Simple deterrents can slash the number of razorbills and guillemots being trapped underwater, two-year study shows
Bird-shaped kites and a floating scarecrow are being tested to try to stop endangered seabirds drowning in fishing nets.
Every year an estimated 95,000 diving birds, including razorbills and guillemots, are accidentally caught in nets off European coasts.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
09/30/2026 - 18:01
09/30/2026 - 12:37
Sunday’s general election is too close to call, with the incumbent president facing the son of the man who attempted a coup against him
Sunday’s election in Brazil could hardly be a clearer-cut choice – nor a closer call. President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known as Lula, is neck and neck in the polls with Flávio Bolsonaro, the son and champion of the jailed far-right former president Jair. Mr Bolsonaro senior is serving a 27-year sentence for plotting a coup to “annihilate” democracy after losing the last election.
Brazil is Latin America’s largest democracy, but military dictatorship is in its recent past. Mr Bolsonaro wants to free his father and those who rioted in his support in 2023. The senator has campaigned as a less crass and temperamental version of his father, but he is no less extreme. For many on both sides, this is a vote against a man they detest more than an endorsement of their own candidate. Most voters disapprove of both men.
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09/30/2026 - 11:24
Developing North Sea fields does not contradict net zero goals, according to Simone Rossi
New oil and gas projects are a “no-brainer” that pose “no contradiction” to the net zero agenda, according to the head of EDF Energy.
Simone Rossi has joined a string of renewables leaders in making the case for more North Sea production as the government prepares to decide on two projects there.
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09/30/2026 - 10:00
Images of gliding king penguins, a sugar thief rosella and a bin brush turkey are among the winning and shortlisted photos in this year’s prize. Funds raised by the competition support bird conservation programs in Australia
Australia’s best photos the month – September 2026
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09/30/2026 - 08:50
Environment Agency warns residents of 6m at-risk properties to prepare for wet and windy three months ahead
More than two million people in England are unaware their properties are at risk of flooding, as the UK braces for a wet and stormy start to the winter, according to the Environment Agency.
Experts say the next three months are more likely than usual to be wet and windy – due to a combination of large-scale weather patterns and the “subtle” impact of a supercharged El Niño – increasing the risk of flooding.
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09/30/2026 - 06:58
Study says UK-based banks provided $8.3bn in coal financing in four years, with Barclays and HSBC leading rise
UK banks are Europe’s biggest financial backers of the global coal industry, providing billions of pounds in funding for the climate-wrecking fossil fuel in the past four years, according to a report.
The study found UK-based banks had provided $8.3bn (£6.2bn) in coal financing since Cop26 in Glasgow in 2021, when global leaders pledged to “phase down” coal use. This compared with $4.9bn from German banks and $3.4bn from French banks over the same period.
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09/30/2026 - 06:00
Wave nearing southern California expected to reach San Francisco Bay Area by October as it crawls toward Alaska
Communities across California are rushing to prepare for the imminent arrival of the so-called “Kelvin wave”, a massive underwater band of warm water threatening to inundate swaths of the vast North American shoreline.
The wave is nearing southern California and expected to reach the San Francisco Bay Area by early October, as it crawls toward Alaska. Waters could rise by a foot along the California coast, according to scientists, who have warned that this could dramatically double the 8-12in rise in sea levels already caused by climate change over the last century.
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09/30/2026 - 05:00
Insects provide protection, sanitation and even shelter to vertebrates, making them a priority for conservation efforts
For many vertebrates, insects are more than a food source. As “little things that run the world”, insects provide critical functions such as protection, sanitation and shelter across ecosystems, according to a new study.
The study, published in Nature Reviews Biodiversity on Wednesday, sheds light on the various ways insects support vertebrates, ranging from birds and bats to reptiles, amphibians and mammals.
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09/30/2026 - 05:00
Fish and shellfish populations were falling rapidly as scallop dredgers devastated the seabed, but local activists and small-scale fishers battled hard to protect their coastline
Inside a bothy overlooking the Summer Isles, in the north-west of Scotland, the lilting tones of a traditional Gaelic duo fill a room full of musicians, storytellers, artists, local people and revellers, hung with fish-shaped lanterns and “Happy Birthday” signs.
It’s no ordinary birthday. The people in the small cabin have come together, on a windy night in Achiltibuie, a string of coastal hamlets and villages north of Ullapool, to celebrate an important milestone in the community’s history: a hard-won battle to protect their waters from the ravages of scallop dredging.
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09/30/2026 - 01:08
Exclusive: Environment secretary Angela Eagle to make pledge as part of efforts to protect against extreme weather
Half a million trees will be planted across England in the next three years to protect against extreme weather, the environment secretary, Angela Eagle, will pledge on Wednesday morning.
Mayors, local authorities, charities and grassroots groups will be given new funding and responsibilities for restoring natural landscapes such as wetlands, river edges and meadows, which can provide natural flood management and reduce the damage done by droughts.
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