The keeper’s death led to questions over safety, rattled the tightly knit group of sentinels and renewed de-staffing fears
On a cloudy but calm morning early in April, a helicopter touched down on a string of remote islands off British Columbia’s Pacific coast. One person alighted; two others climbed onboard and the aircraft rose into the sky.
The lone man made his way towards Triple Island lighthouse, an octagonal concrete tower erupting from the trio of islets. Fringed with barnacles, rockweed and algae, the rocky cluster sits midway up Canada’s west coast, a seascape notorious for its battering storms, heavy fog and hostile waters.
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Breaking Waves: Ocean News
05/28/2025 - 06:00
05/28/2025 - 05:04
Appeals court rejects Saúl Luciano Lliuya’s argument his home was at risk of being damaged by glacial flood
A German appeals court has dismissed the case of a Peruvian farmer suing the energy giant RWE for climate damages.
The upper regional court in Hamm rejected the argument by the farmer and mountain guide Saúl Luciano Lliuya that his home was at direct risk of being washed away by a glacial flood.
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05/28/2025 - 05:00
Flamingo Lodge – constructed from repurposed shipping containers on stilts – replaces Florida facility battered by hurricanes Katrina and Wilma
A collection of repurposed shipping containers, welded together and fitted out to create an innovative new eco-hotel inside one of the country’s most popular national parks, offers a vision of revival and resilience at the beginning of another potentially active Atlantic hurricane season.
The containers exist as the elevated 24-room Flamingo Lodge at the exposed southern tip of Florida’s Everglades national park. It was built to replace the 1960s-era cinderblock construction that was finally demolished in 2009, four years after back-to-back hurricanes, Katrina and Wilma, tore it apart.
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05/28/2025 - 04:08
In Thailand, exotic pets are increasingly popular among the wealthy elite, but few are prepared for a long-term commitment and campaigners say many animals are kept in cruel conditions
Champagne glasses clink at an exclusive Bangkok party, where guests in designer clothes laugh and mingle. They take turns posing with a cat, passing it casually from one to the other. But as the camera settles, it becomes clear this is no house cat – it’s a lion cub. One woman, in a red cocktail dress, lifts the animal to her face and blows a kiss at the camera, a glass of wine balanced in her other hand.
Clips such as this are flooding Instagram and TikTok, offering a glimpse into Thailand’s booming captive lion trade. According to a new report by the Wildlife Friends Foundation Thailand and the Oxford Wildlife Trade Research Group the number of lions in captivity has more than tripled since 2018 – a trend fuelled in part by the rising popularity of exotic pets among the country’s wealthy elite. A growing network of lion farms cater to this demand – many of them run by amateurs with little experience in wildlife care.
Lion breeder Patamawadee Chanpithak plays with cubs in the nursery at her farm. Photograph: Ana Norman Bermudez
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05/28/2025 - 03:33
Exclusive: Defra sources say scheme, which pays farmers to protect nature, will be targeted at ‘small farms’
The nature-friendly farming budget is set to be slashed in the UK spending review, with only small farms allowed to apply, it can be revealed.
Sources at the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) confirmed the post-Brexit farming fund will be severely cut in the review on 11 June. It will be part of a swathe of cuts to departments, with police, social housing and nature funding expected to face the brunt.
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05/28/2025 - 02:27
As Ofwat imposes two fines totalling £123m, environment secretary says ‘era of profiting from failure is over’
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Thames Water has been hit with a record £104m fine over environmental breaches involving sewage spills, after failing to operate and manage its treatment works and wastewater networks effectively.
The water regulator for England and Wales, Ofwat, confirmed on Wednesday that – on top of penalties for breaches related to dividend payouts – it was issuing the beleaguered water company with £123m in fines that would be “paid by the company and its investors, and not by customers”.
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05/28/2025 - 02:00
Regenerative agriculture has growth potential for the offsets market, but scientists question its green credentials
On a blustery spring day, Thomas Gent is walking through a field of winter wheat on his family’s farm, which straddles the Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire border. Some of the green shoots reach his knees, while the ground between the plants is covered with clover.
Sinking a spade into the soil, Gent grins as he points to the freshly dug clod of earth on the blade. “Look at the root structure,” he says. “It rained 20mm last night. The water has drained down because the soil structure is in the right format.”
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05/28/2025 - 01:20
Estimated 16,000 litres of petroleum products spilled into Indian ocean on 8 May during decommissioning works at Griffin field
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Australia’s offshore energy regulator has launched an investigation into an oil and gas spill at a Woodside Energy project off the Pilbara coast in Western Australia.
An estimated 16,000 litres of petroleum products were released into the Indian Ocean on 8 May during decommissioning at the company’s Griffin field, 58km north-west of Exmouth and 60km from Ningaloo marine park. The field stopped production in 2009.
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05/28/2025 - 01:00
Experts decry lack of UK government action and warn a further 6,000 early deaths could occur
The excess pollution emitted as a result of the Dieselgate scandal has killed about 16,000 people in the UK and caused 30,000 cases of asthma in children, according to a new analysis. A further 6,000 premature deaths will occur in coming years without action, the researchers said.
The Dieselgate scandal erupted in 2015 when diesel cars were found to be emitting far more toxic air pollution on the roads than when they passed regulatory tests, due to the use of illegal “defeat devices”.
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05/28/2025 - 00:01
The government has suggested the material, which it describes as low risk, could also be used in roads and infrastructure in other parts of Japan.
Slightly radioactive soil from near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant will be transported to Tokyo and used in flower beds in the prime minister’s garden, in an attempt to prove to a skeptical public that the material is safe.
The decision comes 14 years after the plant suffered a triple meltdown in the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chornobyl.
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