Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Experts call for restrictions on pet flea treatments that harm UK songbirds

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 09:00:20 +0000

Chemicals known to affect brains of common garden birds, and to kill unborn chicks, found in most feather samples

Conservationists have called for restrictions on pet flea treatments after research found songbird feathers widely contaminated with substances that can damage the birds’ brains and kill unborn chicks.

Almost every feather sample tested from five common species of UK garden birds contained either permethrin, imidacloprid or fipronil – all insecticides that are banned for agricultural use but still common in pet tick and flea treatments.

‘They come right past the house’: learning to live with rhinos as numbers soar in Nepal

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 08:00:19 +0000

The country is seeing an increase in human-wildlife conflict as the number of megafauna, including rhinos and tigers, grows. But there are efforts to tackle the problem around Chitwan national park through education and training

The tourists lining the steep embankment buzzed with excitement, phones out, snapping away in the twilight as a wild Indian rhinoceros grazed below the Nepali village of Sauraha. Climbing to the main street, the rhino ambled down the middle of the road.

Cattle breed whose ancestors lived with Celts added to priority at-risk list

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 06:00:18 +0000

UK’s Rare Breeds Survival Trust says calf numbers of white park cattle last year were less than two-thirds of 2022 level

An ancient breed of cattle whose ancestors are thought to have accompanied the Celts as they were pushed to Britain’s fringes by the Romans has been designated as urgently at risk by a UK conservation charity.

Publishing its 2026 watchlist on Tuesday, the Rare Breeds Survival Trust moved white park cattle to its “priority” category as new calf numbers sank last year to less than two-thirds of their 2022 level.

Labour’s great green energy plan could be a legacy as vital as the NHS | Polly Toynbee

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 05:00:16 +0000

Ed Miliband has a rare chance to do for the climate what Nye Bevan did for health: create something future generations will be proud of

England wildlife watchdog ‘has stopped designating special sites for protection’

admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2026 05:00:16 +0000

Exclusive: Report finds Natural England has created no new SSSIs, which protect areas from development, since 2023

The government’s wildlife watchdog for England is failing to save nature because it has stopped giving protection to rare wildlife and habitats, according to a new report.

Climate groups sue US government over approval of new BP project in Gulf of Mexico

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 19:22:29 +0000

Advocates expressed alarm as new project drills deeper into ocean bed, pointing to company’s failures at Deepwater Horizon spill

Cocaine pollution in rivers and lakes may disrupt behaviour of salmon, study finds

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:00:59 +0000

Fish swam further and dispersed more widely after exposure to environmental levels of drug and main metabolite

Traces of cocaine that pollute rivers and lakes may accumulate in the brains of salmon and disrupt their behaviour, according to researchers who warn of unknown consequences for fish populations.

Juvenile Atlantic salmon that were artificially exposed to the drug and its main breakdown product swam further and dispersed more widely across a lake, suggesting the substances can affect where the fish go, what they eat and how vulnerable they are to predators.

WaterNSW criticised for ‘appalling’ decision after hundreds of turtles left to die in wetlands

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 15:00:59 +0000

River ecologist says ‘classic bureaucratic tangle’ led to government agency stopping flows to Gwydir wetlands region in March

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Democrats urged to link clean energy to affordability as Iran war hikes up prices

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 14:00:58 +0000

Climate leaders say Democrats need to extol clean energy as a way to cut costs for Americans as war roils oil markets

Democrats should get louder in championing clean energy’s affordability and resilience from global shocks, according to some of the party’s leading voices on the climate.

Electric car sales soar 51% in mainland Europe as Iran war drives up fuel prices

admin — Mon, 20 Apr 2026 11:25:07 +0000

Data shows 224,000 new EVs were registered in March, with Norway leading way in terms of switching

Sales of electric cars soared 51% in continental Europe last month, amid a rise in petrol and diesel costs driven by the Iran war.

Data shows that 224,000 new electric vehicles (EVs) were registered in March, and 500,000 across the first three months of the year – a 33.5% increase on a year earlier, according to analysis of national sales data in 15 countries by New AutoMotive and E-Mobility Europe, a trade body.