Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Forestry England invites people to help it create a record of when and how the season arrives across the country The reds and golds of autumn leaves may be beginning to appear, but exactly when the season arrives is not always as predictable as the calendar might suggest. Now, Forestry England is asking people to help track the changing colours of forests to create a record of when and how autumn arrives across the country. Continue reading...

The Argiope bruennichi, spotted in Cheshire for first time, part of worrying trend that could threaten native species She is an unlikely harbinger of the climate emergency: a venomous black and yellow spider who spins mysterious patterns in her webs and eats her mates for breakfast. Native to mainland Europe, north Africa and Asia, the Argiope bruennichi – commonly known as a wasp spider – is rarely seen in the north and west of Britain. But a fully grown female has been spotted in Cheshire for the first time by conservationists from Chester zoo, who stumbled across the large, brightly striped arachnid in a rewilded field. Continue reading...

A teenager struggling with climate anxiety searches for hope in an unexpected place – writing letters to imprisoned activists. Max, 14, is on a quest to understand the human stories behind direct action and why so many climate protesters are in prison​. As replies begin to arrive, a dialogue bridging generations unfolds and connection transforms despair into purpose. ​When Max writes to the judge presiding over a high-profile trial​, he is surprised to hear the letter referred to in the judge's closing remarks Continue reading...

A magical new film captures the secret life of the deep sea in a stretch of the ocean at risk from industrial mining A magical film that explores the wonders of the deep sea through the eyes of a team of scientists and an underwater robot called Isis will be shown in selected cinemas across the UK next month. The documentary, How Deep Is Your Love, offers a playful, irreverent and bittersweet look at our anthropocentric view of Earth, as it switches perspective from humans to deep sea animals and back again. It follows a research team from the Natural History Museum (NHM) in London, who sail for 12 days to reach a remote region called the Clarion Clipperton Zone, a biodiversity-rich area of the Pacific between Hawaii and Mexico. It takes Isis five hours to make the 3-mile (5km) descent to the bottom of this harsh world, where sunlight cannot penetrate, and where nodules rich in minerals mark it out as a hotspot for industrial mining. Continue reading...