EDINBURGH - Europe’s marine environment faces a plethora of severe threats. What are the key species in decline, and which interest groups are lobbying against marine protection laws? This investigation looks into Europe’s interconnected marine systems, and how they can be preserved.
Oceans produce more than half the world’s oxygen, hold most of the planet's biodiversity and account for nearly half the global population’s livelihoods, providing crucial food, jobs and energy.
But throughout Europe – and beyond – our marine environments face severe threats from overfishing, fossil fuels, dredging, fish farming, coastal urbanisation, energy infrastructure, mining activities, non-indigenous species, pollution and climate change.
To slow and attempt to reverse marine degradation, governments must make difficult decisions around adopting measures to protect our waters. However, striking the right balance will be a tough path for lawmakers to navigate.
In order to pass legislation, governments must avoid disproportionate influence from vested interests such as industrial fishing, energy and mining companies, lobbyists and other key players opposed to marine protections.
But they must also ensure that coastal communities are included in the decision-making process, and that the jobs, food, energy and tourism provided by the surrounding waters would not be threatened by strict marine protections.
Photo: Chris Combe
ONLINE
- Scotland’s Seas In Danger, The Ferret, 09/02/2024
- Marine protection: The Scottish species in decline, The Ferret, 11/02/2024
- Scotland’s marine and coastal species critically endangered, The National, 11/02/2024
- Scotland’s marine protection measures explained, The Ferret, 12/02/2024
- Bird flu pushes ‘globally important’ Scottish seabirds into decline, The Ferret, 13/02/2024
- Marine protection: What are the greatest risks to Scotland’s habitats?, The Ferret, 14/02/2024
- Hundreds of green activists face legal threats from private companies and governments, The Ferret, 15/02/2024
- Cancer causing chemical used 200 times by fish farm industry, The Ferret, 18/02/2024
- Revealed: Chronic North Sea oil spills threaten marine protected areas, The Ferret, 24/03/2024
- Scottish Government accused of “broken promises” over marine protection, The Ferret, 26/03/2024
- Revealed: The revolving door between fossil fuel industry and the UK Government, The Ferret, 31/03/2024
- Revealed: the salmon industry’s ‘outrageous’ lobbying, The Ferret, 02/04/2024
- Wildlife objection to salmon farm spiked after industry lobbying, The Ferret, 03/04/2024
- Il rigassificatore di Piombino va in Liguria, Irpi Media, 12/06/2024
- The possibilities of seawilding and the future of carbon capture, The National, 08/09/2024
- Lungs of the ocean: The underwater ‘weed’ that could help Scotland tackle climate change, The Ferret, 0809/2024
- In Italia la tutela del mare è ostaggio delle lobby, Irpi Media, 26/09/2024
- Scotland's Seas In Danger, The National, 11/02/2024, pp. 10-11
COUNTRIES
- Italy
- The UK
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