Breaking Waves: Ocean News

‘Losing hope with every day that passes’: torment of the ships’ crews abandoned at sea

admin — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 06:00:05 +0000

Thousands of seafarers are left on board their vessels in foreign waters, unpaid, with scant supplies – and no way of getting home

When Vihaan* set off from his home in Tamil Nadu, south India, to work on a vessel crossing the Bay of Bengal into neighbouring Bangladesh, he told his family he would be gone a few months. After delivering his cargo of stone to Bangladesh’s Kutubdia Island, the marine engineer was due to head home in March 2024 to disembark at Thoothukudi port, India.

‘Superpod’ of more than 2,000 dolphins frolic off California coast: ‘Like flying eyebrows’

admin — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 02:06:13 +0000

Boat tour captures video of Northern right whale dolphins, Pacific white-sided dolphins and light grey baby calves

More than 2,000 dolphins gathered off the California coast to form a “superpod”, gliding and breaching the clear, aquamarine waters off Monterey Bay.

UK battery firm says it has learned from others’ errors as it licenses Chinese tech

admin — Wed, 26 Feb 2025 00:01:08 +0000

Volklec aims to start making batteries at part-government-funded site near Coventry before building its own factory

A startup has said it has learned from Britain’s faltering attempts to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles, as it signed a deal to license technology from an established Chinese firm.

Coventry-based Volklec plans to manufacture batteries for cars, boats, construction vehicles and aircraft using technology from China’s Far East Battery (FEB), a maker of batteries mainly for electric bikes.

Wildfire debris washes up on LA beaches after major rainstorm

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 22:57:42 +0000

Beaches in southern California littered with timber, twisted metals, charred silt and urban runoff from Palisades fire

Los Angeles county beaches are contending with the aftermath of recent wildfires and winter storms as debris from the Palisades fire and urban runoff are carried to the shoreline.

‘We’re being treated as grifters or terrorists’: US federal workers on the fear and chaos of their firings

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 15:00:14 +0000

An educator, archaeologist and scientist were among the thousands of government workers culled by Musk’s agency

California faces worsening drought despite recent heavy rainstorms

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 15:00:13 +0000

Dry pattern seen among entire ‘lower basin’ of the Colorado River, including Arizona and desert cities such as Las Vegas

Dramatic rainstorms earlier this month brought more than 6in of rain to the California mountains – a full month’s worth of rain in little more than a day – but the deluge wasn’t enough to reverse a worsening drought trend that is set to intensify further in the coming weeks and months.

Farmers worried if they will make it to 2026 amid ‘cashflow crisis’, says NFU

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 14:59:30 +0000

Union conference dominated by row over planned inheritance tax changes as farmers battle the bad weather and turbulent geopolitics

Farmers are warning of a “cashflow crisis” that has left many in the agricultural sector wondering how they will make it to the end of the year.

At the annual meeting of the National Farmers’ Union (NFU) of England and Wales, its president told members that “bad policy, geopolitics and unprecedented weather” had left some sectors of UK farming “in the worst cashflow crisis ever”.

Ex-US security officials urge funding for science research to keep up with China

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 14:40:47 +0000

Appeal from officials, including two senior figures from Trump’s first term, comes amid reports National Science Foundation’s budget will be slashed

Chuck Hagel, the former US defense secretary, and other former US national security officials, including two senior figures from Donald Trump’s first term, on Tuesday warned that China was outpacing the US in critical technology fields and urged Congress to increase funding for federal scientific research.

Matt Kean says suggestion Coalition could sack him if it wins election is ‘concerning threat’

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 14:00:16 +0000

Climate Change Authority chair says his job is to provide ‘frank and fearless advice’ after he criticised opposition’s nuclear energy proposal

Scientists worried about CSIRO-backed plan to release genetically modified mosquitos in Queensland

admin — Tue, 25 Feb 2025 14:00:12 +0000

One expert says releasing a foreign strain into wild could increase risk of insecticide resistance