Prof. Richard Steiner writes in The Huffington Post, 20th October 2015: Adding to concerns about the disastrous decline in ocean ecosystems, now there is another emerging threat — deep sea mining. While shallow water mining for sand, gold, tin, and diamonds has been conducted for decades, commercial deep sea mining has yet to occur anywhere. […]
» Marine Aggregate Dredging
- Deep Sea Mining : the nature of the resource, and the threat to ocean integrity
- New Marinet publication shows using marine sand for aggregate is “unnecessary and obsolete”
- Ulster legal action over “illegal sand extraction” from Lough Neagh
- Fish discard ban: MEPs delay sanctions
- Explaining erosion in simple terms
- Dredging and Coral Reef smothering
- A third of future mineral production could come from beneath the oceans
- MMO explains its position over MOD dumping in Whitsand Bay
- Show you care about our seas enough to ask for more democracy in UK marine licensing
- Whitsand Bay (Cornwall) toxic dumping permit unlawful
- Plymouth campaigners opposing waste-dumping at sea win a victory
- Further evidence of dredging induced coastal erosion
- Dredging threatens Great Barrier Reef coral
- Marine Aggregate Dredging statistics
- Long term dredging damage to Thames fishing grounds
- Deep sea mining is about to commence
- Tyndal research paper into Offshore Aggregate induced Erosion
- Judicial review of Whitsand Bay, Cornwall, dredging decision
- Erosion threatens Scroby windfarm stability
- Marinet changes its policy on comments to the MMO about marine aggregate licence applications
Marinet has published, September 2015, a paper titled Marine Aggregate Extraction — The Need to Dredge : Fact or Fiction? This publication is linked to Marinet’s ongoing work to secure the end to offshore dredging for marine sand and gravel (aggregate for the building industry), and to replace these virgin raw materials with recycled ones. David […]
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The Mid Ulster Mail reports, 20th May 2015: Despite a warning from DoE that they are in breach of planning control, companies “illegally extracting” sand from Lough Neagh have carried on. And because Environment Minister, Mark H Durkan, “has failed to stop them” the Green Party has served notice on his department under the Environmental […]
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EU Parliament press release, 28th April 2015, states: “Fishermen will have until 2017 to adapt to the new discard ban rules, which will make fishing more sustainable. Fishermen will have two years to “adapt” before sanctions for failing to comply with the new fish “discard” ban take effect, under a law passed by Parliament on […]
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A letter recently appeared in the weekly Great Yarmouth Mercury from reader B. J. Rudd, who demonstrated an acute and perceptive understanding of the mechanism as to why the sand is being lost from our beaches. His ‘theory’ is in fact just what’s happening, but not dressed up in the complex terminology of coastal geomorphology […]
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Divers near the bay by the Port of Miami have reported that large numbers of corals are either dead or dying, suffocated by the sediment created by a $205 million dredging project intended to expand a shipping channel to make room for a new generation of supersize cargo ships. Back in 2013 US federal agencies […]
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The Independent reports, 27th February 2015: “The world’s oceans are poised for a seabed mining frenzy amid a “marine industrial revolution” that threatens to destroy habitats and wipe out species, an expert has warned. “Some industry estimates claim as much as a third of future mineral production could come from beneath the oceans. “More than […]
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In a Press Release dated 13th February 2015 the Marine Management Organisation states: “The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has provided an update on proposed changes to dredging and disposal activities on behalf of Her Majesty’s Naval Base (HMNB) Devonport. “The MMO has held negotiations with representatives of the ‘Stop Dumping in Whitsand Bay’ campaign group […]
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Marine Licensing is the process for getting planning permission to dig, dump or build something at sea. However, communities currently have no rights to challenge the regulator’s decisions. If you want more protection for our seas, please reply to an important Department of Environment (DEFRA) consultation, before the deadline of 25th February 2015. Unusually, DEFRA […]
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BBC Online News reports, 21st January 2015: ”A coastal waters protection agency (MMO) unlawfully issued a licence for dumping thousands of tonnes of silt off Cornwall. The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has agreed to quash the licence and admitted it was “made unlawfully”. Papers filed at the High Court said there were “inadequacies” in the […]
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The campaign group ‘Stop Dumping in Whitsand Bay’ went to the High Court to seek a judicial review of the decision by the Maritime Management Organisation (MMO) to grant a licence to dump 367,000 tonnes of potentially toxic silt dredged from the River Tamar into Whitsand Bay, a local beauty spot as well as a […]
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Tyndal Working Paper 97 of December 2006 authored by Mike Walkden and P.K. Stansby, entitled ‘The effect of dredging off Great Yarmouth on the wave conditions and erosion of the North Norfolk Coast’ (including all references). It is a research paper by the Crown Estate, prepared in conjunction with ABPMer, British Geological Survey and HR […]
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Oliver Milman of the Guardian published an item concerning the fate of coral brought about by dredging removal of 7m cubic metres of seabed to create a channel to accommodate ships for the Gorgon natural gas project. He quotes research conducted by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies and the Australian Institute […]
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The Crown Estate and BMAPA have provided the following information graphing the area of the UK seabed licensed for aggregate dredging and showing the total area dredged from 2008 until 2012. The overall take appears to be reducing, as has that taken from offshore Great Yarmouth, as it seems to be moving more now to […]
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Fishing News of 24th October 2014 published an article written by Tim Oliver on the findings of the Thames fishermen who have seen their fishing grounds damaged by the intense dredging operations in constructing the huge deep water container terminal at Thurrock, on the north bank of the Thames, just 20 miles east of central […]
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Environment 360 reports, 20th October 2014: “Armed with new high-tech equipment, mining companies are targeting vast areas of the deep ocean for mineral extraction. But with few regulations in place, critics fear such development could threaten seabed ecosystems that scientists say are only now being fully understood. For years, the idea of prospecting for potentially […]
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In the hope of getting some meaningful empirical research performed that would conclusively prove the impact that Offshore Aggregate Dredging is having upon our coastline, MARINET wrote to Mike Walkden and P.K. Stansby, authors of Tyndal Working Paper 97 ‘The effect of dredging off Great Yarmouth on the wave conditions and erosion of the North […]
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The Plymouth Herald, 10th October 2014, reports: “Campaigners against the dumping of dredged material off Whitsand Bay have won a major battle in their fight. The High Court has this week granted leave for a judicial review into the Marine Management Organisation’s decision to grant permission for dredging at Devonport Naval Base and subsequent dumping […]
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The continuing dredging of aggregate in close proximity to the Scroby wind turbines has brought about a considerable reduction to the Scroby Sandbank and loss of the seabed, to the extent that the wind turbines embedded nearby are now threatened with instability. Three years ago the deeply entrenched power line taking the generated power from […]
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Marinet has informed the Marine Management Organisation (MMO), 26th September 2014, that it will no longer be submitting detailed comments to the MMO about marine aggregate licence applications because the MMO has consistently failed to respond in any meaningful form to the comments that Marinet has submitted. Consequently, Marinet has concluded that the MMO is […]
