oceans

It’s Valentine’s Day. To offer you a sugar-free, non-commercialised way of celebrating here are our top ten reasons to LOVE the ocean.

Have you heard the one about Greenpeace controlling the French Navy? No, me neither. But you might be forgiven for being confused by some recent reports about the Russian trawler seized in West Africa.

Pirate fishing is a big problem. Sometimes it’s fishing over quota (catching more than you should, or species that you shouldn’t), sometimes it’s fishing in ways or places you shouldn’t. Overfishing may seem like a victimless crime – but it isn’t, and the ultimate effect is bad news for our oceans, the creatures that live in them, and the humans whose livelihoods or future food source depends on them.

Science doesn’t always get a lot of breaks, it’s constantly twisted and misrepresented in the media, and sometimes the best intentions end up being used in ways the scientists themselves would never want them to be or condone. Who’d have thought, for example, that UK universities could be used to defend commercial whaling? Yet, that's exactlly what's happening right now.

The government has at long last made an announcement on the first wave of marine conservation zones (MCZs) in UK waters. This is long overdue, but frankly fails to deliver. Today’s announcement to designate only 27 sites is a whopping 100 sites short of what the government’s own consultation said was necessary. So what’s going on?