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Fleet to leave on Tuesday to carry out ‘lethal research’ despite UN court ruling that the hunts are a cover for commercial whaling and have no scientific merit

Japan’s whaling fleet will set sail for the Antarctic on Tuesday despite international pressure to end its annual hunts, as Australia said it was considering sending a vessel to track the fleet in waters which Canberra considers a whale sanctuary.

Related: Japan under fire over decision to resume whaling

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Comments are sought on the proposal to include the Australian Cornish Mining Sites in the National Heritage List. Comments close 15 January 2016.

Independent review of the ‘Water Trigger’ legislation – comments close 29 January 2016

The Australian Government has commenced a groundwater purchase tender for the Queensland Upper Condamine Alluvium opening at 9am AEDT on Monday 30 November 2015 and closing at 5pm AEDT on Wednesday 10 February 2016.

Behaviour could be one cause of the unusual drownings of the birds in large groups in England and Wales

Starlings have been consistently drowning in large groups in a phenomenon yet to be fully explained by scientists, according to new research led by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).

In 12 separate incidents recorded between 1993 and 2013 in England and Wales, starlings were found drowned in groups of two to 80. In 10 cases, at least 10 starlings were found drowned at a time, the research published in the journal Scientific Reports on Wednesday shows.

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The Australian Government is on track to achieve its target of reducing Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions to five per cent below 2000 levels by 2020.

The Threatened Species Scientific Committee is seeking comments on the proposal to list this as a critically endangered ecological community. The public consultation period will be open until 12pm, Wednesday 17 February 2016; however earlier...

The Spring 2015 issue of the Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder Update is now available.

Lachlan River residents and visitors may notice small rises in the river due to environmental flows currently taking place and continuing until mid-December at Willandra Weir.

People applying for wildlife trade permits online may receive unsolicited email and attachments from the address ‘noreply@industry.gov.au’.

Earth has these ‘natural occurrences’ that devastate homes and villages. But are they really natural occurrences? Sounds more like outbursts of a maniac

If this planet exploded tomorrow I wouldn’t shed a tear.

Environmentalists say evil mankind is destroying a beautiful God-given place. Really? Mudslides, earthquakes and twisters kill millions (thousands) of people every year. Innocent planet? I judge by deeds not words. Yes, pollutants kill. But so do rockslides. If you talk to the average resident of a natural disaster location, they will be glad to tell you the planet has done as much evil as the average multinational in terms of lives taken in their local community.

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Application on ecological sustainability - Call for public comments open 25 November 2015 until 24 December 2015.

GREAT MOMENTS IN SCIENCE: If you love smiley faces you'll weep tears of joy about the news we're about to get more emojis! Dr Karl reveals who holds the ultimate emoji power.

Comments are sought on the draft varied threat abatement plan for competition and land degradation by rabbits. Comments close 16 March 2016.

The Minister has approved the addition of Callistemon megalongensis, Phyllurus gulbaru, Ordtrachia septentrionalis, to the Critically Endangered category and Eucalyptus aggregate to the Vulnerable category effective 17 November 2015.

Reef Trust Tender – Burdekin offers funding to sugar cane farmers in the Burdekin NRM region to improve nitrogen and irrigation management practices on their farms. Expression of interest stage open until 7 December 2015.

The Commonwealth Environmental Water Holder has sold 22.864 gigalitres of Commonwealth environmental water allocations for a return of $6.458 million that will be used to improve the environment of the Murray Darling Basin.

Australian environmental group asks court in Sydney to find Japanese whalers in contempt of a 2008 ruling banning fleet from the Southern Ocean

Environmental campaigners are launching a last-ditch legal attempt to prevent Japan from slaughtering whales in the Antarctic this winter, after Tokyo indicated it would ignore a ban on its “scientific” expeditions.

The Australian branch of Humane Society International (HSI) will on Wednesday ask the federal court in Sydney to find Kyodo Senpaku, the Japanese company that organises the hunts, in contempt of a 2008 ruling that banned the whaling fleet from hunting in an area of the Southern Ocean that Australia recognises as a whale sanctuary.

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The banning of fishing in a newly created Pacific marine sanctuary will help stocks recover and attract high-end tourist dollars as a replacement source of income

The recent decision by the Pacific island nation of Palau to end fishing in a California-sized swath of tuna-rich ocean comes at a time of record overfishing and will help the populations of bigeye and yellowfin to recover, scientists say.

Officials hope that the new reserve will boost sustainable tourism revenues as well as fish populations, as ordinary divers and even snorkelers will be able to experience the difference that protection measures can make.

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