‘Catastrophic’ marine heatwaves are killing sealife and causing mass disruption to UK fisheries

Targeted research must be launched urgently to save sea creatures and plant life, oceanography centre warns

Britain is facing a future of increasingly catastrophic marine heatwaves that could destroy shellfish colonies and fisheries and have devastating impacts on communities around the coast of the UK.

That is the stark conclusion of a new report by the National Oceanography Centre (NOC), based in Southampton, which is pressing for the launch of a targeted research programme as a matter of urgency to investigate how sudden temperature rises in coastal seawater could affect marine habitats and seafood production in the UK.