But governments struggle to curb illegal sand-mining

Bhitarkanika National Park has been declared Odisha’s first Critically Vulnerable Coastal Area (CVCA) by the Union Environment, Forest and Climate Change Ministry.

TEL AVIV, Israel — As Egypt marks the 150th anniversary of the opening of the Suez Canal, marine biologists are bemoaning one of the famed waterway’s lesser known legacies — the invasion of hundreds of non-native species, including toxic jellyfish and aggressive lionfish.

From time to time it comes to our attention either through our own experience or through information from our readers, various situations that can only be described as “odd”.

New Delhi: Given the heat of climate change and the government’s plans to create sustainable cities that offer citizens a decent quality of life, the use of intelligent technological tools to address environmental threats is critical.

The tropical Maldives may lose entire islands unless it can quickly access cheap financing to fight the impact of climate change, its foreign minister said.

East Yorkshire councillors bemoan lack of national guidance and funding

The installation could power 4.5 million homes.

“There is no higher priority for me and for my department in British Columbia than addressing the Big Bar landslide on the Fraser River,” – Bernadette Jordan, Canada’s new Fisheries Minister

Climate crises, like financial crises, will be damaging, unpredictable and almost impossible to avoid

Our latest paper, led by Marta Ribó, is out today in Nature Scientific Reports. With this new research, we can now identify which sections of the East Australian coast are likely to have a future and ongoing sand supply sand which sections are inherently vulnerable to erosion due to a lack of sand supply thousands of years ago.

Queensland farmers will be able to use their smartphones to track in real-time how much fertiliser is washing off their crops and polluting the Great Barrier Reef.

A new conservation area is to be created and an existing one extended in a bid to protect the breeding grounds of threatened seabirds.

Innovative efforts are underway to help turn the tide for small-scale fishers in a way that benefits both these vulnerable communities and the natural resources they depend upon for survival. For this to happen, the supply chain has to be disrupted.

Archaeologists have found a collection of seashells and volcanic rock once owned by Neanderthals in Grotta dei Moscerini in central Italy.

EThekwini Municipality has assured dog owners that once the festive season is over, dogs will be allowed onto Vetch’s beach again.

"The moment of crisis has come" in efforts to tackle climate change, Sir David Attenborough has warned.

Two small islands in South Sumatra have disappeared as a result of rising sea levels driven by climate change, while four other islands are already on the brink of vanishing, the Indonesian Forum for the Environment (Walhi) has claimed.

Mekong river is Southeast Asia's largest river, measuring up to 4,800 kilometers and bridging the countries of Myanmar, China, Cambodia, Thailand, Laos, and Vietnam up to the Tibetan plateau. The Mekong river is an important body of water as it provides livelihood to the people of these countries at the same time, its 800,000 square kilometer river basin is home to different species of plants and animals.

Cermaq Canada, a division of a multi-national salmon farming company, was granted a lease option by the provincial government last year to pursue open-pen farming in 20 sites throughout Nova Scotia including in Chedabucto Bay. Since that time the company has been investigating the feasibility of expansion, examining the business, environmental and social climate related to the proposed site areas.

Following the success of the DYNAREV experiment in the summer of 2017, a second Bath-led laboratory experiment on a low cost style of dynamic revetment was carried out in collaboration with researchers from institutions in both Europe and Brazil, supported by GCRF funding.

The rate of coastal erosion around the UK is expected to increase substantially in the future, according to a new study by the University of Plymouth.

Turns out that “my relative” is on the dinner menu for some hammerhead sharks in Australia!

Modi govt identified 13 pilot beaches in July 2019 for voluntary eco-label Blue Flag. Ten of these sites are likely to be sent for certification soon.

Proposals for two offshore wind farms have been opposed by councillors concerned that substations will damage the look of a conservation area.

Council has won a court battle to prevent significant vegetation clearing on sensitive coastal dunes at Castaways Beach.

Lance Underwood fears for local fisheries

This article is part of the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting

Environment groups have opposed the ongoing work on a 12-foot-high anti-erosion wall at Versova beach on the grounds that it comes under coastal regulation zone (CRZ) 1, where construction is not permitted.

The world's oceans are now heating at the same rate as if five Hiroshima atomic bombs were dropped into the water every second, scientists have said. A new study released on Monday showed that 2019 was yet another year of record-setting ocean warming, with water temperatures reaching the highest temperature ever recorded.

The Russian Agency for Fisheries has officially launched “The Russian Fish,” a new public-private partnership focused on marketing Russia’s seafood products abroad.

The Russian federal fisheries agency has put licenses for three aquaculture sites in the northerly Murmansk region up for auction, Undercurrent News has learned.

Hundreds more fishermen in Atlantic Canada are being drawn into the effort to protect endangered right whales this year.

Conservation groups and tourism operators in the South-West are protesting plans to develop the Margaret River Region's Cape to Cape Track.

A research team has found five new species of birds and five more subspecies in Wallacea, in what can be considered a big leap in terms of finding new bird species in the past 20 years.

Marine conservation campaigners have called for trawlers to be banned from fishing within three miles of Scotland’s shoreline to help depleted fish stocks and seabeds to recover, reports The Guardian.

Vehicles could be restricted from Invercargill's Oreti Beach to save the vulnerable toheroa population.

In India, the Coastal Regulation Zone (CRZ) Rules govern human and industrial activity close to the coastline, in order to protect the fragile ecosystems near the sea.

Bhubaneswar: Recently a portion of the geo-synthetic tube wall erected at Kendrapara’s Pentha village to combat sea erosion was damaged in a fire. Media reports suggest that 30 gabion boxes of the wall that is made up of water-permeable geo-textile tubes filled with sand slurry were gutted in the mishap.

With more than eighty percent of our ocean unexplored and unmapped, there may be a lot more sea creatures, lost sunken cities, shipwrecks and other mysteries that we will never know and possibly never get to discover.

Council bosses are pushing forward with plans to improve public safety along areas of crumbling coastline in South Shields.

Conservationists fighting to protect Marlborough beaches from vehicles say people abusing them should talk to the decision makers instead.

Unlike most offshore wind farm projects, this one floats.

The two Atlantic Category 5 hurricanes and three Northwest Pacific Category 5 super typhoons of 2019 set records

If you go down the ramp to the pontoons in Bangor Marina you couldn’t miss the impressive vessel sitting to your right. She’s the Seabird, Northern Ireland’s first sea-going boat-based environmental charity known as 'Citizen Sea', supported by Ards and North Down Borough Council and Bangor Marina.

These are first two of four apartment complexes that were ordered to be demolished for violations of coastal permitting rules.

The island nation is looking to update its climate pledge under the Paris Agreement. A bold pledge is necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

AN extra foot of seawall and more sand are needed to protect a stretch of coast from flooding

The world’s largest LNG bunkering vessel, which will be chartered by the French energy giant Total and owned and operated by MOL, has completed sea trials, according to Bureau Veritas official.

A beach access road has been temporarily closed following a cliff collapse on the north Norfolk coast.

Manitoba is taking a new approach to water management.

As the devastation from Australia’s bushfires widens, the insurance industry is calling for concerted action to mitigate the impact of climate change.

Natural catastrophes caused overall losses of US$150 billion during 2019, including insured losses of about US$52 billion, which matches the average of the past 30 years, according to Munich Re’s catastrophe update.

Microplastics (plastic particles under 5 mm) are an abundant type of debris found in salt and freshwater environments. In a Limnology & Oceanography Letters study, researchers demonstrated the transfer of microplastics through the food chain between microscopic prey and larval fish that live in coastal ecosystems. They also found that microplastic ingestion interferes with normal growth in fish larvae.

Marine protected areas in the Mediterranean Sea are home to more fish species, with the greatest gains found among species most sensitive to exploitation

The measure was revealed last night following a meeting at Holyrood between politicians and wild fisheries representatives.

We’re a week into the new year and a species has already been declared extinct: the giant Chinese paddlefish.

A great white shark was spotted in False Bay on Tuesday - for the first time in 20 months, a City of Cape Town official confirmed.

The New Year ushered in Palau’s much-touted environmental law, creating a marine sanctuary which will close 80 percent of Palau’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) to fishing and all other extractive activities such as mining, shark-finning, and transshipment – creating one of the largest marine protected areas in the world.

A huge container port in North Iceland would only be profitable in 40-50 years – if global warming melts most of the sea ice in the arctic. Two Northeast Iceland municipalities plan to build an international container port in Finnafjörður to link Asia, Europe, and the eastern United States. A new report from the University of Iceland’s Institute of Economic Studies, however, suggests that the viability of the venture is questionable.

Shetland's tourism industry has reiterated its opposition to the introduction of a local tourism tax which is currently considered by local authorities across Scotland as a way of raising millions of pounds of additional funds to invest in public services and infrastructure.

In volumes, the seafood export corresponds to 25,000 meals per minute, or 36 million meals every day.

Rapid urbanisation has led to forest loss, while groundwater extraction is causing the coastal city to sink as sea levels rise - a dangerous cocktail that is worsening floods

Dredging and reclamation works are often interrupted by unexploded ordnance (UXO). This is especially an issue encountered around the North and Baltic seas, but also in lakes, rivers, and land.

Canada is set to join a growing club of “super-aged societies,” with a new report calling the 2020s a “demographic time bomb” that will see seniors become a quarter of the country's population.

Efforts by Kenya to tap the unexploited potential of the maritime industry, commonly known as the ‘Blue Economy’, came into sharp focus recently when a youth gathering in Mombasa raised concerns over the delay by the government in creating an integrated policy framework to chart a way forward.

Organization launches awareness campaign to highlight how it is wading into coastal challenges

County Down has become an important centre for coastal rowing with clubs dotted around Strangford Lough and the Ards Peninsula. This is very much a community-based activity with skiffs active at Strangford, Portaferry, Portavogie, Donaghadee, Dundrum, Killyleagh, Sketrick, Strangford, and Kircubbin. There is also rowing at Ardglass and Ballywalter.

From 1 January 2020, the maximum sulphur content of marine fuels is reduced to 0.5% (down from 3.5%) globally – reducing air pollution and protecting health and the environment. Sulphur Oxide (SOx) emissions from ships’ combustion engines cause acid rain and generate fine dust that can lead to respiratory and cardiovascular diseases, as well as reduced life expectancy.

Denmark sourced almost half its electricity consumption from wind power last year, a new record boosted by steep cost reductions and improved offshore technology.

Thousands left homeless, highlighting plight of Indonesia’s capital of 30 million as one of fastest-slumping megacities, already 40% below sea level

The rocky island of Redonda, once stripped of its flora and fauna by invasive species, makes an astonishingly quick comeback. What’s the secret to its recovery?

As sea levels rise and adverse weather events become more common, vulnerable coastal communities are at increasing risk of devastation from storm surges and tsunamis. The death toll from tsunamis, at 260,000 during the past century, was higher than that from any other natural hazard. An international research team led by the University of Göttingen has now compared the effects of man-made and ecosystem protection to propose a hybrid approach including mangroves and coral reefs in coastal protection plans for tropical biodiversity hotspots. The results were published in the journal Trends in Ecology and Evolution.

Mike Parsons always dreamed of retiring to his hometown of Little Bay Islands. But when he and his wife moved back to the four-square-mile outpost off Newfoundland's northeastern coast in 2017, he never imagined they'd be its last inhabitants.

Two threats loom large as the third decade of the 21st century begins. While they manifest in starkly different ways, both are the product of human behavior. Both will profoundly shape our lives in the years to come — and there is little sign that we as a species are addressing and mitigating the consequences of either challenge. And, most alarming, only collective action will work. No matter how motivated some of us may be, failure to work together will ensure that these challenges overwhelm us.

VISITORS and locals across Scotland are invited to ‘dip their toes’ into Scotland’s Year of Coasts and Waters 2020 with a range of early-year activity across January and February celebrating the forthcoming themed year.

There's no denying that keeping livestock has deeply benefited humanity over the millennia. But, while sheep and cows may have adapted well to farm life, there's one animal humans like to eat that would fare poorly in farms.

Our waters have made us who we are. All of us are connected to the sea. Rarely are we, here in Scotland, more than a couple of hours' drive from the coast, and in some of our major cities, right there on its shimmering, sometimes gale-ravaged, shores.

There are many lessons climate scientists can learn from mātauranga Māori. Lesson one is: don’t panic.

Hotels, apartments and other tourist establishments in Mombasa and other Coastal areas have recorded 100 per cent bookings.

The Costa Rican government last week signed a law creating a National Lifeguard Corps to increase safety on the nation’s beaches.

One of the most worrisome types of environmental emergencies is an oil spill in the open ocean, due to the potential for the oil to kill wildlife, contaminate water and permanently damage coral reefs. Because of the nature of these emergencies, it is particularly important for authorities to handle an oil spill swiftly in order to prevent further damage to the environment.

Just over 18 months ago, there was a lot of concern expressed by Stuff readers, about the possible future of a cute little bach that had just come on the market in Teal Bay, Northland.

“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s mandate to phase out ocean net pen salmon farming in British Columbia flies in the face of the region’s commitment to responsible aquaculture,” – Global Aquaculture Alliance (GAA).

In August 2017, a marine accident occurred in the Pearl River Estuary where a cargo vessel accidentally released about 1,000 tons of palm stearin into the sea, where over 200 tons reached the southwest coasts of Hong Kong. Subsequently a research team launched an 18-month investigation on the degradation, bioaccumulation, and toxicity of the palm stearin through bother field- and laboratory-based investigations.

Feeding strategy strongly influences their size cap, but all whales depend on rich ocean resources to be big

OTTAWA — Call it the case of the missing icebreaker. The fate of the Canadian Coast Guard’s next heavy icebreaker has been wrapped in mystery since the federal government quietly removed the $1.3-billion project from Vancouver shipyard Seaspan’s order book in May.

Combing the Red Sea beach at an Egyptian luxury resort, workers find bagfuls of plastic garbage—but the news isn't all bad, thanks to a new environmental initiative.

Picture captures the moment as hut slips its moorings in Seaton

The City is polluting its own nature reserve.

A defining moment in the history of the oil-refining and shipping industries is at hand.

For some years, Australia has been on notice: the world is watching how we care for the Great Barrier Reef. The iconic natural wonder is the largest living organism on the planet. But its health is deteriorating.

The researchers cautioned that the fate of 7,000-year-old Tel Hreiz should represent a warning for present-day humans.

The results are for everybody to see. A new beach has formed along the shorelines and the economy there is thriving.

Sian will keep a watchful eye over 13-wall keeping rare breed of sheep on North Ronaldsay beach.

When Tropical Cyclone Debbie hit the Whitsundays in 2017, one of the many tourist hotspots that sustained serious damage was the Reefworld Pontoon – a remote outpost that gives divers easy access to the UNESCO World Heritage-Listed Barrier Reef, as well as providing amenities like food and bathrooms.

DNA-based biomonitoring relies on species-specific segments of organisms DNA for their taxonomic identification and is rapidly advancing for monitoring invertebrate communities across a variety of ecosystems. The analytical approaches taken vary from single-species detection to bulk environmental sample analysis, depending largely on the focus of data generation. However, for freshwater systems, there is often a lack of consideration as to the optimal sample type for maximising detection of macroinvertebrates.

Women in Scottish Aquaculture (WiSA) have kicked off a series of Scottish Government-supported diversity initiatives with the launch of a new mentoring programme.

Bobtail squid (order Sepiolida) are small cephalopods found in shallow coastal waters of the Indo-west Pacific, the east Atlantic coast, and the Mediterranean Sea.

Portable homes could be built on land due to slip into the sea to allow people to continue to inhabit the area, according to a senior official managing some the country’s most rapidly eroding coastline.