The GIS platform which ABPmer have been creating for as part of Blue Marine's Seascape Recovery Plan is now live: Solent Seascape - State of Nature Data Explorer.
Seagrass has returned to the River Hamble for the first time in decades, thanks to a major restoration effort by Hampshire & Isle of Wight Wildlife Trust.
The Marine Management Organisation has produced guidance on the environmental benefits of advanced mooring systems over traditional moorings, as well as the consent and marine licencing process.
We are issuing a call for bids for Natural Environment Group (NEG) project funding for 2025/26. All the information, including the bidding pro forma, is available via the SEMS website.
The Water (Special Measures) Act 2025 has received Royal Assent. It includes automatic penalties to allow regulators to issue penalties more quickly, introduces independent monitoring of every sewage outlet, with water companies required to publish real-time data for all emergency overflows. Discharges will have to be reported within an hour of the initial spill. Water companies in England will be required to publish annual Pollution Incident Reduction Plans and report regularly on their progress.
Solent Freeport, which has sites all around Southampton and Portsmouth, says it will spend £6.7 million of the government funding on a range of projects to 'address infrastructure gaps in freeport locations and create the right physical conditions to encourage private sector investment'.
Kingwell has recently signed two Section 106 legal agreements with New Forest District Council and New Forest National Park Authority to create a stacked Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) and Nitrate Mitigation scheme supported by Natural England.
Defra invites the public, community and environmental groups, farmers, businesses and local authorities to share views on modernising bathing water regulations. Deadline is 23 December.
We have published the Solent Marine Sites Annual Management Report 2024.
Two thousand oysters have been reintroduced into the Solent. The Royal Navy is helping to reintroduce them after nearly half a century thanks to a unique project opposite Portsmouth Naval Base.
