Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Keeping predator numbers down may be last hope for the ground-nesting birds – but critics say real problem is farming practices Should we be organising mass culls of foxes and crows in the UK in order to save the plummeting numbers of curlews? That is the argument put forward by certain bird conservation groups. The curlew, one of Britain’s most charismatic birds, with its curved beaks and distinctive call, has been disappearing from the countryside, declining by 60% in 25 years. It is just one of a number of ground-nesting birds that is vanishing – research has found that ground nesters are 86% more likely to decline than birds with other nesting strategies. Continue reading...

Whether to kill one species to save another has split biologists, anglers and Indigenous communities in the Miramichi Photographs by Brittany Crossman Since the 19th century, Atlantic salmon in the Miramichi have lured politicians, celebrities and wealthy anglers from across North America and Europe to fishing camps along the river’s banks, its undammed branches once producing more of the fish than almost any other river on the continent. In 2010, the fishery was valued at C$16m (£8.6m) and provided hundreds of jobs. Rip Cunningham has been travelling from the US state of Massachusetts to the Canadian province of New Brunswick to fish since the 1970s. When he first started, he would sit on the deck at the Black Brook Salmon Club, on one of the Miramachi’s tributaries, watching the water boil with the leaps and rolls of salmon. Rip Cunningham has witnessed the decline of salmon numbers in the Miramichi River since the 1970s Continue reading...

Lords amend planning bill to include protections for wild animals, including bird-safe glass and swift bricks Hedgehog highways and bird-safe glass could become requirements for all new buildings as members of the House of Lords push through amendments to the government’s planning bill. This may cause a headache for ministers, who have tried to avoid burdening developers with laws on nature measures such as “swift bricks”. The new Lords amendments include mandated provision for these nesting boxes, which campaigners say are crucial for the survival of the threatened species. Continue reading...

Study shows how individual fossil fuel companies are making previously impossible heatwaves happen and could have to pay compensation Carbon emissions from the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies have been directly linked to dozens of deadly heatwaves for the first time, according to a new analysis. The research has been hailed as a “leap forward” in the legal battle to hold big oil accountable for the damages being caused by the climate crisis. The research found that the emissions from any one of the 14 biggest companies were by themselves enough to cause more than 50 heatwaves that would otherwise have been virtually impossible. The study shows, in effect, that those emissions caused the heatwaves. Continue reading...