ENVIRONMENT
Protect Our Seas
News and views from the world of marine heritage and conservation
Continental clean-up
A prototype ocean cleaning system has won the highest award in an architectural competition for projects to provide creative solutions to environmental challenges . Called The 8th Continent , the floating station facility by Slovak designer Lenka Petráková is designed to address the problem of plastic waste in the ocean . Marine debris reportedly covers a surface of approximately 1.6 million square metres in the North Pacific , which , as Petráková suggests , could be considered the world ’ s eighth continent . The 8th Continent was awarded the 2020 Grand Prix Award for Architecture and Innovation of the Sea from Foundation Jacques Rougerie , a French institute that awards visionary projects that encourage sustainable collaborations between scientists and designers .
The bottom line
Two of the UK ’ s most sensitive fishing sites are set to receive better protection . The Marine Management Organisation says it plans to safeguard fishing areas in Dogger Bank and South Dorset by completely banning bottom trawling . The sites are already designated as protected areas , but in practice they are not patrolled - and are consequently both over-fished . Greenpeace recently dropped concrete blocks on to Dogger Bank , with the intention of deterring bottom trawling . Another group , Blue Marine , has taken legal action to try to safeguard the seabed . The MMO is consulting on proposed by-laws prohibiting bottom-towed gear on the sites . The consultation runs to 28 March 2021 . The consultation runs to 28 March 2021 and can be found
at https :// bit . ly / 2MGSM6o
There ’ s no limit
The accidental discovery of marine organisms on a boulder on the sea floor beneath 900 metres of Antarctic ice shelf has led scientists to rethink the limits of life on Earth . Researchers stumbled on the lifebearing rock after sinking a borehole through nearly a kilometre of the Filchner-Ronne ice shelf on the southeastern Weddell Sea to obtain a sediment core from the seabed . “ It ’ s slightly bonkers ,” said Dr Huw Griffiths , a marine biogeographer at the British Antarctic Survey . “ Never in a million years would we have thought about looking for this kind of life , because we didn ’ t think it would be there .”
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