Breaking Waves: Ocean News

Experts are calling for stricter limits on numbers of those flocking to Baja California Sur to swim with the animals in the wild. But some local tour operators are not convinced Just after sunrise in the small village of La Ventana in Baja California Sur, the beach is bustling with wetsuit-clad tourists. They climb into Mexican fishing boats and race out into the windy blue bay, cameras at the ready. The fishers turned tour guides follow a couple of ocean safari yachts, which follow directions from pilots sent up in spotter planes. The goal of this 40-boat cavalcade? To enable swimming with orcas in the wild. Swimming with orcas in Mexico falls into a legal grey area as it exploits loopholes in two Mexican laws that protect endangered marine wildlife. This has become particularly problematic in the past five years since selfies with the whales on social media have led to an increase in the number of people wanting to try the activity. Continue reading...

Anthony Albanese visits mid-north coast as police warn of ‘un-Australian’ looting during clean-up Australia news live: latest politics updates Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast Anthony Albanese has warned the recovery from floods on the New South Wales mid-north coast could take months but has promised less red tape and more money for impacted residents. The prime minister on Tuesday visited Milton Johnson’s dairy farms at Taree – the epicentre of the latest NSW floods. Continue reading...

Braunschweig court gives two former executives prison sentences for roles in emissions test-cheating scandal A German court has convicted four former Volkswagen managers of fraud and given two of them prison sentences for their part in the “dieselgate” emissions test-cheating scandal that erupted almost a decade ago. The former head of development Heinz-Jakob Neusser received a suspended jail term of one year and three months from the court in the city of Braunschweig, according to the news agency Bloomberg. Continue reading...

Environment minister Murray Watt is due to make a decision on whether to extend the controversial North West Shelf development in coming days Want to get this in your inbox when it publishes? Sign up for the Clear Air Australia newsletter here Reliable energy or ‘carbon bomb’? What’s at stake in the battle over Australia’s North West Shelf Unless something remarkable – the federal court, perhaps – intervenes, the Albanese government will this week make a decision that could have ramifications for greenhouse gas emissions and Indigenous heritage that last for decades – or longer. It relates to the future of the North West Shelf, one of the world’s largest liquified natural gas (LNG) projects. Most discussion about it assumes that it is a done deal – that the environment minister, Murray Watt, will give the green light to an application by Woodside Energy to extend the life of the gas export processing facility on the Burrup peninsula in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. Sign up to get climate and environment editor Adam Morton’s Clear Air column as a free newsletter Continue reading...