UK charity Keep Britain Tidy, in partnership with supermarket chain Lidl, have launched the #Street2Sea campaign which aims to raise awareness of the damage that urban litter has to coastal environments and marine wildlife. To launch the campaign, a eco-artist, nicknamed ‘Moose’, has been enlisted to manage an art project which power-washes stencils of marine wildlife onto […]
The Capturing Our Coast (CoCoast) project, a UK based citizen science shore recording project has published a newsletter for April 2016. The project has had over 1,000 people attend a CoCoast training day since it launched in January with 30 field support days being run so far with more than 100 people turning up. The newsletter […]
The third annual Fishackathon challenge was launched on the 22nd April 2016 which is a competition that encouraged coders and scientific enthusiasts to address sustainable fishery challenges by creating applications (apps) for mobile phones and other devices. One of nine tasks set this year was to create an app to identify the species of fish […]
Progress on two tidal energy developments in the UK are underway. The application for a tidal energy centre off the Isle of Wight by Perpetuus Tidal Energy Centre Ltd. has been approved by the MMO. The application for the grid-connected tidal development will include activities which relate to the construction and operational phase of the tidal […]
Natural England have produced their monthly update for April 2016 summarising the progress being made on delivery of coastal access in the North West. Stretch 1 (Allonby to Whitehaven) and stretch 2 (Whitehaven to Silecroft) remain open whilst stretch 3 (Gretna to Allonby) and stretch 4 (Walney Island) remain in the development phase. Work is also starting […]
The National Coastal Tourism Academy (NCTA) have published a report regarding public perceptions of the English coast focusing on people between the ages of 18 and 35. Key findings from the report highlight that over half of those surveyed were unaware of opportunities at the coast and 80% of people stated that they would rather visit […]
The Marine Management Organisation has published a guide for local authorities to support the use and understanding of marine plans and marine planning, the interaction with terrestrial planning and how marine plans should be used. It emphasises the need to consider marine planning and the impact on marine waters when making planning decisions for the […]
The Environment Agency, Scottish Environmental Protection Agency and Natural Resources Wales have published the updated River Basin Management Plans (RBMPs) following the 2014-15 consultation. These set out priorities for protection and improvement of the water environment to achieve good ecological status in accordance with the requirements of the Water Framework Directive. Links to the plans […]
People with a passion for the UK’s coastline are being invited to help make history by being part of the largest coastal marine citizen science project ever undertaken. The £1.7m Capturing Our Coast project, funded through the Heritage Lottery Fund, is designed to further our understanding of the abundance and distribution of marine life around […]
The Marine Strategy Framework Directive requires all EU Member States to achieve Good Environmental Status (GES) in their marine waters by 2020. The UK’s Marine Strategy sets out how this will be achieved in UK waters and comprises 3 parts; part one sets out targets, part two sets out indicators and the newly published part […]