03 Nov 2026
Photo by Christian Paul Stobbe Greenpeace UK has placed boulders weighing up to two tonnes on the seabed in the Southern North Sea Marine Protected Area. The campaign group says the barrier has effectively closed 116 km² of the site to bottom trawling. The Marine Management Organisation (MMO) has since published nine reported boulder […]
03 Nov 2026
Photo by Paul Einerhand The European Court of Auditors (ECA) has found that fishing activity is on average 72% higher inside marine Natura 2000 sites than outside them. The EU’s financial watchdog says the bloc is unlikely to meet its 2030 targets for marine protection. The audit, published as special report 25/2026, concludes that […]
08 Sep 2026
Photo by Martin Bennie New research from the University of St Andrews has found that disturbing seabed sediments through trawling could cause significant losses of carbon stored in Scotland’s sea lochs, adding fresh evidence to calls for the Scottish Government to introduce protective measures before its forthcoming consultation on marine protected areas. A vulnerable carbon store […]
18 Aug 2026
Photo by Michael Grant Scotland’s marine minister has confirmed that a consultation on new fishing restrictions across more than 160 inshore Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) and sensitive habitats will launch “in the coming weeks”, with the consultation period extended to 16 weeks to allow fishing communities more time to respond. Jim Fairlie MSP, minister […]
14 Jul 2026
Photo credit: Adobe Stock 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 […]
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 […]
