Positive ocean news: July '24 edition

Twenty-four schools across the UK have become accredited Ocean-Friendly Schools, having completed the Marine Conservation Society's Ocean Friendly Schools Award this academic year. Almost half of the schools were inland.

Ms Fowlie from Forgue School in Aberdeenshire, which completed the award, said, “It's amazing seeing the pupils' depth of understanding on ocean and climate change issues. They were all rightly proud of themselves and were great at sharing their learning and successes! They are empowered to keep going.” ​

Learn more about the Ocean-Friendly Schools Awards.

About 125 dolphins were rescued after becoming stranded in shallow mud flats off Cape Cod, Massachusetts in one of the largest single mass stranding events in the area in decades.

In a co-ordinated response effort lasting 12 hours, the dolphins were encouraged back to deeper waters, although some remained swimming in the inner harbour.

More than 150 people were involved in the rescue, including staff and trained volunteers from several marine conservation groups such as The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), AmeriCorps of Cape Cod, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, the New England Aquarium, the Center for Coastal Studies, and the Wellfleet Harbormaster.

Although the IFAW team later spotted 10 of the dolphins swimming in a dangerous area, they successfully herded them towards deeper water.

Read more on the Good News Network website

Hi-tech GPS-tracking buoys washing up on Australian beaches have been redeployed to track discarded or abandoned fishing gear known as ‘ghost nets’, which are then removed.

Tangaroa Blue, an Australian non-profit organisation dedicated to removing and preventing marine debris, found large numbers of the buoys washing up on the Cape York coast in North Queensland.

After securing permission from the buoys’ manufacturer, Tangaroa Blue founder Heidi Tait distributed them among Australian mariners, including national park staff, indigenous rangers, commercial fishermen, and charter boats, who would hook the buoys to ghost nets they found.

This led to the creation of Project ReCon, which is dedicated to reusing the hi-tech buoys to track and remove ghost nets. So far, three ghost nets have been removed, including one weighing over three tonnes, as well as a 150-foot-long mooring rope tangled in a reef.

Read more on the Good News Network website

A Eurasian beaver has been born in Northumberland, England, just one year after four beavers were released there by the National Trust.

While a heavily pregnant beaver was seen by the team at the Wallington Estate in May, recently recorded footage of the kit (baby beaver) entering the beavers’ lodge and swimming is the first confirmation of a successful birth.

The family is one of the few populations in Northern England, after the species were hunted to extinction during the sixteenth century. In the year since their reintroduction, the beavers have created a dynamic system of dams, canals and burrows, slowing the flow of water and making the flood plain more resilient to climate change. It has resulted in ponds, deep pools and mudscapes appearing throughout the estate.

Biodiversity along the river corridor has also seen a rise in the number of trout and kingfishers, herons and Daubenton's bats. It’s hoped that more diverse species will be recorded as the wetlands continue to grow.

Read more on the Chronicle Live website

More than seven tonnes of litter was removed from Lake Tisza, Hungary by volunteers in a decade-old clean-up competition.

The PET Kupa takes place every few months, with teams of volunteers – called PET Pirates – competing against each other to collect the most litter from Hungary’s natural spaces. Around 150 people took part in the latest event in Lake Tisza and the Tisza River, which flows into the Danube.

The teams sailed around the lake in kayaks and makeshift boats, collecting rubbish as they went. Afterwards, they worked together to sort the collected litter by colour and material.

The PET Kupa helps remove large amounts of litter such as plastic bottles, cans, tyres and batteries from waterways, which in turn prevents them from entering the ocean. Gergely Hankó, Project Manager of the PET Kupa estimates that “the Danube transfers 1,500 tonnes of plastic, the Tisza around 250 tonnes, He says the clean-up teams gather about 100 tonnes per year.”

Read more on the Euro News website

Sixty critically endangered Siamese crocodiles have been born in Cambodia, offering a sign of hope for a comeback.

Siamese crocodiles are one of the rarest crocodile species in the world, due to hunting and habitat loss. Believed to be extinct in the wild, it was rediscovered in 2000, with an estimated 400 of the animals still alive today.

Cambodia hosts almost all of the remaining Siamese crocodiles> It has set up conservation programmes to protect the species. The programmes breed and reintroduce crocodiles into the wild, while local communities patrol key breeding and nesting sites to ensure they’re not tampered with.

Nearly 200 captive-bred Siamese crocodiles have been released into the wild since 2012, with the recent birth of 60 marking a hatching record for this century.

Read more on The Independent website