Consultation closes 6th September 2016, 5 p.m. The Government is consulting on a proposal to amend the Oil Pollution Prevention and Control (OPPC) and Offshore Chemicals Regulations (OCR) to allow charging for certain regulatory services where there is currently no power to charge for these. Views from the oil and gas industry, and other stakeholders […]

Closes 19th September 2016, 5 p.m. Natural England is inviting comments on proposals for coastal access between Gretna and Allonby on the Cumbrian coast. A report was submitted to the Secretary of State for the Department of the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) on 25th July setting out the proposals and Natural England are […]

National Marine Week, hosted by the Wildlife Trusts, runs from 23rd July to 7th August 2016 and aims to celebrate the wonderful and varied life found in UK seas. Staff and volunteers from Wildlife Trust branches will be holding marine awareness and educational events including rockpool rambles, strandline searches, cetacean watches and in the North West […]

Deadline for written submissions: 7th October 2016, 5 p.m. (no longer than 3000 words, must be submitted via the online portal) The Environmental Audit Committee is calling for evidence on Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) in the UK and the Overseas Territories. This inquiry follows on from two previous inquiries: Marine Protected Areas and Sustainability in […]

Natural England have produced their monthly update for July 2016 summarising the progress being made on delivery of coastal access in the North West. Stretch 1 (Allonby to Whitehaven) and Stretch 2 (Whitehaven to Silecroft) are ‘open’, with work started on implementing the route in Stretch 2 and a likely completion date of 2017. Stretches 3 […]

The July 2016 newsletter from the Solway Firth Partnership magazine ‘Tidelines’ is now available. It features the Marine Management Organisation’s call for evidence and July North West issues and evidence workshops, the new Solway Coastwise project, news about the Brow Well on the Solway coast, the ‘Solway Seafood – Out of the Blue’ exhibition which […]

The newsletter from the Maritime Affairs & Fisheries for July has been published and covers the following topics: News Your holiday guide to eating F.I.S.H. Commission proposes to lift ‘red card’ from Republic of Guinea after it steps up fight against illegal fishing New, simplified EU programme for fisheries data collection: a milestone towards more robust […]

The Atlantic Salmon Trust and Tweed Foundation are calling for papers for their conference ‘From Headwater to Headland, Improving smelt survival in rivers and estuaries’ to be held from the 14th to 15th March 2017 in Berwick-Upon-Tweed. Suggested topics include: The impact of predation in freshwater on smolt number Smolt numbers and condition Drivers of […]

Capturing our Coast (CoCoast), a UK based citizen science shore recording project has published a newsletter for July 2016. The surveys are well underway with 250 surveys being undertaken so far with 136 surveyors around the UK coastline. The newsletter features posts regarding: secret forests, fireweed invasion, media releases, top CoCoasters and new species records. […]

Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) has launched a consultation to gather views and evidence for a network of 10 proposed Special Protection Areas (pSPA) to protect coastal and offshore waters for the benefit of marine birds in Scotland. The SNH are seeking views on the following topics: Proposed designations and bird species Scientific evidence Advice to […]