Mastodawn

European bottom trawling costs billions every year in climate impacts, study finds https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/european-bottom-trawling-costs-billions-every-year-in-climate-impacts-study-finds/

Seabed life triples after bottom trawling ban in Scotland protected area https://news.mongabay.com/short-article/2026/05/seabed-life-triples-after-bottom-trawling-ban-in-scotland-protected-area/

#Europe #Scotland #environment #seabed #BottomTrawling #climate #ClimateChange #ClimateCrisis

European bottom trawling costs billions every year in climate impacts, study finds

Europe’s fishing industry makes around 180 million euros ($210 million) every year in profits from bottom trawling, which involves dragging heavy fishing gear along seabeds. But a new study found when climate costs associated with the practice are calculated, society is paying a price up to 90 times higher than the fishing industry profits. “Bottom […]

Conservation news

McDonald_69 May 5

Seabed mapping off Cornwall 'to inform policy and security'

Scientists are exploring and mapping an area of seabed off the Cornish coast.

A four-week survey has been designed to collect hydrographic, geological and environmental data to help inform how the seabed is managed.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cp8p2jm80keo

#UK #Cornwall #mapping #seabed #science

Seabed mapping off Cornwall 'to inform policy and security'

Data collected by scientists will be used in many sectors, including the development of marine policies.

Dragofix Mar 31

‘A national scandal’: trawlers scour seabeds of supposedly protected UK waters https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/mar/31/a-national-scandal-trawlers-scour-seabeds-of-supposedly-protected-uk-waters

#UnitedKingdom #UK #environment #waters #sea #seabed #trawlers

‘A national scandal’: trawlers scour seabeds of supposedly protected UK waters

‘Precious ocean life is being pushed to the brink’ say campaigners, arguing that overfished marine areas are ‘protected only on paper’

The Guardian

CBC Nova Scotia Mar 18

Railcars abandoned by tidal developers could be removed from ocean floor this summer
The Fundy Ocean Research Centre for Energy is looking for a company to remove and dispose of four cement-filled boxcars that have been sitting on the seabed for years.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/railcars-abandoned-tidal-developers-removal-9.7133742?cmp=rss

mwc_rrd Mar 14

Indigenous rights, the environment, and international law: What’s at stake at this week’s seabed mining talks

https://grist.org/indigenous/indigenous-rights-the-environment-and-international-law-whats-at-stake-at-this-weeks-seabed-mining-talks/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&utm_campaign=weekly

#seabed #mining #indigenous #biodiversity #nature #conservation #oceans #resistance #raiseyourvoice #takeaction #learnsomething

Indigenous rights, the environment, and international law: What’s at stake at this week’s seabed mining talks

Trump's aggressive push toward deep-sea mining is putting pressure on global negotiators to act fast to shape deep-sea mining rules.

Grist

Stefan F. Wirth Mar 14

In biology/geology "#marinesnow" refers to the #organicdebris of organisms from higher #waterlevels. The #carboncycle thus transfers #CO2 to the #seabed, thus binding the #greenhousegas.
B. Borer et al. (2026) found that #microbial components of this "snow" induce #calciumcarbonate #dissolution in higher waters, reducing their #settlingvelocity and requiring consideration in future #climatemodels.
©#StefanFWirth

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DoomsdaysCW Mar 8

#SodiumIonBatteries offer an alternative to tricky #lithium

Oct 26th 2023

Excerpt: "Fortunately, lithium is not the only game in town. As we report this week, a clutch of firms are making batteries based on sodium, lithium’s elemental cousin. Since sodium’s chemical properties are very similar to those of lithium, it too makes for good batteries. And sodium, which is found in the salt in #seawater, is thousands of times more abundant on Earth than lithium and cheaper to get at. Most of the companies using sodium to make batteries today are also Chinese. But pursuing the technology in the West might be a surer route to energy security than relying heavily on lithium.

"Besides its abundance, sodium has other advantages. The best lithium batteries use #cobalt and #nickel in their electrodes. Nickel, like lithium, is in short supply. #Mining it on land is #EnvironmentallyDestructive. Proposals to grab it from the #seabed instead have caused rows. A good deal of the world’s cobalt, meanwhile, is extracted from small mines in the #DemocraticRepublicOfCongo, where #ChildLabour is common and working conditions are dire. Sodium batteries, by contrast, can use #electrodes built from #iron and #manganese [and wood #lignin], which are plentiful and uncontroversial. Since the chemical components are cheap, a scaled-up industry should be able to produce batteries that cost less than their lithium counterparts.

"Sodium is not a perfect replacement for lithium. It is heavier, meaning sodium batteries will weigh more than lithium ones of an equivalent capacity. That is likely to rule them out in some cases where lightness is paramount. But for other applications, such as #GridStorage or #HomeBatteries, weight is irrelevant. Several Chinese carmakers are even beginning to put sodium batteries in #ElectricVehicles."

Archived version:
https://archive.ph/7x6JX

#SolarPunkSunday #EnergyStorage #SodiumIon #NewTechnology #GiantLeap #Reuse #WasteReuse #NoLithiumMining #NoMining