Breaking Waves: Ocean News

09/02/2024 - 14:00
Seabirds are in a precarious position as their breeding areas are threatened by climate breakdown and overfishing Five seabirds have been added to the UK’s conservation red list, meaning they are at dire risk of local extinction. The government has been urged to act as the arctic tern, Leach’s storm petrel, common gull, great skua and great black-backed gull join other seabird species such as the puffin on the list after severe population declines. Continue reading...
09/02/2024 - 10:36
Fourteen hiker deaths reported in the park this season, with total fatalities at almost the annual average of 15 More than one dozen parkgoers have died in Grand Canyon national park this summer, with three perishing in just over one week in August, as weather extremes linked to climate change make for increasingly dangerous conditions. With 14 deaths reported in the park this season, total fatalities have already almost reached the annual average of 15, the Hill reported. Continue reading...
09/02/2024 - 10:18
Activists and lawyers in Brazil say unexpected change is ‘a big step backwards’ in the investigation Indigenous activists and lawyers in Brazil have voiced shock and dismay after the federal police chief leading the investigation into the murders of Bruno Pereira and Dom Phillips was unexpectedly removed from the case. Francisco Badenes, an experienced investigator, had been running the inquiry into the 2022 deaths of the Brazilian Indigenous expert and the British journalist since the second half of that year. Continue reading...
09/02/2024 - 08:46
Battle ahead for Labour as it introduces higher taxes and tougher environmental rules on producers An oil and gas company has slowed down work on a large North Sea oilfield, citing uncertainty over the Labour government’s approach to fossil fuels. The Norwegian-owned Neo Energy said it had decided “to materially slow down investment activities across all development assets in its portfolio”, citing the prospect of higher taxes and tougher environmental rules. Continue reading...
09/02/2024 - 05:35
Mandatory reports should be published on how taxpayers’ money is spent on environmental stewardship, says campaigner Landowners in England have been paid more than £9bn of taxpayers’ money in the past 30 years for environmental benefits, despite the decline in nature that has taken place during that time, data reveals. The nature campaigner and author Guy Shrubsole, who unearthed the data for his new book, The Lie of The Land, said large landowners should be forced to publish regular reports showing how they are stewarding their land for nature and carbon. The Lie of the Land is published on 12 September by HarperCollins. Continue reading...
09/02/2024 - 03:00
Scientists are trying to establish whether global heating caused the deaths of the rare river dolphins last year, before temperatures start to rise again Continue reading...
09/02/2024 - 02:35
Set near photographer Benjamin Youd’s home in Sussex, River Story looks at the changing seasons and humans’ relationship with water River Story is exhibiting at ONCA Gallery in Brighton, 5 to 14 September Continue reading...
09/02/2024 - 01:00
The new government must use its landslide majority to mend the damage to jobs and fish populations caused by neglect It is a lonely and unglamorous job, being His Majesty’s official opposition, as Labour knows only too well. There were moments when, out of the spotlight, the party’s spokespeople in parliament heroically defended the public interest on some of the most important issues of the day. One example was during the post-Brexit Fisheries Act, where Labour made a formidable case that history has proved right. The question now is whether Labour will use its landslide majority to fix the extraordinary neglect of our marine environment that it previously lacked the votes for. Back in 2020, when the fisheries bill was making its way through parliament, Labour’s fisheries spokesperson, Luke Pollard, made the case that the prime objective of the bill should be sustainability: there should be a duty on ministers to take the advice of scientists when allocating fishing opportunities so as to avoid overfishing. He also argued that as the right to fish was a public asset, which ministers conceded during the course of the bill, preference should be given to the part of the fleet which had the highest levels of employment and the lowest environmental impact: the smaller boats, whose activities are limited naturally by the weather. Charles Clover is the co-founder of the Blue Marine Foundation Continue reading...
09/01/2024 - 15:28
Derwent River near Hobart expected to reach record level as more than 100,000 homes in Victoria without power Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast A woman was killed by a falling tree on the New South Wales-Victoria border, almost 100 flights were cancelled in Sydney and Tasmania was expected to experience record flooding as several destructive cold fronts moved up the east coast. More than 120,000 people across Victoria and Tasmania were without power on Monday afternoon, while the Derwent River near Hobart was expected to rise to a record level in the evening. Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading...
World Ocean Explorer Wins Gold Medal Serious Simulation Award from Serious Play Annual International Competition
10/26/2023 - 14:35
For Immediate Release October 19, 2023 Sedgwick, Maine USA World Ocean Explorer, a 3D virtual aquarium and educational simulation, was recently cited for excellence, winning a Gold Medal Award in the 2023 International Serious Play Awards Program. World Ocean Explorer is an innovative 3D virtual aquarium designed for educational exploration of the world’s oceans. With interactive exhibits and a lobby space, visitors can immerse themselves in realistic marine environments, including a DEEP SEA exhibit funded by Schmidt Ocean Institute, showcasing unprecedented deep-sea discoveries off Australia. Targeted at 3rd graders and beyond, this immersive experience offers a range of perspectives on the ocean environment and can be explored through guided tours or user-controlled interfaces. Visit DEEP SEA at worldoceanexplorer.org/deep-sea-aquarium.html. Serious Play Conference brings together professionals who are exploring the use of game-based learning, sharing their experience, and working together to shape the future of training and education. For more information on Serious Play Award Program visit seriousplayconf.com/international-serious-play-award-programs. World Ocean Explorer is a transformative virtual aquarium designed to deepen understanding of the world ocean and amplify connection for young people worldwide. Organized around the principles of Ocean Literacy and the Next Gen Science Standards, World Ocean Explorer brings the wonder and knowledge of ocean species and systems to students in formal and informal classrooms, absolutely free to anyone with a good Internet connection. As an advocate for the ocean through communications, World Ocean Observatory believes there is no better investment in the future of the sustainable ocean than through a new approach to educational engagement that excites, informs, and motivates students to explore the wonders of our marine world and to understand the pervasive connection and implication for our future, inherent in the protection and conservation of all aspects of our ocean world. World Ocean Explorer presents an astonishing 3-dimensional simulated aquarium visit, organized to reveal the wonders of undersea life, with layers of detailed data and information to augment the emotional connection made to the astonishing beauty and complexity of the dynamic ocean. Within each of the virtual exhibits, students visit exemplary theme-based sites with myriad opportunities to understand the larger perspectives of scientific knowledge as organized and visualized to dramatize the impact and change on ocean life as a result of natural and human-generated events. Through immersion among displays, mixed media and 3D models, the experience of an aquarium visit will be brought into classrooms or home school environments as a free, accessible, always available opportunity for teaching and learning. All of this will be available to a world audience without physical limitation or cost. World Ocean Explorer, a project of the World Ocean Observatory, receives support from the Seth Sprague Educational and Charitable Foundation, Visual Solutions Lab, the Climate Change Institute, the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation, and The Fram Museum Oslo. To learn more about the current and future exhibits of World Ocean Explorer, visit worldoceanexplorer.org. media contact Trisha Badger, Managing Director, World Ocean Observatory   |   director@thew2o.net +12077011069
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