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Global effort needed to limit effects of pollution, industrial fishing and climate crisis, World Ocean Assessment says
The world’s oceans are under “severe and accelerating” pressure from human activities, with the rate of sea-level rise double that of a decade ago, according to a damning assessment from the United Nations.
The “intensifying” stressors, which include pollution and large-scale industrial fishing, are cumulative, said the report, resulting in widespread biodiversity loss and putting ocean systems under “severe strain”.
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Iata boss Willie Walsh blames fuel suppliers, governments and aircraft makers, saying new ‘realistic timeline’ now needed
The aviation industry’s landmark pledges to be net zero by 2050 will probably not now be achieved, airline leaders have admitted.
The collective goal to eliminate net carbon emissions was declared by global airlines only five years ago in 2021, with similar pledges made by national aviation industry leaders and governments, including in the UK, in 2020.
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Annual killing of infant gannets has been carried out on a remote Scottish island for at least 400 years
Animal welfare campaigners have called for talks on phasing out the “inhumane” hunt for infant gannets known as guga, which are killed by hunters on a remote Scottish island once a year.
OneKind and the League Against Cruel Sports said it should be slowly phased out in dialogue with the Hebridean islanders who see the hunt, which has been carried out for at least 400 years, as a cultural pursuit and as sustainable food harvesting.
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Footage captured by a diver shows a rare sighting of a great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea, spotted between Tunisia and Sicily.
The sighting happened during a mission, organised by the NGO Healthy Seas Foundation in partnership with Ghost Diving and the Society for Documentation of Submerged Sites, to remove abandoned fishing nets in the strait of Sicily.
Healthy Seas, which removes rubbish from seas, said the video was believed to be the first underwater footage captured of an adult great white shark in the Mediterranean in its natural habitat. The species has come close to extinction in the region, thought by Healthy Seas to be due to threats such as overfishing.
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Marine biologist Issah Seidu has found a way for Ghana’s fishing communities to earn a living – and help protect the ancient and critically endangered fish species
Guitarfish are an odd-looking and ancient species, with the tail of a shark and the flattened body of a ray, but their coveted fins have driven populations to the brink of extinction. In west Africa, where their meat is also a local delicacy, many guitarfish species are among the most critically endangered fish in the ocean.
Conservationists at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) describe the slow-maturing ray, which produce young annually, as an “indicator species”, which reflect the overall health of an ecosystem and pose challenges in the way coastal fishing of them is managed. The IUCN red list categorises more than half of guitarfish species as critically endangered.
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Record numbers linked to warming waters is mixed news for fishers, with shellfish catches down but octopus catches booming
Record numbers of octopuses found off the south-west coast of England last year have now spread as far as Scotland and Wales and are transforming the fishing industry and the marine ecosystem, according to a study.
The surge in sightings of one of the world’s most intelligent invertebrates was first recorded in 2025 off the south coast of Devon and Cornwall.
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Badenoch, Cairngorms: It started with a tiny Scots pine growing out of a huge old birch, but soon I find more examples of this strange magic
The sight pulls me up short. It looks like something out of myth or a book of spells. Here is a miniature Scots pine growing 6ft up, right in the fork of a shaggy old birch. It delights and baffles me in equal measure. In further wanderings, I discover more examples of this strange magic. A rowan and a birch appear to sprout from the same stem, while a holly and a hawthorn are so hopelessly intertwined that I spend ages tracing back down through leaves, twigs, branches and trunks just to figure out how deep this union goes. At the bottom, this odd pairing have drawn a rusted fence into their inter-species embrace.
Investigating, I learn that there are a few wonders at work here. First, trees can grow so closely together that they become entangled and appear joined. Occasionally, though, limbs do repeatedly rub against each other in the wind, wear away the bark and fuse. Some even share vascular systems, passing water and nutrients between them. It is a natural grafting process called inosculation and can happen anywhere from the base of the trunk up to higher branches that form a linking arm. In folklore, it is called “a husband and wife tree”. Mostly occurring within species, it does sometimes cross divides.
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Global heating is destroying creeks the crayfish call home. They’re the canary in the coalmine for other species living in the delicate ecosystems
Nightfall comes early under the dense cloak of the rainforest canopy and Ollie Scully – boots off and barefoot – is wading through the cool water with his torch scouring the rocky bottom of a shallow creek.
We are at an undisclosed spot in the hinterland of Queensland’s Sunshine Coast. With leeches and trip hazards aplenty, the search has been on for hours.
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Guardian Australia road tests Hornsby Park and explores the history of turning industrial sites into peaceful green escapes in the heart of the city
I’m a denizen of the inner city, more used to plane trees than eucalypts. But Hornsby Park won me over immediately.
A highlight is the heritage steps, which stretch for about 1km, connecting Hornsby pool at one end and the Great North Walk at the other. Constructed in the 1930s, they traverse through the new park that opened earlier this year at the site of an old quarry abandoned since 2003.
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An ‘apolitical’ retired IT manager and a ‘far left’ biologist disagree over tackling global heating – but are they in harmony over truth and reconciliation?
• Want to meet someone from across the divide? Click here to find out how
Don, 74, Farnham
Occupation Retired IT project manager
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