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It's been an important week for our marine environment, with the Common Fisheries Policy under discussion, and the first small steps towards a review of the seabird killer PIB. Check out Martin's blog for the latest update.

By Alec Taylor, Marine Policy Officer I’ve just popped out of the International Maritime Organisation (IMO)’s meeting of its environmental subcommittee . I say committee, but it’s more like a UN General Assembly, with hundreds of delegates from all over the globe and interpretation...

There is a picture at the bottom of this blog post - I have put it at the bottom so you can choose to scroll down and see it, or not. I warn you, it is heart breaking. It is a picture of two dead guillemots, covered in PIB. They are hardly recognisable as birds, let alone guillemots. In the background...

Gannets and guillemots: Ian McCarthy Hundreds of seabirds, mostly guillemots, have again been washed up along the south coast of England covered in a debilitating sticky substance. This is a virtual repeat of the incident back in February this year when over 500 birds were found from Devon to Dorset...

By Sharon Thompson, Senior Marine Policy Officer Thursday night saw the last in the present series of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s FishFight ‘Save our Seas’ campaign. This programme highlighted a number of important marine conservation and sustainability issues including: ...

By Helene Jessop, Conservation Assistant, South West The RSPB has written a piece for The Ecologist on the recent PIB seabird incident and our call for change. We’ve set out a five-point plan of what we think needs to happen, so that further tragic incidents are prevented. To recall, between...

This has been a significant week for our marine environment. Yesterday MEPs voted on the future of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). We are delighted that they overwhelmingly voted in favour of the proposed reforms. We believe the reform will pave the way to the restoration of fish stocks, a healthier...

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA) have given us the following update about the sticky man-made mineral oil that has been such a disaster for so many seabirds: “The analysis of the material affecting seabirds along the south coast of England has shown that it is a mineral oil. The material...

The above map shows the approximate locations of birds found affected by the sticky mineral oil, with the hotspot at Portland/Ferrybridge/east end of Chesil highlighted by the red star. Only locations are shown; there is no attempt to show numbers of birds reported from the various locations, but it...

young kittiwake on nest at the cliffs at Hunstanton, Norfolk

hungry seagull at Bournemouth Beach (West Cliff)