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The UK government’s promise to protect Britain’s coastal waters has been called a “sham” by a leading ocean scientist. Professor Callum Roberts of York University told Sky News that Britain’s so-called marine protected areas (MPAs) are just “lines on a map” and do little to safeguard wildlife.

He said allowing continued commercial exploitation, such as fishing, drilling and dredging, is “no protection at all.”

Sky’s Ocean Rescue is working with WWF to safeguard marine conservation zones across Europe. Plastic pollution, climate change and over-fishing have put the ocean under unprecedented pressure.

Sky News will be closely following United Nations oceans campaigner Lewis Pugh as he swims the length of the English Channel to highlight the plight of the UK’s domestic waters.

There are ...

The overwhelming majority of krill companies are to stop fishing in vast areas of the Antarctic Peninsula. Krill are important because they are at the base of the food chain: whales, penguins, seals and squid all eat the tiny, shrimp-like crustaceans. Other species, such as albatross and killer whales are indirectly dependent.

The decision of the krill fishing companies comes ahead of a meeting of the Antarctic Ocean Commission (CCAMLR).

The summit in October will decide whether to adopt an EU proposal to create the biggest ocean reserve on Earth.

The Antarctic Ocean Sanctuary would protect 1.8 million square kilometres in and around the Weddell Sea.

The decision to stop krill fishing off the peninsula follows pressure by campaign groups, including Greenpeace.

Companies have been harvest...

Hawaii Gov. David Ige on Tuesday signed the first bill in the country that will ban sunscreens containing chemicals harmful to coral reefs. The bill, which was passed by state lawmakers in May, will go into effect January 1, 2021. At that point, the sale or distribution of over-the-counter sunscreens containing oxybenzone and octinoxate, which help filter UV rays, will be prohibited.

A study by Haereticus Environmental Laboratory, a nonprofit scientific organization, found the chemicals cause bleaching, deformities, DNA damage and ultimately death in coral when they’re washed off beachgoers or discharged into wastewater treatment plants and deposited into bodies of water.

“Oxybenzone is really toxic to the juvenile form of corals,” said Craig Downs, a forensic ecotoxicologist and executive...

A woman who tried to hand-feed a shark is lucky she still has a hand. Yes, it bit her. IT’S A SHARK. Melissa Brunning of Perth, Australia, was on a holiday yacht cruise in Dugong Bay on Australia’s coast, when four tawny nurse sharks (Nebrius ferrugineus) swam close to the back of the boat, Perth Now reported. Several of Brunning’s companions dropped fish in the water near the sharks, one of which measured almost 7 feet (2 meters) in length.

However, when it was Brunning’s turn, she tried to feed the shark directly by hand. As the shark snatched the food, its jaws closed on her finger, and it yanked her into the water — a terrifying moment that one of her friends captured on video, according to Perth Now.

In the footage, which was shared on Twitter by Australia’s 7 News Melbourne on Ju...

Even if you have never enjoyed Cozumel SCUBA diving before our experienced staff in ready to prepare you for your first underwater experience. Within hours of your arrival we’ll have you swimming with the fishes and enjoying the best of Cozumel SCUBA diving. No experience necessary!

The day begins in our training pool and after you learn a  few skills, familiarize yourself with your equipment, and take your first underwater breathes, you’ll be ready for some Cozumel SCUBA diving. By the end of the afternoon you’ll have completed your first two ocean dives and no doubt will be a SCUBA addict for life!

Small Groups

Ideal for our certified divers and students alike, we have a maximum of six divers plus staff on our boat...

Flushing sanitary products down the toilet can be very detrimental for the marine environment, new research has claimed. The majority of period products such as tampons and sanitary pads are predominantly made from plastic, which makes it harder for them to be broken down when they enter the sewage system.

Approximately 700,000 panty liners, 2.5 million tampons and 1.4 million sanitary towels are flushed down the toilet in the UK every single day, according to figures published in the Journal of the Institution of Environmental Sciences.

The Marine Conservation Societyand Natracare, a plastic-free period brand, have teamed up to raise awareness about the negative impact of period waste for a campaign that coincides with Plastic Free July.

According to their research, one pack of sanitary ...

Just insane! Sharks literally EVERYWHERE! We dropped down to 28 meters and there were a pack of hunting Grey Sharks, amazing and they are huge! There is a bowl at 5 m where we did our safety stop as the current whirled around us – it was the perfect shelter and end to a perfect dive. My favourite so far!

The most convenient place for a dead whale to wash up is somewhere that can be reached with large construction equipment. But when a 12-year-old right whale died in 2005, gruesomely tangled in fishing rope, she came ashore on a remote part of a barrier island off the Virginia coast.

The necropsy team had to take a boat out, then hike to the carcass. They couldn’t carry much back with them for analysis, so the team’s leader, the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution biologist Michael Moore, used a knife to cut off the largest baleen plate he could. Then he lugged the seven-foot-long plate by hand back across the island.

Baleen plates often fall out soon after a whale dies and are lost, so this one “was a very major get,” says Nadine Lysiak, a biologist at the University of Massachusetts ...

For the first time in more than 40 years, a great white shark has been recorded swimming off the Spanish Mediterranean island of Majorca. A wildlife conservation group captured footage of the shark wandering around the Cabrera archipelago.

The last confirmed sighting of such a fish in the Balearic Islands was by a fisherman in 1976.

Great whites can weigh up to two tonnes, grow to lengths of 20ft (6m) and reach speeds of 64km/h (40mph).

“The presence of great white sharks in Spanish waters has been a constant rumour,” biologist and documentary maker Fernando López-Mirones told Efe news agency.

“However, we’ve been unable to document their presence for many years.”

Scientists with Spanish conservation group Alnitak recorded the shark for over an hour.

“We watched the shark up close for 70...

The University of Queensland was part of research which found protected areas missed many unique ecosystems, and have a greater impact on fisheries than necessary. A collaboration with the University of Hamburg, Wildlife Conservation Society and The Nature Conservancy assessed the efficiency of marine protected areas, which now cover 16 per cent of national waters around the world.

UQ’s School of Biological Sciences researcher Professor Hugh Possingham said international marine preservation targets are falling short.

“International conservation targets such as the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals call for protection of at least 10 per cent of all the world’s oceans and all marine ecosystems,” he said.

“Despite a tenfold increase in marine protected areas since the year 2000 — ...