Photo: Jeroen Hoekindijk Azores

Fisheries

Five new draft Fisheries Management Plans (FMPs) designed to improve the long-term sustainability of UK fish stocks opened for consultation last week. Consultations will run for 14 weeks, ending on 19 January 2025, and aim to cover North Sea and Channel sprat (developed jointly with the Scottish Government and covering English and Scottish waters), Cockle, Queen scallop, Southern North Sea and Channel skates and rays, and Southern North Sea demersal non-quota species.

The UK’s Marine Management Organisation (MMO), in collaboration with ICF and Countryside and Community Research Institute (CCRI), published a new report that underscores the socioeconomic value of the UK’s fishing industry. One of the report’s main achievements was the development of a wellbeing-focused conceptual framework, designed to better understand and measure the diverse impacts of fishing. It is hoped the report will better inform future Fisheries Management Plans (FMPS) and marine management processes.

Project UK, aimed at steering U.K. fisheries towards a sustainable future, has contributed directly to a new national landscape for collaborative fisheries management according to their summary report. Over 7 years, Project UK worked with 6 fisheries contributing a combined value of 177 million to the UK economy, and commissioned at least 25 novel research projects or reports that helped advance fisheries science. Looking forward, Project UK is working with wider industry representatives to develop a third round of improvement projects.

Fisherman and Chair of the North Regional Inshore Fisheries Forum (RIFF), John Menarry, has accused policymakers of favouring larger commercial vessels and criticised the “systematic discrimination” faced by the Irish inshore fishing sector.

Fishing communities call on the Biden-Harris Administration to modernise the ways federal fishery management allocates access to resources, treats communities, and stops bycatch in one fishery from impacting another, by updating the National Standard 4, 8, and 9 guidelines.

The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has recommended a zero-catch limit for pollack in Celtic Seas and English Channel for 2025. ICCES say pollack stocks in these areas have reached critical levels.

The National Federation of Fishermen’s Organisations (NFFO) Chief Executive Mike Cohen argues that a plan for our seas is needed, as well as a strategy for developing the fishing industry’s place in them.

Aquaculture

Maggots are providing an unusual solution to the problems of food waste and fish feed produced unsustainably from wild-caught fish stocks. Project Mila’s volunteers collect organic waste from households, markets and restaurants in Mombasa and feed it to voracious larvae. Their excrement can be used as a fertiliser for land-based crops, and their protein-rich bodies can be fed to livestock or aquaculture systems. Researchers estimated more than  40,000 tonnes of wild fish could be spared from aquaculture feed every year in the US alone.

Offshore Wind

A report by the joint Government-industry Floating Offshore Wind Taskforce (FLOW) touts offshore wind as ‘the biggest industrial opportunity of the century’ for the UK. FLOW published new modelling that suggests the nascent floating wind turbine industry could employ nearly 100,000 people in the UK, provide enough energy to power every home in the country, and contribute £47Bn to the economy by 2050, if the right measures are put in place to allow the industry to flourish.

ScottishPower owner Iberdrola, the largest electricity company in Europe, announced plans to more than double its UK investments to as much as £24 billion. It plans to direct two thirds of this figure at building new transmission and distribution networks, with Britain’s electricity grid needing the “biggest rewiring ever seen”.

The world’s first commercial-scale floating wind farm, Hywind Scotland, is now back in Scotland and online after its five turbines were towed to Norway for maintenance. The pilot project has demonstrated the feasibility of floating wind farms that could be up to 10 times larger.

Aberdeen has been selected as the headquarters of one of the world’s largest offshore wind projects, Green Volt. Aberdeen was seen as a “natural choice” given its “world-renowned expertise, innovation and status as home to the largest concentration of subsea supply chain companies in Europe”. It is a move projected to create thousands of jobs and “trigger” £2.5 billion of investment.

SeAh Wind UK’s wind turbine parts factory received a £225m boost. UKEF said the investment in the factory would create 750 jobs by 2027, with finance provided by Standard Chartered Bank and HSBC UK.

Durham University is taking on some of the offshore wind industry’s toughest challenges by joining forces with the Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult, supporting North East England’s ambitions to grow its renewable energy sector.

Inflation and supply chain problems hit offshore wind hard, but recent tenders suggest the sector is adjusting to new market realities. Costs inevitably vary as new markets and technologies emerge and mature, but the downward trend continues for both fixed-bottom and floating projects.

Orsted marked nearly seven months of commercial operation of its 132MW South Fork Wind array, culminating a more than 11 year journey for one of the U.S.’s earliest proposed developments. The project survived legal challenges and hostile presidential administration to begin feeding Long Island Power Authority’s grid this year.

Conservation

WWF published The Living Planet Report 2024, revealing the average size of wildlife populations has fallen by a staggering 73% over the last 50 years. The report emphasised our food system is the number one driver of nature’s decline, calling for urgent transformation of our food, energy and finance systems as well as unprecedented conservation efforts.

Natural England, part of the UK Government, published their new “State of Natural Capital Report for England”, an assessment of England’s natural capital in relation to its ability to continue to provide the benefits the Nation relies on. The report points the way for decision makers to ensure nature and economic growth can work hand-in-hand, and emphasises that nature should be regarded as the national wealth service”.

A new programme announced today by Climate Impact Partners and Deloitte, in collaboration with Project Seagrass, will channel critical funding to the UK’s National Oceanography Centre (NOC) to support UK seagrass restoration. It is hoped findings from the research will underpin the development of a seagrass carbon code and blue carbon framework – enabling companies to finance seagrass restoration at greater speed and scale.

The Biden-Harris Administration announced that NOAA is designating 4,543 square miles of coastal and offshore waters along California’s central coast as a  national marine sanctuary. The Chumash Heritage National Marine Sanctuary is America’s 17th national marine sanctuary and the third largest in the National Marine Sanctuary System. The sanctuary is to be managed with tribal, Indigenous community involvement, and contributes to more than 45 million acres of lands and waters conserved by the Biden-Harris Administration.

Conservationist Dr Euan Dunn has been chosen as the 2024 recipient of the RSPB Medal, following his unswerving commitment to secure the sandeel fishing closure in English waters of the North Sea and all Scottish waters that came into force this year.

Should we stop thinking the ocean can be run like a business? The dichotomy of the blue economy is explored in this piece by Nnimmo Bassey.

Scientists have challenged Tanya Plibersek’s claim that Australia is protecting more than half of its oceans and has “blitzed” a 30% target, arguing industrial longline fishing will still be allowed in some areas the government says it is conserving. Much of the area newly included in the reserve was not protected at a level that met the definition agreed in the Kunming-Montreal global biodiversity framework, commiting countries to ensure at least 30% of marine and coastal regions are “effectively conserved and managed”.

Biodiversity

Three new species have been added to South Africa’s marine life, a realm that is globally unique because of the two major ocean currents that meet here; the cold, slow-moving Benguela and the warm, fast-flowing Agulhas currents. About 30% of marine species are endemic in this region. The discoveries include; ‘the walking sponge’; ‘the tiny clam’; and ‘the rare and miniature isopod’.

An incredibly rare population of orcas with a unique pattern not seen anywhere else in the world has been described for the first time off the coast of Fiji.

Climate

Preliminary findings by an international team of researchers show the amount of carbon absorbed by land has temporarily collapsed. The final result was that forest, plants and soil – as a net category – absorbed almost no carbon in 2023, the hottest year ever recorded.  The sudden collapse of carbon sinks was not factored into climate models, and could accelerate global heating.

New research unveiled never-before-seen mucus “parachutes” produced by microscopic marine organisms, a.k.a marine snow, that significantly slows their descent. The surprising discovery implies previous estimates of the ocean’s carbon sequestration potential may have been overestimated. However, it also adds a crucial direct measurement to our understanding of how the ocean locks away atmospheric carbon, improving climate models and better informing policymakers in their efforts to slow climate change.

Blue Marine Foundation and partners have released a new policy brief titled; “Blue Thread: Aligning National Climate and Biodiversity Strategies” , exploring the potential of ocean-based solutions to enhance synergies across the biodiversity and climate agendas.

The UK government’s official climate watchdog has appointed the head of the energy industry’s trade association, Emma Pinchbeck, to lead its work helping to drive the UK’s emissions to net zero by 2050. Emma Pinchbeck will be assuming the role of chief executive of the Climate Change Committee (CCC) early next month.

The North Sea Transition Authority (NSTA) and The Crown Estate have published a new Statement of Intent to confirm joint aspirations in ensuring a more sustainable and closely coordinated management of the seabed.

The research icebreaker Polarstern has returned from the ArcWatch-2 expedition, bringing an up-to-date scientific overview of the Eurasian and Central Arctic ocean. Researchers from 17 countries and 24 institutes have created an extensive dataset encompassing the atmosphere, ocean circulation, sea ice physics, geochemistry and the ecosystem. The data will be used to gain better insight into the changes in the Arctic as part of the global ocean and climate system.

Marine Pollution

A specialist dive and hydrographic vessel lost power and ran aground while conducting a reef survey, the first unintentional sinking of a New Zealand naval vessel since World War II. Local businesses and conservationists now fear the potential environmental impact of the accident, which occurred in waters off Samoa’s most populated island.

A huge fire broke out in the engine room of an oil tanker off Germany’s Baltic Coast. All crew members were rescued and efforts are being made to put out the blaze and prevent an oil spill.

In the largest oil spill response exercise in the Baltic Sea, eight countries have come together to test the mutual alarm system and multinational oil spill response to prepare for major incidents.

Governments from states around the Caspian Sea have finalised a draft regional action plan for responding to major oil spills, in response to a rapid rise of oil and gas exploration and production in the region. The Aktau Protocol Plan will be implemented under the Tehran Convention.

A multi-agency counter pollution exercise was led by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency in Falmouth, Cornwall last week, to test responsiveness to potential oil spills.

Significant increase in shipping in the Arctic has caught international and national attention. A new study has reviewed noise-emitting activities from Arctic cruise expeditions and potential adverse consequences for Arctic endemic marine mammals, while also discussing governance options for mitigating these consequences.

Opportunities

MASTS Annual Science Meeting 2024 is taking place November 5 – November 7. You can join in person or online, more details can be found here.