The March For Clean Water took place on Sunday 3 November. Image credit BBC.
Welcome to OCF’s insights from the marine and coastal sector. This week we have summarised the most relevant stories for you from a range of Marine and Coastal Sectors, including: Fisheries; Offshore Wind; Offshore Industries; Conservation; Climate; Science and more.
Fisheries
A new study has traced more than 300 companies as the owners of almost 600 reefer vessels, refrigerated container ships often associated with illegal fishing, active between 2017 and 2022, for the first time. Almost half of the vessels are owned by companies based in Russia (26%) and China (20%), while other major owners are in Greece, Japan and South Korea. While not all reefers engage in illegal conduct, without transparency, oversight is difficult. Linking ships back to their owners is a step toward identifying bad actors.
Environmental NGO has issued a stark warning following an 18-month investigation, claiming mercury contamination in tinned tuna represents a health scandal of dramatic proportions. Each of the 148 tinned tuna samples they analysed from five European countries was contaminated with mercury, with more than half exceeding the strictest EU mercury limits for fish. Bloom believes the higher threshold allowance for tuna, three times higher than the standard for cod, prioritises industry interests over public health.
The Marine Stewardship council has launched a new initiative aimed at accelerating progress in sustainable fishing practises globally. With almost 38% of global fish stocks now overfished, according to the latest UN data, there is an urgent need for more rapid progress. The new MSC Improvement Program seeks to address this by offering fisheries support and incentives, provided they make measurable improvements over a five-year period.
Fishing industry body Seafood New Zealand is delighted that fishers working in Aotearoa’s jack mackerel 7 fishery (JMA7) have managed to achieve a whole year of no accidental captures of protected species such as seabirds, dolphins and other marine mammals.
Consultations between the Coastal States and Fishing Parties in the North-East Atlantic: the UK, EU, Norway, Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Greenland and Russian Federation, have now concluded with agreement on 2025 catch limits for shared pelagic stocks. Agreed records for mackerel, blue whiting and Atlanto-Scandian herring were all signed by the end of discussions.
The European Commission published its proposal to set catch limits, or total allowable catches (TACs), for ten fish stocks in the EU waters in the Atlantic Ocean, Kattegat, and Skagerrak for 2025. Simultaneously, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) has issued updated guidance recommending a significant reduction in cod catch limits for 2025 across several Northern European waters, including the North Sea, West of Scotland, eastern English Channel, and Skagerrak. The recommended TAC reflects growing concerns over declining cod stocks.
Russia’s state Duma has formally denounced the 1964 Convention on the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES), marking the end of Russia’s six decade participation. Russia was one of the establishing Member Countries in 1902, to facilitate collaboration on sustainable fisheries and marine conservation, but now state that ICES has become politicised.
On 05 November 2024, Westminster Hall will host a pivotal debate led by Robert Lowe MP on the future of UK and EU fishing arrangements post-2026. The current agreement, which has allowed the UK to reclaim 25% of the EU’s pre-Brexit quota in UK waters through a gradual transition, will face renegotiation as both sides consider new terms.
A recent report from the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee, addressing the 2025-26 budget, raised serious concerns about the adequacy of funding for Scotland’s Marine Directorate, highlighting a range of issues from deteriorating laboratory facilities to insufficient resources for research and monitoring. Two papers by the Rural Affairs and Islands Committee says the Scottish inshore fisheries face calls for reform and research.
NOAA’s Shrimp Futures Initiative, led by the Southeast Fisheries Science Center, is tackling the U.S. shrimp industry’s challenges by partnering with shrimpers and researchers to identify solutions and future needs.
Offshore Wind
At the “Strong Winds, Thriving Seas” conference, in a joint statement, members of the Offshore Coalition for Environment and Nature (OCEaN) highlighted how the EU’s biodiversity protection and restoration targets can align with the expansion of offshore wind and grid infrastructure. OCEaN launched a report on ‘Avoidance and minimisation of environmental impacts from offshore wind & grid’. The report offers an overview of existing measures to reduce impacts, highlights knowledge gaps and provides recommendations to improve the deployment of offshore wind and grids to achieve even better outcomes for nature. Additionally, OCEaN launched an Energy and Nature database to inspire project developers, governments and permitting authorities.
Talent development agency Skillnet Ireland and Wind Energy Ireland have launched the Skillnet Offshore Wind Academy, to support professionals through a career switching model and rapidly create a pipeline of skilled workers for businesses operating in offshore wind services.
Ørsted has agreed to transfer 12.4% stakes in four operational UK North Sea wind farms, a combined capacity of about 3.5 GW, to Brookfield, its institutional partners, and affiliate Brookfield Renewable for £1.745 billion ($2.27 billion).
Ireland’s government recently announced it has approved the terms and conditions of the country’s second offshore wind auction, for the 900-MW Tonn Nua site. The qualification phase of the Tonn Nua auction is expected to open in the first quarter of 2025 and the bidding phase in the second quarter of 2025.
Deep Wind Offshore has been actively exploring the Latin American offshore wind market for more than two years. Now, the company has applied for an area lease for one floating and one bottom-fixed offshore wind project on the Chilean coastline. The offshore wind projects will be managed and operated locally.
Trump fears overshadow US offshore wind gathering, as the Republican nominee and former president has vowed to scrap offshore wind projects through an executive order on his first day in office. Meanwhile The US Department of the Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the Department of Defense (DoD) announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to strengthen their collaboration on offshore wind development. The agreement calls for DOD and BOEM to find mutual solutions that support renewable energy in a manner compatible with essential military operations.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management held a lease sale and selected nearly $22 million in winning bids for four lease areas from two firms. Whilst the leased areas have the potential to power more than 2.3 million homes, they are in the Gulf of Maine, a critical fishing ground for the U.S. lobster industry.
The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) has established the Partnership for an Offshore Wind Energy Regional Observation Network (POWERON), designed to maximise the quality and consistency of scientific marine mammal acoustic data collected in lease areas. With this new program, lessees can make annual contributions to POWERON to have their long-term passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) requirements fulfilled by an approved third party.
RWE has launched the SeaMe project (Sustainable ecosystem approach in Monitoring the marine environment), in partnership with leading scientists, to gain better understanding of the interactions between offshore wind farms and the ecosystem. SeaMe aims to replace traditional monitoring methods with a drone equipped with an AI-based camera system. The project will also collect water samples and analyse them for environmental DNA.
Offshore Industry
Charge Offshore has introduced two offshore charging systems following trials at an unnamed wind farm. Aquarius Eco can supply 0.5-2 MW for crew transfer vessels, while Aquarius Plus (2-8 MW) is targeted at larger service operation vessels. The technology is designed to deliver emissions-free power to electric and hybrid vessels at sea, connecting directly to offshore wind generation.
Conservation
A coalition of Canadian environmental groups has lost its latest bid to prevent Alaska’s salmon fishery from being labelled as sustainable by an international certification body. An adjudicator has upheld the Marine Stewardship Council’s decision to certify the Alaskan fishery despite what they call “unsustainable” fishing practices that intercept British Columbia’s migrating salmon.
Caps on the number of boats allowed to approach whales among measures to be introduced, while experts say restrictions don’t go far enough. Whale-watching tourism generates over $2bn in revenue, according to the International Whaling Commission, and the Pacific industry is growing, with the number of certified whale-based tourism operators in French Polynesia rising from 60 in 2023, to 90 in 2024.
New study shows that despite the perception that by-catch of marine mammals is rare, it can lead to population decline.
After 16 years of grassroots efforts, local communities in northern Puerto Rico are celebrating the creation of a new marine protected area: the Jardines Submarinos de Vega Baja y Manatí. The newly established MPA encompasses 202.7 square km (77 square miles) of coastal coral reefs, mangroves and seagrass beds home to more than 14 endangered species, including the Greater Caribbean Manatee.
The Protected Planet Report 2024, from the UN Environment Programme World Conservation Monitoring Centre (UNEP-WCMC) and the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), reveals that 17.6% of land and inland waters and 8.4% of the ocean and coastal areas globally are within documented protected and conserved areas. While this shows the international community has made some headway on pledges to protect 30% of the Earth by 2030, progress must accelerate.
Oil and gas concessions and production areas in the Coral Triangle region overlap with tens of thousands of kilometres of marine protected areas, which include mangroves, coral reefs, and seagrass habitats, according to new analysis from Earth Insight, SkyTruth, CEED Philippines, and others. The report warns that fossil fuel expansion will increase tanker traffic and the risk of oil spills, with dire consequences for local populations and marine life.
A United Nations emergency session on coral reefs came up short, with funding commitments well below what is needed to protect critical marine ecosystems. So far, only $30 million has been committed, including a $10 million pledge from New Zealand made earlier this week. The fund hopes to raise $150 million by June 2025, when the U.N. Ocean Conference will be held.
Conservation International, along with ORRAA and other partners, officially launched the High-Quality Blue Carbon (HQBC) Practitioners Guide. This resource aims to create a shared understanding of “high quality” in blue carbon projects, helping to foster more transparent and effective collaboration between project developers, investors, and other stakeholders.
Oceana and ClientEarth are filing a lawsuit with Spain’s national high court over bottom trawling in marine protected areas (MPAs), violating EU and national conservation law. A win would send a strong signal to EU institutions and other Member States to respect EU conservation laws and protect vulnerable marine species and habitats.
Climate
The Emissions Gap Report 2024 has been released, titled No More Hot Air Please as country policies are on track to exceed 3°C of warming compared to pre-industrial levels. Greenhouse gas emission cuts of 42% are needed by 2030 and 57% by 2035 to get on track for 1.5°C.
NZ must step up to protect its own oceans to match international commitments made at Commonwealth leaders’ meeting.
Recognising satellites cannot detect phytoplankton below the ocean’s surface, researchers are using a growing global network of underwater robots, known as Biogeochemical-Argo floats, to calculate how much phytoplankton biomass is on Earth. They have estimated it at about 343 million tons, at least half of which is not observed by space satellites. Accurately monitoring Earth’s phytoplankton is essential, especially when it comes to understanding the effects of global warming or possible carbon-removal initiatives.
Science
A new study explores how marine biodiversity conservation, human health and wellbeing are connected. The results suggest that well-designed and managed marine protected areas can be good for both the planet and people, by both conserving biodiversity and improving nutritional security.
New scientific research explores how sharks, skates and rays are distributed around Scotland’s coasts, with the results to be used to help their conservation. The report models where the highest numbers of nine threatened species are predicted to occur, assesses the sensitivity of elasmobranchs to various fishing methods, and predicts bycatch hotspots in prawn and scallop fisheries.
Oceanographers recorded the largest predation event ever observed in the ocean, between cod predators and capelin prey off the coast of Norway. As the capelin shoal formed a sort of ecological “hotspot,” the team observed individual cod begin to group together in response, forming a huge shoal of their own. The swarming cod overtook the capelin, quickly consuming over 10 million fish, estimated to be more than half of the gathered prey.
A Project CETI (Cetacean Translation Initiative) research team has proposed a new reinforcement learning framework with autonomous drones to find sperm whales and predict where they will surface. Project CETI aims to collect millions to billions of high-quality, highly contextualised vocalisations in order to understand how sperm whales communicate.
Marine Pollution
Environmental Standards Scotland (ESS) is calling on the Scottish Government to embed a ‘source-to-sea’ approach into future policy and legislation to tackle marine litter. The most recent assessment of beach litter indicates that levels in Scotland are worse than the rest of the UK with 919 items found per 100 metres of shore.
The Biden-Harris Administration announced a nearly $3 billion investment to fund 55 projects under the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Ports Program. The initiative aims to install zero-emission equipment, infrastructure upgrades, and climate-focused planning projects in 27 states and territories. The goal is to reduce diesel pollution at ports, promote environmental justice and provide well-paid union jobs.
A recent study has revealed alarming levels of microplastic pollution in the Azhikkal estuary, a significant marine ecosystem in Kerala’s Kannur district, where the Valapattanam River empties into the Arabian Sea.
Tampico, Mexico-headquartered ship manager Gremex Shipping was fined $1.75 million after pleading guilty to a felony violation of the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS). Specifically, Gremex was charged with creating and providing false records to the U.S. Coast Guard to conceal the illegal discharge of oily bilge waste into the ocean by its managed vessel, the M/V Suhar.
A blog by Sara Hussein explores the different ways marine life has adapted to the presence of plastic.
Opportunities
Interested in the science that has been looking at Pollack in Southwest England? Or the movements of sharks, rays and seabream, revealed by fishtagging? University of Plymouth is hosting a public conference on 12th Feb 2025 that will cover results of both these interesting and timely Fisheries Industry Science Partnership projects, so sign up and join online or in person to find out what the scientists say!
Marine Media
This Greenpeace blog explores why wifi on fishing vessels is important.
The Crown Estate has supported a new documentary called ‘Sea, Land, City’ which showcases solutions to the threats facing nature and biodiversity across the UK.
Marine ecosystem in danger: Fishermen launch initiative to protect sea in Amorgos
Dive into the UN Ocean Decade’s latest report, ‘An Ocean of Life’, featuring 19 success stories from endorsed initiatives across the world with concrete examples of how the
#OceanDecade community of scientists are delivering the science we need for the ocean we want.