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Morocco has ordered foreign fishing boats operating in its waters under an EU deal to leave immediately.

The moves comes after the European Parliament voted not to extend a deal under which the EU paid Morocco for access to its fish stocks.

MEPs said the deal was illegal as it did not benefit the people living in the disputed Western Sahara, off which most of the fishing took place.

The ministry said the parliament’s decision was “regrettable”.

In a statement, it said the move could have “serious consequences for co-operation between Morocco and the European Union in fishing”.

The EU – Morocco’s largest trading partner – had been paying 36m euros (

US scientists have mapped the deepest part of the world’s oceans in greater detail than ever before.

The Mariana Trench in the western Pacific runs for about 2,500km and extends down to 10,994m.

This measurement for the deepest point – known as Challenger Deep – is arguably the most precise yet.

The survey, conducted by the Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping (CCOM), was completed to help determine the exact extent of US waters in the region.

“We mapped the entire trench, from its northern end at Dutton Ridge, all the way to where it becomes the Yap Trench in the south,” explained Dr Jim Gardner from CCOM, which is based at the University of New Hampshire.

“We used a multibeam echosounder mounted on a US Navy hydrographic ship...

Japan has used funds from its tsunami recovery budget to subsidise its controversial annual whaling programme, environmental activists say.

Greenpeace says 2.3bn yen ($30m;

UN climate talks have closed with an agreement that the chair said had “saved tomorrow, today”.

The European Union will place its current emission-cutting pledges inside the legally-binding Kyoto Protocol, a key demand of developing countries.

Talks on a new legal deal covering all countries will begin next year and end by 2015, coming into effect by 2020.

Management of a fund for climate aid to poor countries has also been agreed, though how to raise the money has not.

Talks ran nearly 36 hours beyond their scheduled close, with many delegates saying the host government lacked urgency and strategy.

Nevertheless, there was applause in the main conference hall when South Africa’s International Relations Minister, Maite Nkoana-Mashabane, brought down the long-awaited final gavel.

“We came h...

A Japanese government-funded marine institute is seeking a restraining order to prevent an environmental group disrupting the operation of the country

Oil giant BP has accused oilfields services firm Halliburton of destroying damaging evidence relating to last year’s oil well blast in the Gulf of Mexico in which 11 people were killed.

At a hearing in a New Orleans court, BP said Halliburton had “intentionally” destroyed test results on its cement product used at the Macondo well.

Halliburton denied this, saying the claims were “without merit”.

Cement was a key factor in causing America’s worst offshore oil spill.

The blast that followed at the Deepwater Horizon oil rig in April led to the release of 780m litres (206m gallons) of crude oil in the Gulf of Mexico.

BP and Halliburton are locked in a legal battle ahead of a trial on damages early next year.

Through their lawyers, the former partners in the venture are seeking maximum pre-tria...

New Zealand used to lead the world in marine protection but during the last two decades it has slipped behind other countries, according to a Queensland-based academic.

Hugh Possingham from the University of Queensland says the government needs to radically change the way it protects ocean environments.

He says many nations, including New Zealand, sidestep commitments to marine conservation by protecting large areas of open ocean, which are not highly used for anything else.

Government figures show about 7.06% of New Zealand waters are protected.

However, 97% of that is far offshore rather than in heavily exploited coastal areas, which can be more important for biodiversity.

“Marines reserves in New Zealand are actually a very small percentage. They’re too small.

“I think it really does ne...

Sabah

Home to pristine reefs, rare sharks and vast numbers of exotic fish, the Coral Sea is a unique haven of biodiversity off the northeastern coast of Australia.

If a proposal by the Australian government goes ahead, the region will also become the world

Large scale “geoengineering” solutions to climate change will not reverse rising acidity in the oceans which damages marine life, conservationists have warned.

The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) issued a call at the UN climate talks in Durban for countries to urgently address the issue of ocean acidification, caused by greater levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

The oceans absorb around a quarter of the carbon dioxide humans put into the atmosphere each year, the IUCN said, but the gas dissolving into the seas causes the water to become more acidic.

The IUCN said the acidity of the world’s oceans had increased by 30% since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution, and could continue at an unprecedented rate in the coming decades.

But while ocean acidificati...