Blog
Scientists speak out against the Balearic debacle
Author: Natividad Sánchez
Date: February 1, 2013What has to happen in a few months in a relatively small area – 5,000 sqkm- for 180 scientists from different organizations to sign a joint document and send it to media? Many things, and none of them good: drastic budget cuts for protected areas, redundancies that dismantle effective teams, destruction of years-long work…
Read More...A very special place between Europe and Africa
Author: Natividad Sánchez
Date: January 18, 2013Located between Spain, Morocco and Algeria, the Alboran Sea is to the very West of the Western Mediterranean. If the Strait of Gibraltar can be called the gate to the Med, then the Alboran Sea is a busy hall where thousands of ships and migrating cetaceans go to and fro.
Read More...Protecting hidden richness of Lebanon
Author: Natividad Sánchez
Date: January 18, 2013Can a place 3,000 feet deep, dark and cold be a hot spot of biodiversity? Yes, it can! In fact, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) has included four such sites in their Lebanon’s marine protected area strategy , and the reason why we’re talking about them here is because it’s a proposal by Oceana!
Read More...Seamounts: biodiversity hotspots deep beneath the waves
Author: Angela Pauly
Date: January 17, 2013If you follow our work, you may have picked up on the fact that we have a thing for seamounts – we’ll admit it, it’s a bit of an obsession.
What is it about seamounts that tickles our fancy?
High biodiversity? Check
Marine mammals and top predators? Check
Productive ecosystems that include essential/sensitive habitats? Check and check.
Read More...The UN goes for an international mercury convention
Author: Angela Pauly
Date: January 16, 2013This week, diplomats are in Geneva negotiating a treaty on global mercury emissions.
Mercury poisoning is no joke – as this Guardian article states, mercury is “a lethal neurotoxin that includes, among an inventory of grim effects, brain damage and the loss of IQ points in unborn children, injuries to kidneys and heart, and results in tens of billions of dollars in healthcare costs every year in the US alone.”
Read More...Sharks in the Baltic Sea & Kattegat
Author: Mike Mihalitsis
Date: January 2, 2013When you hear about sharks, most people automatically think about the tropics and crystal clear blue waters. But the truth is that there are sharks all around the world, even in the cold waters of the Baltic Sea.
In fact, 31 species of sharks, rays and chimaeras (class of Cartilaginous fish-Chondrichthyes), have been recorded in the Baltic Sea & Kattegat, but we rarely hear about them because there are so few left.
Read More...2012 Recap
Author: Angela Pauly
Date: December 28, 2012We want to end this year on a high note and not with a doom and gloom scenario for our oceans.
Yes, they are in trouble, yes overfishing continues, and yes, we have a long way to go before the EU truly embraces sustainable fisheries.
But you know what? Amidst all the bad news, so much good has happened in 2012. Here are some of our favorite achievements of the year.
Read More...The Critically Endangered European eel
Author: Mike Mihalitsis
Date: December 26, 2012Holidays are here and many people in Europe go out and buy some eel for their Christmas dinners, as they do every year. But what many might not know is that the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is critically endangered and threatened with extinction. To provide some perspective, this threat level is higher than that given to the polar bear or the giant panda.
Read More...Fisheries Parliament Committee Shines in CFP vote
Author: Angela Pauly
Date: December 19, 2012We knew it was going to be a big week for fisheries in Brussels. The vote out of the EU Parliament’s Fisheries Committee was beyond what even we had hoped for. We are so very proud that the majority of the MEPs fought for a sustainable future for European fisheries. Thank you, for representing the European citizens honorably.
Here are some of the great elements that MEPs voted to include:
Read More...An update on fisheries subsidies
Author: Vanya Vulperhorst
Date: December 19, 2012With all the cheer around yesterday’s vote on the CFP, we wanted to make sure that a couple of pieces of good news on fisheries subsidies didn’t slip through the cracks.
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