Deal will restrict fishing near colonies on Robben Island and Bird Island for 10 years, after long debate between industry and conservationists
Efforts to stop the critically endangered African penguin from going extinct took a step forward on Tuesday after South African conservationists and fishing industry groups reached a legal settlement on no-fishing zones around six of the penguins’ major breeding colonies.
Sardine and anchovy fishing will not be allowed for 12 miles (20km) around the penguin colony off Cape Town on Robben Island, where Nelson Mandela was imprisoned, and Bird Island, across the bay from Gqeberha, also known as Port Elizabeth. There will be more limited closures around four other colonies, according to a court order formalising the agreement.
Continue reading...
Breaking Waves: Ocean News
03/18/2025 - 06:20
03/18/2025 - 06:19
Work and pensions secretary says Benefits crackdown will save £5bn by 2030 but disability charities say cuts are ‘immoral’. This live blog is closed
Q: Why have you changed your mind on this?
Badenoch says she has not changed her mind. As a member of the government, she abided by collective responsibility. She says in government she regularly questioned the case for net zero.
The person who’s been consistent in all this is me.
I’m not going to pretend that I won’t have critics … This is politics. Being a politician is about being criticised.
What I’m asking people to do is listen to what I’m saying. I am not doing what all the other parties are doing. We are changing the way we do things.
That’s not how it works. You can’t just pull [a date] out of the air. And what we did was pick a target and then start thinking of how to get there.
We need to start thinking about it in a different way. How does this impact families? How is business going to help us deliver? And that’s what the policy commissions are going to do.
Continue reading...
03/18/2025 - 02:00
Flying lobsters, cuttlefish ink and stargazy pie … Jon Tonks got on his kayak to spend 18 months photographing the incredible fishing communities around England’s south-west coast
Continue reading...
03/18/2025 - 02:00
Charity says thousands of signs on capital’s estates deter children from being active, and is covering some of them up
A campaign to bring down thousands of “no ball games” signs across London – and eventually across the UK – has launched with a “more ball games” takeover on a Lambeth housing estate.
The new signs, which show basketball hoops, were designed by the inequality charity London Sport, working with the advertising giant Saatchi & Saatchi, and are being put over “no ball games” signs on the Mursell estate in Stockwell with support from Lambeth council.
Continue reading...
03/18/2025 - 02:00
Ana Toni also criticises the UK’s plans to slash overseas aid to fund defence spending
Countries looking to boost their national security through rearmament or increased defence spending must also bolster their climate efforts or face more wars in the future, one of the leaders of the next UN climate summit has warned.
Some countries could decide to include climate spending in their defence budgets, suggested Ana Toni, Brazil’s chief executive of the Cop30 summit.
Continue reading...
‘Heartbreaking’: poisoning suspected after mass deaths of more than 200 little corellas in Newcastle
03/18/2025 - 01:26
Hunter Wildlife Rescue started receiving numerous reports of sick and dead birds on Monday, centred on the suburbs Hamilton and Carrington
Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates
Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast
New South Wales authorities are calling for the public’s help as it investigates the suspected poisoning and mass deaths of more than 200 little corellas across multiple Newcastle suburbs.
The NSW Environment Protection Authority said it was interrogating pesticide misuse as the possible cause of the “serious incident”, based on its observations and advice from local veterinarians.
Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email
Continue reading...
03/18/2025 - 01:00
Exclusive: Almost 300,000 hours of raw effluent poured into waterways, figures show, up from 196,000 in 2023
A record 50% more raw sewage was discharged into rivers in England by Thames Water last year compared with the previous 12 months, data seen by the Guardian reveals.
Thames, the largest of the privatised water companies, which is teetering on the verge of collapse with debts of £19bn, was responsible for almost 300,000 hours of raw sewage pouring into waterways in 2024 from its ageing sewage works, according to the data. This compares with 196,414 hours of raw effluent dumped in 2023.
The Amersham balancing tanks in Buckinghamshire, which are supposed to safely store excess sewage after heavy rain, discharged 4,842 hours of raw sewage in 2024.
Amersham was the scene of the longest unbroken individual discharge, when the equivalent of 154 days of raw sewage spilled into the River Misbourne, a chalk stream, last year.
Marlborough sewage treatment works dumped raw sewage for 2,786 hours.
At the Chesham sewage treatment works there were 2,681 hours of sewage discharges.
Continue reading...
03/18/2025 - 00:22
Made up of blobby tissue and living deep in the ocean, the distinctive species beat the longfin eel and pygmy pipehorse in the annual contest
It was once crowned the “world’s ugliest animal” and now the disgruntled-looking gelatinous blobfish has a new gong to its name: New Zealand’s fish of the year.
The winning species of blobfish, Psychrolutes marcidus, lives in the highly pressurised depths off the coasts of New Zealand and Australia and has developed a unique anatomy to exist. Blobfish do not have a swim bladder, a full skeleton, muscles or scales. Instead, their bodies are made up of blobby tissue with a lower density than water that allows them to float above the seafloor.
Continue reading...
03/18/2025 - 00:00
Before billionaires dreamed of setting up communities on Mars, the ocean was seen as the next frontier in human habitation. Reviving this dream is Deep, a project backed by an anonymous millionaire to the tune of more than £100m that aims to establish a ‘permanent human presence’ under the sea from 2027. Guardian Seascape editor Lisa Bachelor visited the project just outside Chepstow on the Welsh border, and tells Madeleine Finlay what scientists hope to learn about the ocean by spending extended periods living underwater
Support the Guardian: theguardian.com/sciencepod
Continue reading...
03/17/2025 - 22:51
BYD unveils platform with charging power of 1,000 kW, which would be twice as fast as Tesla’s supercharging
Can BYD’s batteries really charge in five minutes?
The Chinese electric vehicle maker BYD has unveiled a new charging system that it said could make it possible for EVs to charge as quickly as it takes to refill with petrol.
BYD’s Hong Kong-listed shares gained 4.1% on Tuesday to hit a record high of 408.80 Hong Kong dollars, as investors bet that the company could strengthen its already commanding position as one of the world’s biggest electric carmakers.
Continue reading...
