The Guardian
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‘Severe’ stress on oceans as rate of sea level rise doubles in 10 years, UN warns
Global effort needed to limit effects of pollution, industrial fishing and climate crisis, World Ocean Assessment says
The world’s oceans are under “severe and accelerating” pressure from human activities, with the rate of sea-level rise double that of a decade ago, according to a damning assessment from the United Nations.
The “intensifying” stressors, which include pollution and large-scale industrial fishing, are cumulative, said the report, resulting in widespread biodiversity loss and putting ocean systems under “severe strain”.
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Airline industry chiefs say 2050 net zero goal now unlikely
Iata boss Willie Walsh blames fuel suppliers, governments and aircraft makers, saying new ‘realistic timeline’ now needed
The aviation industry’s landmark pledges to be net zero by 2050 will probably not now be achieved, airline leaders have admitted.
The collective goal to eliminate net carbon emissions was declared by global airlines only five years ago in 2021, with similar pledges made by national aviation industry leaders and governments, including in the UK, in 2020.
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Call to phase out ‘inhumane’ guga hunt by working with Hebridean islanders
Annual killing of infant gannets has been carried out on a remote Scottish island for at least 400 years
Animal welfare campaigners have called for talks on phasing out the “inhumane” hunt for infant gannets known as guga, which are killed by hunters on a remote Scottish island once a year.
OneKind and the League Against Cruel Sports said it should be slowly phased out in dialogue with the Hebridean islanders who see the hunt, which has been carried out for at least 400 years, as a cultural pursuit and as sustainable food harvesting.
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Diver captures rare footage of great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea – video
Footage captured by a diver shows a rare sighting of a great white shark in the Mediterranean Sea, spotted between Tunisia and Sicily.
The sighting happened during a mission, organised by the NGO Healthy Seas Foundation in partnership with Ghost Diving and the Society for Documentation of Submerged Sites, to remove abandoned fishing nets in the strait of Sicily.
Healthy Seas, which removes rubbish from seas, said the video was believed to be the first underwater footage captured of an adult great white shark in the Mediterranean in its natural habitat. The species has come close to extinction in the region, thought by Healthy Seas to be due to threats such as overfishing.
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Giving guitarfish a chance: one man’s mission to persuade fishers to farm giant snails instead
Marine biologist Issah Seidu has found a way for Ghana’s fishing communities to earn a living – and help protect the ancient and critically endangered fish species
Guitarfish are an odd-looking and ancient species, with the tail of a shark and the flattened body of a ray, but their coveted fins have driven populations to the brink of extinction. In west Africa, where their meat is also a local delicacy, many guitarfish species are among the most critically endangered fish in the ocean.
Conservationists at the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) describe the slow-maturing ray, which produce young annually, as an “indicator species”, which reflect the overall health of an ecosystem and pose challenges in the way coastal fishing of them is managed. The IUCN red list categorises more than half of guitarfish species as critically endangered.
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