Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Only 0.5% of 90,000 oil slicks reported over five-year period, analysis finds

admin — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 08:00:51 +0000

Pollution incidents reported between 2014 and 2019 were compared against scientific study that used satellite imagery to count slicks

Just 474 out of more than 90,000 oil slicks from ships around the world were reported to authorities over a five-year period, it can be revealed, and barely any resulted in any punishment or sanctions.

Anglian Water to pay £63m over sewage failures

admin — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 07:56:31 +0000

Ofwat finds company breached its legal obligations in how it operated its wastewater treatment works

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The water regulator, Ofwat, has ordered Anglian Water to pay £62.8m over failures in managing its wastewater treatment works and network that meant it was unable to cope with sewage flows.

Devon campaigners call for ‘right to riverbank’ after finding Dart has 108 owners

admin — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 07:00:50 +0000

Research shows difficulties ahead for ministers if they are to keep manifesto pledge to extend riverside public access

Campaigners in Devon are calling for a right to the riverbank after finding their local river, the Dart, has 108 separate owners, with an eighth of it owned via offshore companies.

Locals used site visits, angling maps, Companies House records and Land Registry data to find out who owns the River Dart.

Minns government’s environmental integrity condemned as ‘nonexistent’ amid 40% surge in land clearing

admin — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 06:03:16 +0000

Independent MP Jacqui Scruby says she saw ‘fresh koala scratchings on trees just metres from clear-felling’ in parts of proposed Great Koala national park

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Gorilla habitats and pristine forest at risk as DRC opens half of country to oil and gas drilling bids

admin — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 04:01:46 +0000

Government launches licensing round for 52 fossil fuel blocks, potentially undermining a flagship conservation initiative and affecting an estimated 39 million people

The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is opening crucial gorilla habitats and pristine forests to bids for oil and gas drilling, with plans to carve up more than half the country into fossil fuel blocks.

China floods: more than 30 killed in Beijing and tens of thousands evacuated

admin — Tue, 29 Jul 2025 00:59:39 +0000

Authorities relocated 80,000 residents from China’s capital after registering rainfall of up to 543 mm in some districts

More than 30 people have been killed by heavy rain and flooding in Beijing and a neighbouring region, state media have reported, as tens of thousands more were evacuated from China’s capital.

State broadcaster CCTV said that as of midnight on Monday, 28 people had died in Beijing’s hard-hit Miyun district and two others in Yanqing district as of midnight. Both are outlying parts of the sprawling city, far from the downtown.

England’s farmers to get new payments for cleaning up waterways

admin — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 17:24:50 +0000

Environment secretary says Defra will be launching changes to post-Brexit scheme for sustainable farming

Farmers in England will get new payments for cleaning up the waterways near their land, the environment secretary has said.

Agricultural pollution affects 40% of Britain’s lakes and rivers, as fertiliser and animal waste washes off the land into waterways.

I was terrified of bees – until the day 30,000 of them moved into my house | Pip Harry

admin — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:00:34 +0000

Two huge swarms have made themselves at home inside author Pip Harry’s house – but learning to live together revealed bees can be excellent housemates

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Self-imposed lockdowns, surveillance fears and forced separations: life for California’s undocumented farmworkers

admin — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 15:00:31 +0000

Undocumented migrants form the backbone of the ‘salad bowl of the world’ – Trump’s crackdown has led to hyper-vigilance

Driving into the Salinas valley, about two hours south of San Francisco, hand-painted signs fly by, advertising cherries, pistachios, avocados and garlic.

From above, the valley looks like a quilt stitched together out of a thousand shades of green – the fields of lettuce, spinach and strawberries that give the region its nickname, “the salad bowl of the world”.

The life of microplastic: how fragments move through plants, insects, animals – and you

admin — Mon, 28 Jul 2025 10:00:19 +0000

Microplastics have been found in the placentas of unborn babies, the depths of the Mariana Trench, the summit of Everest and the organs of Antarctic penguins. But how do they travel through the world, and what do they do to the creatures that carry them? Here is the story of how plastic contaminates entire ecosystems – and even the food we eat. Illustrations by Claire Harrup