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More than half of the UK’s global waters are set to be within Marine Protected Areas, putting the UK at the forefront of calls to protect 30 per cent of the world’s ocean by 2030.

The UK Government has backed plans by Ascension Island to designate over 150,000 square miles of its waters as a fully protected ‘no-take’ Marine Protected Area (MPA) – closing the off-shore area to any fishing activity and safeguarding important marine habitats for future generations.

When protected, the new no-take zone around Ascension Island would bring the total percentage of MPAs in the UK’s territorial waters, Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies to over 50%...

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 seas around Britain may be getting so noisy that fish species like cod and haddock now have some difficulty communicating with each other. And if their chatter is being obscured, it could hamper their ability to breed. Steve Simpson and colleagues are testing the idea by dragging hydrophones through coastal waters to record the marine soundscape.

It has long been recognised that large marine mammals are susceptible to noise pollution – as are coral reef fish.

But the new study intends to understand the impacts on some more familiar UK fish species.

“Cod particularly have very elaborate calls compared with many fish,” the University of Exeter professor told BBC News.

“They vibrate their swim bladder – their balloon inside them – to make sound.

“They can create a whole range of differ...