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After decades of recovery, right whales are now under threat from industrial fishing

One of the more hopeful ecological stories of recent years – the slow restoration of numbers of the North Atlantic right whale – has taken a disastrous turn for the worse. Marine biologists have found their population has plunged abruptly in the past few years and that there may now only be around 100 reproductively mature females left in the sea. Many scientists fear the species could soon become the first great whale to become extinct in modern times.

The principal cause for the North Atlantic right whale’s precipitous decline has been the use of increasingly heavy commercial fishing gear dropped on to the sea bed to catch lobsters, snow crabs and hogfish off the east coast of North America. Whales swim into the rope lines attached to these sea-bed traps and their buoys and become entangled. In some cases hundreds of metres of heavy rope, tied to traps weighing more than 60kg, have been found wrapped around whales. “We have records of animals carrying these huge loads – which they cannot shake off – for months and months,” said Julie van der Hoop, of Aarhus University in Denmark.

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Fishing, mining and new hotels will be prohibited in the ‘biologically spectacular’ Revillagigedo archipelago

Mexico’s government has created the largest ocean reserve in North America around a Pacific archipelago regarded as its crown jewel.

The measures will help ensure the conservation of marine creatures including whales, giant rays and turtles.

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In her book The Secret Life of Whales Micheline Jenner describes the behaviour of humpback, blue and pygmy blue whales.

When fly-tipping occurs on private property, it can be very costly for landowners.

No animals were killed in the making of this program. In-vitro meat, cultured meat, clean meat...whatever you call it, will it happen, and would you eat it?

Here's a lovely idea let's write on our landscape, with trees.

Flies' disease-carrying potential may be greater than previously thought, say US researchers.

The week’s top environment news stories and green events. If you are not already receiving this roundup, sign up here to get the briefing delivered to your inbox

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Brown bears, grey seals and an errant crocodile are among this week’s pick of images from the natural world

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In a bid to safeguard knowledge the Matsés in Peru have been planting “medicinal agroforestry” plots and written a 1,044-page two-volume book.

The seven indigenous Matsés elders were slowly meandering through the forest. They were explaining how different trees and plants are used for medicinal purposes, exchanging stories about how they had acquired their extraordinary knowledge and put it to good use. There were memories of an encounter with a jaguar and someone’s father struck by some kind of pain in the eye - “not conjunctivitis!” - while claims were made for successfully treating women haemorrhaging, snake-bite, a swollen leg and constipation.

The forest we were in was actually more of a garden - or “healing forest” or “medicinal agroforestry” plot - planted late last year by six young Matsés men under the expert guidance of elder Arturo Tumi Nëcca Potsad. “There are all types [of trees and plants] here,” Arturo told the Guardian, holding a spear made of peach palm and looking about him. “About 100 types, 3,000 plants.”

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The shopping frenzy will see 82,000 diesel delivery vans on UK streets, with plastic toys and electronic goods among the most popular purchases

The online shopping frenzy of the Black Friday weekend will see 82,000 diesel vans and trucks on UK roads, raising concerns of air pollution spikes on residential streets as more than £7bn of purchases are delivered.

In the UK online shoppers are expected to spend up to £1.35bn today alone, according to analysts at IMRG, the UK’s online retail association. Plastic toys, games and electronic goods are among the most sought after items in the biggest weekend of shopping in Britain and the US, with environmentalists and health experts warning that it will add to the mountain of plastic waste and increase air pollution.

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It can be dangerous – we get close to moving supertankers. Then there’s the worry about how private security will react

My first political epiphany concerned the world trade protests in 1999. I was 17 and had a feeling globalisation was a good thing – until I realised it was about money and economics, not people and culture; so in the early 2000s I joined some anti-globalisation protests in Quebec.

Several years later, I heard about kayaktivism. I’d kayaked before, and been an activist, but never married the two. My first kayak protest was in Quebec’s Saint Lawrence estuary in 2014. TransCanada wanted to build a supertanker port in a beluga whale nursery. Our mission was to kayak to a boat doing seismic testing, unfurl a banner and take a picture. It wasn’t about stopping the boat, but drawing attention to what was happening.

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The new service by Great Western Railway has reduced bike space, a troublesome booking system and fails to meet the needs of disabled, elderly or less mobile cyclists

Great Western Railway’s (GWR) new high-speed Intercity Express trains made headlines last month with their gaffe-filled launch that saw new trains temporarily taken out of service after several on-board malfunctions, on a service that arrived 41 minutes late, with the transport secretary on board.

There could be more bad news down the line for those travelling with cycles, with the prospect that bike space on the new trains is reduced to zero at times, and those who have not booked a bike ticket told they won’t be able to board at all, whether there is free bike space or not.

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With the country poised for Sunday’s elections, the murder of environmentalists in Honduras is being directly linked with water and food shortages, violence and migration. Photographer Sean Hawkey visited what has become a frontline of climate change conflict

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Cavenham Heath, Suffolk The woodland reveals beetles both common and rare, and a surprising pile of ladybird wings

Blue sky, still air and the winter sun have lifted the heavy overnight frost. Cavenham Heath contains one of the largest blocks of heathland and acid grassland in the south-west Breckland, but the path from the car park starts in a predominantly birch woodland. Tearing a weathered birch polypore (Fomitopsis betulina) from a standing trunk, I fumble through its white flesh. It is shot through with burrows and in places under the pale leathery skin it is dry and powdery, while elsewhere the fungus retains a tough marshmallow consistency.

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When the NEG was nebulous, its boosters were able to promise all things to all people. Now, with slightly more detail out, it will be a really hard sell.

World's biggest battery charges up for first time as testing begins ahead of its formal commissioning next week.

COAG agrees to commission more design work on the Turnbull government's proposed National Energy Guarantee, forcing the renewable energy industries in Australia into yet another period of policy uncertainty.

As Queensland prepares to vote in the state election on Saturday, we look at what's at stake for the renewables industry – particularly if Labor loses.

Northern Territory government expected to unveil roadmap for 50 per cent renewable energy target next week.