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June 27, 2005

Transoceanic expedition comes to an end. Monday, June 27th, 2005

BY: Oceana Web

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Carlos Pérez
Oceana Staff

 

We arrived in Majorca, after six months of navigation through the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans.

Under the leadership of Xavier Pastor, we left Los Angeles ( California, USA ), in early January, and we have sailed 11,000 miles, traveling through the territorial waters of the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Panama, Honduras, Bahamas, Bermudas, Azores ans continental Portugal. Hundreds of volunteers from a variety of nationalities participated through the voyage; among them, biologist, underwater cameramen and photographers, as well as divers who lent their support, in addition to the vessel’s own crew.

During the expedition, we gathered 100 hours of film footage and 7,000 photographs of great quality, reflecting the wealth of marine biodiversity from different parts of the globe, and denouncing the aggression carried out against the oceans because of destructive fishing practices, marine pollution and climatic changes. At Oceana, we will use these images and scientific information to document our projects for environmental protection, and to demand changes to ocean management policies.

Oceana works mainly destructive trawling practices, pollution, caused by voluntary discharges of hydrocarbon substances from vessels emptying tanks and bilges, and against incidental captures of cetaceans, marine turtles and sharks with non selective fishing gear like driftnets.

While in the Mediterranean, we will work on various research projects and on marine education issues, with aims at preserving the species inhabiting the ecosystems of our endangered seas.

We donot want to end this journal without expressing our appreciation to all those people who participated in the expedition, for their support, professionalism, enthusiasm and interest, in collaborating with Oceana.

FOR THE OCEANS!