Norway pauses plans for deep sea mining: The Norwegian government has announced that it will temporarily halt plans for deep sea mining after a small left-wing party said that it would block the government’s budget from progressing through the country’s parliament if the mining went ahead. This has effectively stopped Norway’s plans to begin deep sea mining, although the Norwegian government has stressed preparatory is continuing and seabed mining will still go ahead in the next parliament. In January 2024 Norway became the first country in the world to approve deep sea mining. This would have opened up over one hundred thousand square miles of seabed (and area larger than the UK) companies to extract minerals and rare earth metals from the seabed with heavy machinery. Deep sea mining is extremely controversial as there have been few studies into its long-term impact on marine environments and the World Wildlife fund is currently in the process of suing the Norwegian government for approving seabed mining without having carried out sufficient assessments. Furthermore, a coalition of thirty-two countries, including the UK, have formed into a coalition calling for an indefinite moratorium on deep sea mining across the world. Read more here.
Organic salmon may have been exposed to toxic chemicals: An article in this months Daily Mail said that salmon which was labelled as being organic had been exposed to banned pesticides, some of which have been linked to neurological conditions, such as chronic fatigue syndrome and Parkinson’s disase. The Daily Mail claimed that Norwegian company Mowi had been treating salmon with pesticides such as azamethiphos, an insecticide used to control parasites such as sea lice which are very common in fish farms due to the close proximity in which salmon are raised. This should have prevented the salmon from being sold as organic, but the Daily Mail said that Mowi would “convert” the fish to being organic if they had not received a pesticide treatment for three months. The founder of the Green Britain Foundation, Dale Vince, told the Daily Mail: “Not only are consumers being duped into paying premium prices for farmed salmon doused in toxic chemicals, but the entire practice of fish farming is an environmental disaster. Its polluting out oceans, decimating wild fish populations and causing immense animal suffering.” Mowi said that only one farm had used an early treatment of azamethiphos, all pesticides used were “safe and licensed medicines” and they wanted to “Reiterate that all salmon were farmed one hundred per cent in accordance with organic farm standards.” Click here to read more on this story.
Royal Navy submarine forced to take evasive action to avoid fishing boat: Plymouth Magistrates Court has heard that the captain of a Royal Navy submarine was forced to take evasive action to avoid a fishing boat in an incident which could have had “catastrophic effects.” Aaron Denning appeared in the court to face one charge of failing to comply with regulations of the King’s Harbour Master and one charge of failing to navigate with care, caution and reasonable consideration. The court heard that his fishing boat, FV Girl Rona, entered an exclusion zone in Plymouth Sound in May 2024 and cut across the path of HMS Triumph, a 4,500-ton Trafalgar-class nuclear-powered submarine. The Girl Rona failed to change course even when the police vessels which were escorting HMS Triumph changed course to re-route the fishing vessel and sounded their sirens and displayed blue lights. HMS Triumph was constrained by being limited to a deep-water channel and could not turn away, so had to reduced speed instead. The Girl Rona came within 137 metres of the submarine, well within the 250 metre exclusion zone. The Plymouth Herald said that Denning initially did not accept that he had done anything wrong and said that he had only a basic understanding of the regulations around exclusion zones when a Royal Navy vessel was being escorted out of Plymouth Sound. He later admitted that he had made a “pure misjudgement” and didn’t mean to cause “danger or risk” to the submarine. The court accepted it was not a deliberate act and Denning was fined a total of £645, which he was able to pay back at £50 per month. Click here to read more.
UK consumers should eat more shellfish: An article in the Guardian this month has argued that UK consumers should eat more shellfish. Most people in Britian only eat one portion of seafood a week, and eight per cent of this comes from just five species (cod, haddock, salmon, tuna and prawns). However, the British shellfish industry is now trying to encourage more people to eat shellfish, saying it is a healthy and sustainable source of seafood. Nicki Holmyard, a food writer who runs the Offshore Shellfish mussel farm off the coast of Lyme Bay in Devon told the Guardian that mussel farming was much better for the environment than salmon farming, saying: “We don’t feed our mussels, they filter nutrients from the seawater” adding that no chemicals or medicines are used in the raising of mussels. However, Holmyard said that over-onerous regulations were making it increasingly difficult to do business. David Jarrad, the chief executive of the Shellfish Association of Great Britian told the Guardian that Britian was not making the most of its shellfish resources, pointing out that the UK produced 29 million oysters per year, while France, which has very similar hydrological conditions, produced 1,200 million. Read more on this story by clicking here.
Rare and valuable gooseneck barnacles wash up on north west beach: Rare and valuable gooseneck barnacles have washed up on a north west beach where they were discovered by a walker. Chevaun Hands found the barnacles on a beach in Blackpool and uploaded a picture to Facebook, asking for assistance in identifying them. Facebook users soon confirmed that they were gooseneck barnacles – a large species of barnacle with a white shell which grows in aggregations on floating debris. Gooseneck barnacles are not common in Britian and generally only wash up on beaches after storms and periods of sustained bad weather. They are a highly prized food in Spain and Portugal and it is thought the gooseneck barnacles found by Hands could be worth up to £4,000. Read more by clicking here.