Marina Gibson wants women to be accepted to 140-year-old Flyfishers’ Club, of which the king is patron

After she remarked that it was about time that Britain’s leading flyfishing club admitted women, Marina Gibson received a rush of helpful suggestions from male anglers who felt protective of the club’s heritage.

Gibson could set up her own flyfishing organisation for women, one man suggested. Another pointed out that she could join the Women’s Institute if she really wanted to be part of a club, or visit the Flyfishers’ Club in the evening (but not at lunchtime) if she was lucky enough to be invited in by one of the 600 men who are members. Others emailed asking her to explain why she wanted to join in the first place.

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© Photograph: Mark Pinder/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Mark Pinder/The Guardian

Conservationists say Barbara Creecy has failed to implement vital changes to stop fishing around colonies amid fears African penguins could be extinct by 2035

It’s 3.40pm on a Thursday and Penguin 999.000000007425712 has just returned to the Stony Point penguin colony in Betty’s Bay, South Africa, after a day of foraging. She glides elegantly through the turquoise waters before clambering comically up the rocks towards the nest where her partner is incubating two beige eggs. She doesn’t realise it, but a rudimentary knee-high fence has funnelled her towards a state-of-the-art weighbridge. When she left the colony at 6.45am this morning she weighed 2.7kg. Now, after a full day of hunting, she has gained only 285g.

Eleanor Weideman, a coastal seabird project manager for BirdLife South Africa, is concerned. “In a good year they come back with their stomachs bulging,” she says. Penguins can put on up to one-third of their body weight in a single day of foraging. “But there’s just no fish out there any more.”

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© Photograph: Imagebroker/Alamy

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© Photograph: Imagebroker/Alamy

‘Catastrophic’ global decline due to dams, mining, diverting water and pollution threatens humans and ecosystems, study warns

Migratory fish populations have crashed by more than 80% since 1970, new findings show.

Populations are declining in all regions of the world, but it is happening fastest in South America and the Caribbean, where abundance of these species has dropped by 91% over the past 50 years.

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© Photograph: O Humphreys/PA

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© Photograph: O Humphreys/PA

Scottish government accused of missing deadlines to take action on overfishing and effects of climate breakdown

Fragile and damaged marine life around Scotland’s coasts is not being properly protected because ministers in Edinburgh have broken their promises, environment campaigners have warned.

Prominent charities including the Marine Conservation Society and the National Trust for Scotland accuse the Scottish government of repeatedly missing its deadlines to protect vulnerable marine life from overfishing and the effects of climate breakdown.

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© Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian

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© Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian

An effort to protect 30 percent of land and waters would count some commercial fishing zones as conserved areas.

© Karsten Moran for The New York Times

First, fish off the Florida Keys started swimming in spirals or upside down. Then, endangered sawfish started dying. Scientists are racing to figure out why.

© Scott McIntyre for The New York Times