Category: MARINE PROTECTION

Press release – State of Nature Partnership (Scotland)

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Urgent action needed to halt continued decline of Scotland’s wildlife. Scotland’s wildlife continues to decline, according to the most comprehensive State of Nature report ever produced. The latest findings show that in the five decades since consistent scientific monitoring began there has been a 24% decline in average species abundance across monitored wildlife. The report…

UK Biodiversity indicators published (3) – lack of government investment

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Last week, the latest UK Biodiversity Indicators were published. Did you see the government press release about them? Did you hear Defra ministers quizzed about them on every news bulletin through the day? I’m keener on th ‘stqate’ indicators (ones that are about real biodiverity numbers) than the ‘pressure’ or ‘response’ indicators, although there is…

Tim Melling – Brown Skua

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Tim writes: skuas are closely related to gulls but differ in their bill structure.  In summer a lid develops from the base of the bill covering the nostrils.  In fact, the old name Pomatorhine for Pomarine Skua translates from Greek as lidded nose, and that lid is visible here in the sitting bird.  These are…

Westminster update

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Did you notice that we have a new Prime Minister? That’s not the only movement… Michael Gove goes (to Cabinet Office) – I’m sorry to see him go because I would have liked to see him deliver on some of his best promises. All bets are off on everything – is that any way to…

Guest blog – A Diet of Worms by Paul Sterry

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Paul Sterry has an academic background in freshwater biology and is a passionate conservationist. He has been writing about natural history and photographing wildlife for the last 40 years, with an emphasis on the British scene. Vermin. One way and another, it’s a familiar word these days but one where meaning and interpretation have morphed…

Sunday book review – Rocky Shores by John Archer-Thomson and Julian Cremona

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This is a lovely book and makes me wish that my adopted county of Northamptonshire had some coastline, and rocky shores at that, to which I could rush to explore some rockpools with my newly gained knowledge. The Bloomsbury Wildlife series might possibly be seen as a competing series of books to the Collins New…

Coul Links crowdfunder

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I like it when conservation organisations work together on important issues – here’s one. The Save Coul Links Conservation Coalition was formed by Buglife, Butterfly Conservation Scotland, Marine Conservation Society, National Trust for Scotland, Plantlife, RSPB Scotland and the Scottish Wildlife Trust to help save Coul Links – an internationally important wildlife site, protected by…