Benyon has pledged to vote against moves to make further restrictions in the time that fishermen spend at sea, and promised to oppose moves to reduce North Sea cod quotas. Benyon leads the UK delegation at the annual […]
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The UK government has been accused of a “lack of ambition” to preserve the seas, ahead of an announcement about plans for a series of protected marine areas. A total of 127 potential marine conservation zones have been selected in a multimillion-pound programme involving wildlife groups, local coastal communities and marine industry representatives. The areas […]
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The UK’s sea life will be protected by 31 new conservation zones aimed at preventing trawling and dredging destroying life on the ocean floor, under plans announced by the government on Thursday. But ministers rejected advice to create 127 zones, including all the areas where no activity would have been allowed, leading campaigners to describe […]
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Sea Shepherd reports, 10th December 2012: “After months of speculation, anticipation and the announcement that Los Angeles-based philanthropist and co-creator of TV’s “The Simpsons,” Sam Simon, had donated funds for the purchase of a ship, Sea Shepherd’s new Antarctic patrol ship, the SSS Sam Simon, was unveiled today in the port of Hobart, Tasmania, docked […]
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The Pew Environment Group and National Geographic have uncovered a spectacular underwater habitat around the Pitcairn Islands, a British Overseas Territory that is home to the Bounty mutineers and their descendants. The two groups, along with the islanders, are calling on the UK government to make Pitcairn into the world’s largest no-take marine reserve. The […]
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On 16th November 2012, the Australian government proclaimed the Coral Sea Marine National Park as the second-largest fully protected marine reserve in the world and the largest in the domestic waters of any country. Spanning 502,238 square kilometers (193,915 square miles)—an area the size of Spain—these waters are home to one of the world’s last […]
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Mike Page has just posted a fascinating five minute video of his 15th December ’12 flight from Easton Bavents to Kessingland along the erosion stricken Suffolk coastline which may be seen below. Note how both the groynes and the tree roots in the forested areas have helped to attenuate the worst of the shoreline loss.
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After only 12 days of an intensive campaign, Waitrose has announced it has put its partnership with Arctic oil drillers Shell on ice. Following 40,000 emails, several store visits, one spoof video, hundreds of Facebook posts, a social media meltdown, and the appearance of a life-size polar bear at their Islington store, Waitrose has declared […]
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The town of Great Yarmouth did not exist until the first few precarious fishermen’s cottages were built in the year 46 AD. Prior to this it was an intermittent tidal sand bank off the mouth of the River Yare, which a supply of sediment drift from the North and material from the river built up […]
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A very disturbing 20 minute video on the decline and probable demise of the North Atlantic Conveyor a.k.a. Gulf Stream due to changes in the Thermohaline Circulation (THC) has just been made by the Thor Project. It points to the possibility/probability that Northern Europe may soon become uninhabitable due to Spring/Summer droughts and bitterly cold […]
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Radioactive contamination was first discovered at Dalgety Bay, a popular sailing resort, in 1990. It is thought to come from radium used to illuminate the dials of aircraft disposed of in the area after the second world war. More than 2500 radioactive hotspots have been found on the foreshore in the past 22 years, more […]
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The European Commission has launched an investigation into the UK government’s approval of a £1bn gas-fired power station in Pembrokeshire. Pembroke Power Station, the largest of its type in Europe, opened last month and will power 3.5m homes. Following a complaint by Friends of the Earth, the Department of Energy and Climate Change has been […]
