A death rate of up to 90%, attributed to warming seas, is threatening the trade in Hiroshima prefecture, which produces most of the country’s farmed oysters
The Kure oyster festival is doing a brisk trade in beer and grilled meat on sticks. But the longest queues are in front of the oyster stalls, where chefs shuffle piles of mottled shellfish across griddles, waiting for their hinges to ease and reveal their fleshy interiors.
Nobuyuki Miyaoka, who is attending the festival with his son, daughter-in-law and their young children, likes his oysters steamed with sake and served with a few drops of tangy ponzu sauce. “The local oysters were fine until this year,” he says. “They used to be a lot bigger … look how small they are.”
Chefs prepare oysters at the Kure oyster festival. This year, local businesses and consumers say the shellfish have been scarce and smaller than usual
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
03/31/2026 - 05:00
03/31/2026 - 00:00
Government told to focus on transition to mix of wind, solar, tidal and nuclear energy
More drilling in the North Sea would do nothing to improve the UK’s energy security, former military leaders have said, as a new analysis finds no fossil fuel importer is safe from chokepoints in the global supply chain.
The government should focus on a rapid transition to a mix of wind, solar, tidal and nuclear energy to ensure the UK’s future security, the former military leaders told the Guardian, as well as a programme of energy efficiency and a “major renewal” of the electricity grid.
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03/31/2026 - 00:00
‘Precious ocean life is being pushed to the brink,’ say campaigners, arguing that overfished marine areas are ‘protected only on paper’
Almost 40% of England’s seas are designated as marine protected areas. Their purpose, the government says, is “to protect and recover rare threatened and important marine ecosystems … from damage caused by human activities”.
And yet in the four years to 2024, trawlers using vast nets, including those that scour the seabed, caught more than 1.3m tonnes of fish within them, according to official figures that campaigners say show they are “little more than lines on a map”.
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03/30/2026 - 23:00
Nationwide reforms aim to standardise collections and expand food waste recycling to tackle stagnating rates
Recycling rules across England have long been inconsistent – but that will change from Tuesday when the government’s Simpler Recycling legislation comes into effect.
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03/30/2026 - 19:40
Exclusive: Environmental impact assessments are ‘incomplete’, say leaders, and private beach club could harm fragile ecosystems
Indigenous community leaders in Vanuatu have raised concerns over plans by the cruise operator Royal Caribbean to build a private beach club on the island of Lelepa, arguing environmental impact assessments by the company are “incomplete” and “misleading”.
The community leaders outlined the issues in a letter sent to Royal Caribbean on 26 February, which has been seen by the Guardian. The leaders also said the development could harm fragile ecosystems and a nearby Unesco world heritage site.
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03/30/2026 - 18:01
The great naturalist, who is about to turn 100, is still surprised by wildlife in his new series about British gardens. But not every pet owner will be happy with his top tips
Whenever David Attenborough speaks, the world listens – so his latest BBC programme, which heralds the broadcaster’s 100th birthday, is bound to attract attention.
Secret Garden, which features five different UK gardens, might not be what people normally expect from Attenborough, says the show’s series producer, Bill Markham, as “there’s no lions and tigers”.
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03/30/2026 - 08:00
Home to one of the world’s largest deposits of freshwater, the Great Lakes region will soon host next-generation generators – just as prices are being hiked across the US
Submersible hydroelectric technology deployed across the Great Lakes could become a key cog in clean energy efforts, supporters say, amid surging electricity demand and costs.
Home to one of the largest deposits of freshwater on the planet, the Great Lakes region has on its shores some of the largest cities in North America in Chicago, Toronto, Montreal and Detroit, where electricity demand is growing. While none of the five Great Lakes have significant tides or currents to fuel hydropower, several of the waterways that link the lakes do.
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03/30/2026 - 08:00
For decades, there was no record of Andrena rehni exisiting in the US. In 2018 it was found in Maryland and five years later I found it in New York State
I’ve loved insects ever since I was a kid and spent summers looking for them. My mum would always tell me that from the age of one – even before I could walk – I would happily sit outside, watching ants and trying to follow them back to their colony.
As an adult, I take people out to meadows with nets to catch insects and take a close look at them. It’s about trying to cultivate a childlike curiosity that people have lost or forgotten in daily life.
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03/30/2026 - 06:00
President is convening so-called ‘God squad’ to override provisions of Endangered Species Act for ‘national security’
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Donald Trump is dispatching a so-called “God squad” of top officials to revoke protections for endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico, purportedly to protect national security by expanding oil and gas industry operations.
If successful, the administration may kill off dozens of protected species – from Rice’s whales and whooping cranes to sea turtles.
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03/30/2026 - 01:00
As the clocks go forward and the UK enters British summer time, the Guardian photographer Sarah Lee has been trying to distract herself from gloomy world news by focusing on the miracles of springtime and coming of longer days
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