Elaine Hoare recalls her mother buying five fish for a shilling, while Michael Heaton draws readers’ attention to an Americanism

Your article (Whale meat curry for dinner? Study of bygone seafood recipes shows how UK tastes have narrowed, 13 October) reminded me of the call of “Fresh herring, fresh herring” from the herring man wheeling his cart in the back lane by our house in Douglas, Isle of Man, in the 1950s. My mother went to him with a bowl and bought herring for tea – five for a shilling, if I remember correctly. They were delicious. We cleaned them, scored each side three or four times, dipped them in oatmeal and fried them. We have a fish man from Grimsby call every Monday, but he never has herring.
Elaine Hoare
Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire

• I am perplexed by the Marine Conservation Society’s suggestion that we should eat “wild-caught sea bass” as an alternative to cod (Scale back on hake and coley, seafood charity tells shoppers, 14 October). First, there is no such fish in Britain: “sea bass” is an Americanism they use to distinguish the marine bass from the several species of inedible freshwater bass in US rivers and lakes. We have only one species: bass. Second, it is insulting to suggest it as an alternative to cod. It is infinitely nicer than cod, but unsuited to battering.
Michael Heaton
Warminster, Wiltshire

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© Photograph: VICUSCHKA/Getty Images

© Photograph: VICUSCHKA/Getty Images

© Photograph: VICUSCHKA/Getty Images

Researchers say almost 90% of participants in unconditional basic income scheme in Peru adopted environmentally beneficial practices

A pioneering project to provide Indigenous people in the Peruvian Amazon with an unconditional basic income has contributed to the protection of the rainforest, according to a study.

The analysis from the University of Bath is expected to contribute to a growing debate about the role of direct payments to communities that maintain globally important ecosystems.

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© Photograph: Martín Mejía/AP

© Photograph: Martín Mejía/AP

© Photograph: Martín Mejía/AP

With catches down 80%, dead crabs and lobsters washed up on beaches and officials denying any responsibility, Hartlepool seafarers have taken a stand

Hartlepool fisherman Stan Rennie has been called the next Mr Bates. For nearly 50 years Rennie has fished the same stretch of northeast coastline – then in October 2021, thousands of crabs, starfish and lobsters washed up dead and dying on the beaches. “It was like something out of a horror film,” says one local. Rennie and other fishermen suspected industrial pollution, but an investigation by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs concluded that the most likely cause of the die-off was “algal bloom”. For Rennie and the other fisherman, it didn’t add up. So, they crowdfunded their own independent scientific study.

This documentary from Jeanie Finlay (Your Fat Friend) tells the story, and it’s maddening. The fishermen are close to bankruptcy, they’ve got mortgages and kids, catches are down 80%. The cost of diesel is higher than the price of a haul, and most put their boats up for sale. “Any jobs in Lidl?” reads one placard as they protest through town. What the fishermen suspect is that toxic sediment dredged from the River Tees and dumped in the sea is to blame. Their investigation finds evidence of a link to the chemical pyridine, a byproduct of steelmaking.

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© Photograph: Courtesy of Jeanie Finlay

© Photograph: Courtesy of Jeanie Finlay

© Photograph: Courtesy of Jeanie Finlay

In 2022, I helped push through the international agreement to protect biodiversity. Wars and economic pressures can make nature seem like a ‘nice-to-have’. But it is a critical asset, and Cop17 must deliver real action

When I was five, property developers came to cut down the woods behind my home in La Tuque, Quebec. My mother encouraged me to climb one of the trees in protest, then told the developers, straight-faced, that there was nothing she could do when they asked her to get me down. A few days later, the tree was cut down anyway.

I thought about that tree in the early hours of a freezing Montreal morning in December 2022, as the gavel came down on a global agreement between nearly 200 countries to halt and reverse the loss of nature by 2030. I thought about how important nature is for our health, our food security and our economies, but also how much passion there is around protecting it, and how it has the power to inspire people all around the world.

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© Photograph: COP17

© Photograph: COP17

© Photograph: COP17

Ouse Fen, Cambridgeshire: The great egret’s story is remarkable, as is the conversion of this low-grade agricultural land into one of the richest wetlands in Britain

In keeping with this region’s summer of torrid heat and drought, the field by the path was an expanse of burnt, dead thistles. What was totally unexpected were the 13 great egrets among it. Ironically, the birds may well be here as a consequence of the climate crisis, but their appearance in a parched brown expanse felt strange.

First, they are creatures of freshwater marsh and routinely hunt fish. Second, great egrets are the size of grey herons, but pure white, aside from lemon eyes and dagger-like beaks of pale autumnal orange. What was weirdest of all was the gestalt whole; the way they threaded through that horizon of brown, long necks extending and retracting like winding snakes, and all this gleaming intensity focused on catching voles. Then a bird would fly, the white rope of its neck rising, followed by a ragged cloak of wings, turning eventually to the stolid beat of heavy flight.

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© Photograph: Mark Cocker

© Photograph: Mark Cocker

© Photograph: Mark Cocker

As Cop17 kicks off, records since 1921 show more bee species declining than increasing in all parts of Europe except the Alps

Most of Europe’s wild bee species and about half of its hover fly species have declined over the last century, a study has found, as a UN biodiversity summit begins in Armenia.

Records since 1921 show more bee species are declining than increasing in all parts of Europe except the Alpine region. The richness of bee and hover fly species suffered a persistent drop in the Atlantic and Continental regions, the study found, though trends in other regions were mixed or even positive.

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© Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

© Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

© Photograph: Niall Carson/PA

Dutch MEP says government is trying to avoid EU environmental rules as protests over luxury development turn violent

MEPs have accused Albania of deploying “sneaky” practices to fast-track a proposed Trump-linked luxury resort in the country amid protests that have turned increasingly violent.

As the prime minister, Edi Rama, pledged to “listen to the voices of young people” taking to the streets, there was mounting criticism of his failure to address demonstrators who had long opposed the controversial project peacefully.

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© Photograph: Adnan Beci/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Adnan Beci/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Adnan Beci/AFP/Getty Images

Exclusive: Chris Hinchliff urges environment watchdog to block rules that will allow almost 16,000 new homes in one of UK’s most protected areas

The environment watchdog is being urged to intervene in “cash to trash” planning rules that will allow almost 16,000 new homes in the Norfolk Broads despite the damage to one of the UK’s most environmentally protected areas.

Labour’s flagship planning reforms allow damage to protected habitats and species to be overlooked if developers pay into a central nature restoration fund, which is used for conservation actions at a later date. These environmental delivery plans (EDPs) have been called “cash to trash” by critics, who say they roll back decades of environmental law and are a “licence to kill nature”.

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© Photograph: Jim Laws/Alamy

© Photograph: Jim Laws/Alamy

© Photograph: Jim Laws/Alamy

So far not a single target of the plan has been met. As negotiators convene for Cop17, the pressure is on to find a way to honour the commitments made at previous summits

• Cop17 at a glance: everything you need to know about the UN’s nature summit

Passersby could smell the dead fish before they saw them. In August, more than 3,000 pike, roach, carp and rudd were found lifeless along the River Wensum in Norwich. Some gasped for air in their final moments, desperate for the oxygen that heatwave conditions had depleted in the water. Investigators believe that the die-off was triggered by heavy rainfall that flushed through high concentrations of pollution at a time when wildlife were already struggling.

The 45-mile (70km) chalk river is one of about 250 in the country. They are a geological accident almost unique to Britain – and one of Earth’s rarest habitats. They emerge from chalk aquifers and are home to species such as freshwater shrimp, otters and stoneflies, also providing drinking water for millions of people. But just 11 have formal protection, with many ravaged by sewage pollution and overextraction. The Norfolk river is one of the few that does have legal protection, but it is in poor ecological health.

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© Photograph: Norwich Green Party

© Photograph: Norwich Green Party

© Photograph: Norwich Green Party

Conservation work by RSPB has led to recovery of terns, gulls, plovers and oystercatchers on England’s south coast

The colony of sandwich terns nesting at Pagham harbour, West Sussex, was completely wiped out by bird flu in 2022. But numbers have bounced back from zero to 756 breeding pairs in just three years after conservation work in the Solent.

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© Photograph: David Kinchin Smith/RSPB

© Photograph: David Kinchin Smith/RSPB

© Photograph: David Kinchin Smith/RSPB

This month’s biodiversity summit in Yerevan, Armenia, aims to push governments to meet the 23 targets agreed at Cop15 in 2022

This month, nearly every country on Earth will return to the question of how to stem the rapid destruction of the natural world. Humans are driving it, but so far we have not found a way to stop it.

In late 2022, governments reached an ambitious once-in-a-decade deal to better protect nature amid scientific warnings that the planet is going through the largest loss of life since the extinction of the dinosaurs. Now, they are assessing their progress on the targets for the first time.

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© Photograph: Andrej Ivanov/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrej Ivanov/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Andrej Ivanov/AFP/Getty Images

Spar pilot scheme will test whether heirloom fruit can thrive in today’s commercial and environmental conditions

Only about 10 of the 2,000 types of apples growing in Austria can be found in supermarkets among the polished, pristine fruit usually on display – a sad ratio according to fans of historic varieties being primed for a comeback.

One of the country’s biggest retail chains has embarked on a pilot rollout of unusual and long-forgotten apples enjoyed in previous centuries, riding an international trend of reviving heirloom fruit and vegetables.

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© Photograph: Marek Slusarczyk/Alamy

© Photograph: Marek Slusarczyk/Alamy

© Photograph: Marek Slusarczyk/Alamy

In an extract from his new book, the nature historian explains how technology could help the seabird survive

For centuries human beings have exploited puffins, harvesting them by the thousand on their breeding grounds for their food and feathers. Over time, though, this relationship has changed, so that today we have come to love them, celebrating their quirky character and comical appearance and giving them a central place in our affections – a journey described by the environmental historian Dr Rob Lambert as the shift “from use to delight”.

How ironic, then, that just as we have come to truly appreciate them, our own existence now threatens theirs. The climate crisis threatens almost all the world’s roughly 11,000 species of birds, but its consequences have particularly dire significance for seabirds, whose life cycle is so intimately connected to the timing and abundance of their food supplies.

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© Photograph: Tim Graham/Alamy

© Photograph: Tim Graham/Alamy

© Photograph: Tim Graham/Alamy

The tawaki, or Fiordland crested penguin, known for its prominent yellow eyebrows, has for years baffled scientists with its unusual habits

Deep in the misty fjords of New Zealand’s South Island, a team of researchers is trying to catch one of the world’s most elusive penguins: the forest-dwelling tawaki, or Fiordland crested penguin.For weeks, researchers stand sentry each day over a burrow on Eleanor Island, hoping to corner the female bird so they can retrieve data from its tagging device.

But this penguin has developed a clever exit strategy – digging multiple tunnels to elude its captors.

The Tutoko I prepares for a research trip during its annual Fiordland crested penguin nest survey around Doubtful Sound

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© Photograph: Derek Morrison

© Photograph: Derek Morrison

© Photograph: Derek Morrison

Forest clearance at smallest total since records began in 1988 in success for Lula ahead of presidential run-off

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon has fallen to its lowest level since records began, new government data shows.

But whether this globally important success is maintained or reversed is on a knife edge ahead of a presidential election run-off on 25 October between two candidates with sharply different visions for the future of the rainforest and how that affects relations with the US under Donald Trump.

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© Photograph: Edmar Barros/AP

© Photograph: Edmar Barros/AP

© Photograph: Edmar Barros/AP

​The world pledged to halt biodiversity loss by 2030, but as Cop17 delegates meet in Armenia next week the outlook is bleak and optimism has faded

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The world has lost its way on nature once again. Next week, biodiversity Cop17 begins in Yerevan, Armenia, and expectations are low. Very low.

Almost four years ago, governments reached an historic agreement at the biodiversity Cop15 to halt the destruction of Earth’s ecosystems – to rapturous applause in Montreal, Canada. I still remember the excitement in the hall in the early hours of that freezing December morning.

A perfect storm: how the super El Niño is devastating the fishing industry

‘We need less point scoring’: What party conference season taught us about UK climate action

‘I didn’t want to write about this’: the man who first saw chimps waging civil war

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© Photograph: IISD

© Photograph: IISD

© Photograph: IISD

While anglers cannot take endangered sand tiger sharks, a loophole lets private firms catch the fish to sell abroad, profiting from Delaware Bay’s conservation success

Shortly after 12.45pm, what remains of a 300-metre line goes taut. Somewhere beneath the murky green surface of Delaware Bay, on the eastern US coast, a sand tiger shark has taken the bait of a mackerel chunk. Marine researchers at the University of Delaware haul the line towards a small boat as the shark’s grey-brown outline emerges.

It is a large animal: 225cm (7ft) long with a 90cm girth. Its mouth hangs open, revealing rows of jagged teeth. The researchers work quickly, measuring the shark, recording its sex, and taking blood and muscle samples. A tag is then fastened beneath its dorsal fin, through its thick sandpapery skin.

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© Photograph: Maya Young/The Guardian

© Photograph: Maya Young/The Guardian

© Photograph: Maya Young/The Guardian

Declining stocks and increased fishing pressure have led to lower sustainability ratings for two popular cod alternatives

UK shoppers have previously been urged to avoid UK-caught cod and to buy European hake or coley instead – but now these fish are in trouble, too.

The Marine Conservation Society (MCS), an environmental charity, publishes its Good Fish Guide to help consumers and businesses make sustainable seafood choices. It uses a traffic-light system to rate seafood according to the health of fish stocks and environmental impact.

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© Photograph: VictorHuang/Getty Images/iStockphoto

© Photograph: VictorHuang/Getty Images/iStockphoto

© Photograph: VictorHuang/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Nearly half of species are in decline, with farmland birds and seabirds the worst hit, conservation bodies say

Wild bird populations in the UK have fallen to their lowest level since records began, figures show, with nearly half of species in decline.

Figures produced by leading nature conservation bodies for the government show that average populations across 132 native breeding species fell by 19% between 1970 and 2025, with farmland birds and seabirds the worst hit in recent years.

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© Photograph: BIOSPHOTO/Alamy

© Photograph: BIOSPHOTO/Alamy

© Photograph: BIOSPHOTO/Alamy

Team works to restore the sunflower sea star as 95% of these key underwater ecosystems have been decimated along the Pacific coast in past decade

Off the coast of Monterey, California, a team of researchers is gearing up for its first dive of the day into the cold and choppy waters of the Pacific Ocean.

On the back deck of the boat, Ashley Kidd, a co-founder of the non-profit Sunflower Star Laboratory, gave the divers their final command: “Dive No 1 … stars in the water.”

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© Photograph: Climate Central

© Photograph: Climate Central

© Photograph: Climate Central

When populations fall, fledglings can struggle to learn the right notes to attract mates. But research on how birds communicate offers hope for species’ survival

Listening to birdsong is one of life’s great joys, but when researchers heard a particular tune emerging from a tree in a Buenos Aires park, they were especially jubilant. This arrangement was among those chirped by the local rufous-collared sparrows in the 1960s, but had since disappeared from the area.

That was until scientists created a computer-generated rendition, curious to find out if birds might consider it realistic enough to imitate. Less than three months later, a local avian resident began to copy parts of the song.

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© Photograph: Martín Benchimol

© Photograph: Martín Benchimol

© Photograph: Martín Benchimol

In the Atacama desert, the extraction of lithium – so crucial to addressing the climate crisis – comes with escalating social and environmental costs

A high-altitude desert plateau traverses Argentina, Bolivia and Chile. I am on the Chilean side, sitting in a Jeep along with two other researchers. The afternoon air is thin and brisk but the sun is piercing – a combination I am familiar with from years of living and travelling in South America’s Andean range.

The landscape is a study in contrasts and contours: broad basins suddenly cut off by sweeping curves; flat expanses sliced by near vertical ascents. The Licancabur volcano looms large above us. Vegetation and humidity levels change rapidly with the rising altitude, bringing cooler temperatures, wetter air and denser plant life.

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© Photograph: Santiago Urquijo/Getty Images

© Photograph: Santiago Urquijo/Getty Images

© Photograph: Santiago Urquijo/Getty Images

John Mitani spent years studying a huge community of chimpanzees in Uganda. But then things took a dark turn – and his findings stunned the scientific world

John Mitani can still remember the first time he set foot in Uganda’s Kibale national park. The old-growth east African rainforest enveloped him, its canopy stretching to heights of 40 metres. Fruit trees bowed under the weight of African star apples and bountiful Ficus mucuso figs. And then there were the chimpanzees. Furry black blobs darted through the jungle, their raucous calls often deafening.

It was the summer of 1995, and Mitani, a primatologist from northern California, had just come from working with the chimps living in the Mahale mountains of Tanzania. At the time, Mahale was home to the largest known population of chimps, with about 100 individuals. But there were rumours that this section of Kibale – only accessible via a 12-hour drive from the capital, Kampala – might host an even more unusual abundance of apes.

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© Photograph: Lauren Sarringhaus

© Photograph: Lauren Sarringhaus

© Photograph: Lauren Sarringhaus

Plans for a 200-room project on an unspoiled beach have pitted developers against the conservationists fighting for smaller-scale schemes to protect the island’s habitat

Visitors to Rocky Point in south-west Tobago are drawn to its sandy beach, fringed by coral reefs and dark rock formations and carpeted with the fruit-bearing trees found on Caribbean coastlines – almonds, sea grapes, coconuts, and the poisonous manchineel. The beach is part of Back Bay, a 500-metre swathe of land, and trekking through its undulating terrain, thickly covered in bush and shrubs, feels akin to walking through a rainforest.

But this still relatively unspoiled location is at the centre of a struggle between two opposing interests – those who see large-scale development as the most profitable path and those who believe smaller, incremental developments owned by the community would be best.

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© Photograph: Mark Meredith/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mark Meredith/Getty Images

© Photograph: Mark Meredith/Getty Images

As archaeologists find treasure trove along new floodplain, conservationists say another Nova Kakhovka would be ecocide

On a warm September day, a group of underwater archaeologists and researchers were boiling water for tea on their campfire on the banks of the Dnipro River, tents pitched on the sandy shoreline. They were three weeks into an archaeological expedition of the waters around Khortytsia – a rocky island 12.5km long and 2.5km wide that lies just downstream of the city of Zaporizhzhia, in south-eastern Ukraine.

High above the island, a Shahed drone whined on its way. A Ukrainian interceptor, and small-arms fire from the ground, tried, unsuccessfully, to bring it down. The archaeologists ignored it. This is life as normal, 28 miles (45km) from the combat zone in Russia’s war on Ukraine.

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© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

© Photograph: Julia Kochetova/The Guardian

Our wildlife series Young Country Diary is looking for articles written by children, about their autumn encounters with nature

Once again, the Young Country Diary series is open for submissions! Every three months we ask you to send us an article written by a child aged 8-14.

The article needs to be about a recent encounter they’ve had with nature – whether it’s a hedge full of berries, a beetle on the move, or a nervous deer.

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© Photograph: Family handout

© Photograph: Family handout

© Photograph: Family handout

Installation of eight canopy bridges in Alta Floresta has enabled 15,000 safe crossings by animals including spider monkeys and marmosets – and more bridges are planned elsewhere

By about 7am, with dense fog blanketing the landscape, Gabriel Falquetto had already come across several road-killed animals along the ES-164 highway in Brazil’s Espírito Santo state. The biologist was on his way to Kaetés private natural heritage reserve (RPPN) in the Atlantic Forest, where he monitors wildlife and roadkill.

Then he spotted the lifeless body of a primate on the pavement. It was a buffy-headed marmoset (Callithrix flaviceps), a species listed as critically endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list. An estimated 2,500 individuals remain in the wild, making it one of the world’s most threatened primates.

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© Photograph: Reconecta

© Photograph: Reconecta

© Photograph: Reconecta

Guardian readers reveal their own tales of cross species cohabitation

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© Illustration: First Dog on the Moon/The Guardian

© Illustration: First Dog on the Moon/The Guardian

© Illustration: First Dog on the Moon/The Guardian

Species with leaves large enough to be seen from space is already critically endangered – and plans are afoot to protect it

A chance social media encounter has led to the race-against-time discovery of a new species of giant waterlily that has until now been hidden in the depths of Colombia’s jungle.

But the plant, which is so huge it is visible from space, is already considered critically endangered.

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© Photograph: Jeremiah Harris

© Photograph: Jeremiah Harris

© Photograph: Jeremiah Harris

Free-roaming Aldabra population far exceeds human population of Seychelles after decades-long recovery programme

A survey of the world’s largest free-roaming giant tortoise population has discovered that the once endangered species is thriving.

A population of Aldabra giant tortoises lives on an island in Seychelles called Aldabra Atoll.

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© Photograph: Dennis Hansen/SWNS

© Photograph: Dennis Hansen/SWNS

© Photograph: Dennis Hansen/SWNS

A landmark report reveals that the world must change the way it produces food to avoid a biodiversity collapse

Conservation comebacks for wild tigers, tuna and green​ sea turtles prove that global nature loss can be reversed, ​scientists have said. ​But a report warns food production must be the next ​“positive tipping point​” if the world is to avert biodiversity collapse.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) analysed nearly 36,000 animal populations and more than 5,000 species, producing the largest ever database of vertebrate wildlife. Scientists found populations had declined by an average of 73% since 1970, showing that “nature continues to be degraded at an alarming scale”, with “no sign of losses slowing”.

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© Photograph: wesdotphotography/Alamy

© Photograph: wesdotphotography/Alamy

© Photograph: wesdotphotography/Alamy

Research has shown that colourful and patterned species are the subject of more studies, and receive more conservation funding

Large and beautiful butterflies attract far more attention than species that are smaller and dull. Now a new study has shown that this bias towards beauty results in the boring butterflies being overlooked in conservation programmes.

To understand the link between beauty and conservation, researchers surveyed more than 21,000 people from more than 100 countries, asking them to look at photos of European butterflies and rate their beauty on a scale of 1 to 10 based on their first impression. The results, which are published in Current Biology, reveal that larger more colourful and patterned butterflies, like the yellow swallowtail, were consistently rated more attractive than the smaller, less conspicuous brownish species, such as the alpine grayling. That bias also extended into scientific research, with more studies on attractive species, and more funding and resource going into conservation of showier species.

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© Photograph: Julia Hiebaum/Alamy

© Photograph: Julia Hiebaum/Alamy

© Photograph: Julia Hiebaum/Alamy

Firms working on reproducing compounds without need for repeated harvesting but conservationists are sceptical

Many of the world’s most expensive perfumes begin with a wounded tree. When some Aquilaria trees are damaged, they produce a dark, fragrant resin that becomes agarwood, or oudh – an ingredient so valuable that wild trees have been illegally felled in its pursuit.

The result has devastated wild Aquilaria populations. But what if perfumers could create the smell without cutting down the tree?

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© Photograph: Pixel-shot/Alamy

© Photograph: Pixel-shot/Alamy

© Photograph: Pixel-shot/Alamy

The tracker was still working on August 29th, when E7 [a female godwit] started flying southeast, over the Pacific. ... North of Kauai, she took a slight right turn and continued flying. On September 7th, after more than two hundred hours aloft, she landed at the mouth of the Piako River, back on the North Island of New Zealand.