Nearly half of the United Kingdom’s most commercially valuable fish populations are either overexploited, critically low or both, according to a new report warning that the government continues to set catch limits above scientific advice.

The report, “Deep Decline,” by conservation nonprofit Oceana UK, found that 17 of 105 U.K. fish stocks are both overfished and overexploited. Another five stocks, including haddock (Melanogrammus aeglefinus) and saithe (or pollock, Pollachius virens), were considered healthy in 2023 but have since been downgraded.

“The UK’s action to end overfishing has been inconsistent at best and absent at worst,” the report’s authors wrote. “Urgent management action is needed to reduce fishing pressure to avoid the risk of stock collapse and the wider impacts that accompany such a shift in the ecosystem.”

North Sea cod (also known as Atlantic cod, Gadus morhua), a staple in Britain’s beloved fish-and-chips, has suffered one of the steepest declines. In September, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (ICES) recommended a zero-catch limit for 2026, down from 15,000 metric tons in 2025, to allow stock recovery.

According to a Mongabay analysis of ICES data, from 2015 to 2025,spawning biomass fell by 61.5% in the cod’s southern population and 38% and 23% in northwestern and Viking populations, respectively.

“North Sea cod is now among the worst-performing, with continued overexploitation in full knowledge that the population is in a critical state,” the Oceana report said.

Michel Kaiser, professor of fisheries conservation at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland, said the northern subpopulations could still be fished sustainably, though ICES recommends a total pause because the extent of mixing between populations is uncertain.

Kaiser added that the report overlooks some positive news, as eight out of the top 10 stocks are healthy. “That is a good thing and will have been achieved through good management, compliance and solid scientific advice.”

The U.K. government sets total allowable catch limits, or TACs, but Oceana found that quotas are often set above scientific recommendations. An independent audit found that only 46% of 79 U.K. TACs were in line with scientific guidance from 2024-25.

“The government has excellent fisheries science at its fingertips, and even when data are scarce, the course to restoration is clear,” Callum Roberts, professor of marine conservation at the University of Exeter, U.K., wrote in a foreword to Oceana’s report. “Fishing must be respectful of the ecosystem, not a process of brute extraction.”

Defra, the U.K.’s fishing authority, told Mongabay it is working with the fishing industry to manage stocks sustainably and may implement new catch limits in 2026.

“We are currently considering options for setting 2026 catch limits across all stocks and what further management measures may be needed,” a Defra spokesperson wrote in an email. “Whatever we do will be based on the best available scientific advice.”

Banner image: Washed-up North Sea cod in Haroldswick, Scotland. Image courtesy of Mike Pennington (CC BY-SA 2.0).

Climate change may be causing long-term global wind speeds to slow down, a shift that will likely lead to a dangerous rise in local temperatures, worsening air pollution and disruption to renewable energy systems, Mongabay writer Sean Mowbray reported.

A warming atmosphere is likely weakening the forces that govern wind speeds, leading to more frequent wind droughts or periods when air sits still for long stretches of time, a phenomenon known as “global stilling.”

“What we’ve seen is that from the 1960s through to around 2010, wind speeds have been kind of generally slowing down,” Hannah Bloomfield at Newcastle University in the U.K. told Mowbray.

“Interestingly, since 2010 winds have actually sped up again,” Bloomfield added. “But when we look forward using climate models, and then look far forward into the future, our average wind speeds globally are expected to decline.”

Among scientists, there’s considerable debate and uncertainty around these calculations and projections, which are made based on models. Forecasting is difficult as the interactions that influence global climate patterns are incredibly complex.

For example, while wind globally is slowing, extreme wind events like Category 5 Hurricane Melissa in the Caribbean, are becoming more frequent.

However, if average global wind speeds do decline long term, it could cause potential disruptions to renewable energy systems worldwide. Roughly 20% of global wind turbines are located in regions at high risk of future record-breaking wind droughts.

In Europe, projections suggest energy production could decrease by up to 10% by the year 2100 as a result of reduced power output from wind turbines.

“We can get periods of time where you have particularly low winds that can obviously affect the delivery of power if you’re relying on wind energy,” oceanographer Matthew England, a researcher at the University of New South Wales, Australia, who has been studying these interactions, told Mowbray.

“But weak winds under a global warming scenario are also particularly dangerous for heat waves,” he added. When air becomes stagnant, it prevents air pollution from dispersing and can create heat domes — a region of intense, persistent heat.

“Under climate change, we’re getting these marine heat waves playing out because of ocean warming and extra heat trapped by greenhouse gases,” England said. “But they get particularly bad and nasty if the winds are weak.”

Read the full story by Sean Mowbray here.

Banner image: Wind turbines installed off the coast of Rhode Island, U.S. Image by Joan Sullivan via Climate Visuals (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0).

Nearly 70 Filipinos affected by a deadly 2021 typhoon are planning to sue oil giant Shell in its home country of the U.K. for the damages they suffered.

Typhoon Rai, known in the Philippines as Super Typhoon Odette, was one of the most devastating storms in the Philippines’ recorded history. It killed more than 400 people, displaced thousands of families and damaged millions of homes.

The 67 plaintiffs bringing the lawsuit are all from communities in the Philippines’ central Visayas archipelago, who either lost their loved ones, their homes, or were seriously injured during the typhoon. They accuse Shell of contributing historic carbon emissions that have worsened extreme weather events like Odette and deepened Filipino communities’ suffering, according to a press release from Greenpeace Philippines, one of the NGOs supporting the plaintiffs’ campaign.

The claimants are seeking financial compensation for the damages caused to them, and their legal team has delivered a legal notice to Shell, inviting a response. If Shell’s response is unsatisfactory, the team plans to file a case in a U.K. court in December.

A factsheet on the case by Greenpeace Philippines notes this legal action aligns with the polluter pays principle, which recognizes “that the costs of environmental and climate change-induced harms should be borne by those responsible.”

“Our demand for reparations from rich, polluting nations and corporations like Shell is just a fraction of what they owe for their climate atrocities,” Estela Vasquez, Visayas coordinator of the Philippine Movement for Climate Justice, said in the press release. “We are setting a clear precedent: oppressed communities can overthrow the powers-that-be that continue to harm and obliterate our people. We are taking back our power.”

The lawsuit draws from climate attribution research, including a recent study that concluded that human-caused climate change had “likely more than doubled” the likelihood of an event like Typhoon Odette and “played a significant role in amplifying the damage.”

The case also relies on a 2022 report by the Philippine Commission on Human Rights, which concluded that fossil fuel companies, including Shell, have historically contributed to the climate crisis, had knowledge of their products’ harms, and may be compelled to provide remediation.

The planned lawsuit follows a landmark advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice that found that countries are legally obligated to protect present and future generations from the impacts of climate change.

Confirming that Shell had received the legal notice, a spokesperson for the company told Mongabay “[t]he suggestion that Shell had unique knowledge about climate change is simply not true. The issue of climate change and how to tackle it has been part of public discussion and scientific research for decades.”

The spokesperson added the company agrees “that action is needed now on climate change” and that the group is transforming its business “to supply lower-carbon fuels for the future.”

Banner image: Sixty-seven Filipinos are suing Shell for damages suffered during Typhoon Rai in 2021. Image ©Miguel de Guzman/Greenpeace.

Founder’s Briefs: An occasional series where Mongabay founder Rhett Ayers Butler shares analysis, perspectives and story summaries.

When I think about what makes someone care about the natural world, it rarely begins with statistics or graphs. It begins with a moment. For me, it was an encounter I had at age 12 with frogs in an Indigenous community in the Ecuadorian Amazon, a fascination that turned to urgency when I later read about an oil spill near where I had stayed. Since then, I’ve come to believe that connection, not just information, is what stirs people to act.

During a recent conversation with Jessica Morgenthal for her Resilience Gone Wild podcast, we spoke about that idea: how empathy for one being can lead to concern for an entire ecosystem. When people talk about “a herd of gazelles,” it’s abstract. But tell the story of one gazelle — its habits, its struggle to survive — and suddenly it matters. We often relate most to individuals, not collectives. The same is true for human stories of conservation. When Mongabay reported on a community in Gabon fighting to protect its forest, it wasn’t primarily the data that moved the environment minister to intervene; it was meeting the people whose lives were entwined with those trees and realizing how their stewardship sustained a healthy and productive system.

I’ve found that even the smallest connections can shift perspective. When snorkeling, I’ve encountered a fish that swims beside me and seems to remember me when I revisit the site the next day. We don’t share language or biology, yet it feels like there’s an unmistakable recognition. So if we can connect with a fish, surely we can connect with one another.

That belief has shaped my journalism. Facts establish credibility, but stories create meaning. In a world where trust in science and media has increasingly faltered among many audiences, storytelling offers a bridge: a way to make people feel before they analyze.

The same principle applies beyond conservation. Whether we’re talking about communities, politics or technology, change begins with empathy. We don’t protect what we don’t love, and we don’t love what we don’t understand. The task, then, is to help people see the world as alive, particular and personal. And to remember that even one small connection can open the door to concern, and sometimes, to action.

Banner image of a Bornean orangutan by Rhett A. Butler/Mongabay.

Hurricane Melissa, an intense Category 5 storm, brought violent winds and heavy rainfall to Jamaica after making landfall Tuesday and continues to threaten parts of the Caribbean as it tracks through. Melissa was then forecast to cross Cuba and the Bahamas through Wednesday.

Here is what to know about the storm:

A record storm for Jamaica

Melissa was a Category 5 hurricane, the highest level, when it made landfall Tuesday in Jamaica. It was the strongest to hit the island since recordkeeping began 174 years ago. Melissa caused power outages, fallen trees, landslides, and heavy flooding and tore off roofs in Jamaica.

The U.S. National Hurricane Center warned the situation is “extremely dangerous” and urged Jamaican residents to remain sheltered until the life-threatening conditions pass.

Hurricane Melissa’s 185 mph (295 kph) winds and 892 millibars of central pressure tied two records for the strongest Atlantic storm on landfall. The pressure — the key measurement meteorologists use — ties 1935’s Labor Day hurricane in Florida. The wind speed ties a 1935 hurricane and 2019’s Hurricane Dorian, said hurricane scientists Phil Klotzbach of Colorado State University and Brian McNoldy of the University of Miami.

U.N. agencies and dozens of nonprofits had food, medicine and other essential supplies prepositioned as they awaited a distribution rush after the storm.

Other Caribbean nations at risk

The NHC warned that catastrophic flash flooding and landslides also are possible in Cuba and Hispaniola, the island which Haiti and the Dominican Republic share.

Cuban officials said they were evacuating more than 600,000 people from the region, including Santiago, the island’s second-largest city.

The NHC warned of 5 to 10 inches (13 to 26 centimeters) of rainfall with the potential for flash flooding in the southeastern Bahamas and the Turks and Caicos on Tuesday and Wednesday. Additional rainfall is expected in southern Hispaniola through Wednesday.

Rapid strengthening linked to climate change

Melissa reached tropical storm status last Tuesday and then became a hurricane on Saturday. Melissa then rapidly intensified into a Category 5 hurricane early Monday morning.

Climate scientists have linked warming ocean temperatures to hurricanes intensifying more quickly. Abnormally warm ocean waters of about 2 to 3 degrees Celsius (3.6 to 5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal helped double Hurricane Melissa’s wind speed in less than 24 hours, scientists said.

Rapid intensification occurs when the maximum sustained winds of a tropical cyclone increase by at least 30 knots or 35 mph (56 kph). Warmer temperatures also give hurricanes fuel to unleash more rain.

Scientists said Melissa is the fourth storm in the Atlantic this year to undergo rapid intensification.

Storms that ramp up so quickly complicate forecasting and make it harder for government agencies and nonprofits to plan for emergencies.

Banner image: A man walks along the coastline in Kingston, Jamaica, as Hurricane Melissa approaches, Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)

By Isabella O’Malley, Associated Press  

In a new short video, Mongabay visits the Dimonika Biosphere Reserve, a UNESCO site in southwestern Republic of Congo. The government shut down a Chinese company’s gold mining operation in November 2024, but mining pollution and its impacts on local communities persist.

Photojournalist Berdy Pambou talked with local artisanal gold miners who accuse the Chinese company, City SARL, of polluting the reserve and contaminating the river that provides water to nearly 3,000 residents in the Mvouti district.

“We used to have water sources, very good water sources,” Merveille Mbouinga, a local gold panner, told Pambou. “Today it’s all yellow; you’re even afraid to wash your hands in it.”

The Dimonika Biosphere Reserve covers 136,000 hectares (336,000 acres) of forest and is home to endangered mammals including chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes) and western lowland gorillas (Gorilla gorilla gorilla).

For decades, artisanal miners from the local community have panned for gold. But when City SARL arrived on the scene in 2023, artisanal miners say the company worked with heavy machinery at a scale that caused widespread damage to the forest and water.  

“What we do in a year the Chinese companies do in a week.” Prudal Makayis, another local artisanal miner, told Mongabay. “With artisanal gold panning, we can’t cut down 10 or 15 trees. With their machines, they raze everything to the ground. So how are we going to feed our families? And our children, how will they survive?”

According to local media, backhoe loaders operated by City SARL destroyed an estimated 5 hectares (12 acres) of forest.

And water samples taken by the nonprofit Congo Nature Conservation found mercury levels are 140 times higher than the accepted level for freshwater sources.

A City SARL representative told Mongabay that the ecosystem damage preceded the company’s arrival and denied all responsibility.

“The damage was already visible before we arrived,” Odin Malonga, a City SARL manager, told Pambou in the company’s office in Brazzaville, Republic of Congo’s capital city, more than 300 kilometers (186 miles) east of the reserve. “We find ourselves carrying everything that came before us.”

In November 2024, Arlette Soudan-Nonault, the nation’s environment minister, ordered a ban on the company’s gold mining activities.

Watch the video by Berdy Pambou here.

Banner image: Gold mine in the Dimonika Biosphere Reserve, Republic of the Congo. Image by Berdy Pambou for Mongabay.