Guest blog – Protecting the knackered by Jean-Luc Solandt

Jean-Luc Solandt is a marine biologist struggling to get out of a policy expert. He worked on coral reef ecology for 15 years, providing diving survey data for the creation of Marine Protected Areas. He’s been working in the UK at the Marine Conservation Society for over 13 years on developing networks of MPAs, making…

Defra – what are you for? (4)

This government has been hopeless at doing things for nature. Almost completely hopeless. The Marine and Coastal Access Act received Royal Assent in November 2009. Then there was a general election in May 2010 and everything ground to a halt. Defra has dropped several proposed Marine Conservation Zones from the current consultation because of ‘economic…

Don’t leave them short

I won’t be buying any boardshorts, as surfing looks to me as easy as falling off a log and just as much fun (a bit like skiing really).  But if I were going to buy some smart cool shorts then I would like the idea of them being recycled from beach and ocean plastics. That…

The Minox Challenge(s)

When I wrote about my 37-year-old binoculars being repaired I didn’t expect this to happen.  I didn’t expect an email from Zeiss thanking me for my loyalty – and I didn’t get one, so that’s OK.  And I didn’t expect an email from Minox saying: At MINOX GB we keep an eye on the media…

Do you tweet?

Here’s a list of nature conservation organisations with their number of followers on Twitter.  To be fair, many of the organisations have several (many) Twitter accounts for particular sites or particular subjects, but those listed here are the ‘main’, and sometimes the only, Twitter accounts for these organisations.   @nationaltrust 144,824 @natures_voice (RSPB) 52,785 @WoodlandTrust…