Oceana welcomes a proposal to protect the Sound from sand dredging from 1 September 2016, which was presented yesterday by Mette Abildgaard (K), Maria Gjerding (Ø), and Martin Lidegaard (R). In the Sound, sand dredging has taken place on shallow sandbanks along the entire Danish coast. This activity is not permitted in Swedish waters of … Read more
Coalition Clean Baltic, Danish Society for Nature Conservation, Greenpeace, Landsforeningen Levende Hav, OCEANA and WWF sent an open letter today to the interim Director General of the Swedish Agency for Marine and Water Management, Ingemar Berglund. The letter calls upon the agency to step forwards and state its expert opinion regarding the potential re-opening areas in … Read more
Unfortunately, current government decision weakens original proposal in favour of private interests. The Danish government has finally released its long-awaited decision to establish new marine protected areas (MPAs) in Kattegat, to protect fragile and threatened soft bottom species and habitats, like sea pens and Haploops, which are largely left unprotected throughout European waters. The marine … Read more
On May 6th, the Danish government released its long-awaited decision to establish new marine protected areas (MPAs) in the Kattegat. The MPAs will protect fragile and threatened soft bottom species and habitats, such as sea pens and Haploops, which are largely left unprotected throughout European waters. Once in place, the 590 km2 areas, spread over … Read more
The superabundance of jellyfish does not happen by chance but rather it is a symptom of the fact that the characteristics of the water have changed due to variations in the oceanographic parameters (temperature, salinity). The causes of the existence of great masses of jellyfish are not local, as has been verified by researchers from … Read more
This Oceana programme was possible thanks to a collaboration agreement with the Fundación Biodiversidad and the help of the SECAC (Society for the Study of Cetaceans in the Canarian Archipelago) and served to draw up more effective protection plans. By satellite tags that were attached to ten turtles, our scientists were able to follow their … Read more
The distribution of many coral species remains unknown today. The well known species are the ones that are commercially exploited, but there are many little known or completely unknown species with unlikely geographical distributions. Apart from direct harvesting of some species, other factors also negatively affect coral populations, including bottom trawling and the climate change, both due … Read more
Of the 307 shark species assessed by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 50 are listed as vulnerable, endangered or critically endangered, but only the white whale and basking sharks are protected internationally under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES). Sharks now represent the greatest percentage of threatened marine species … Read more
Protecting cetaceans is an important part of protecting marine ecosystems in general. The Habitat Directive advises to create marine protected areas for these species, and consequently, Spanish laws state the presence of cetaceans as one of the reasons for creating National Parks. These marine animals’ social nature and their distribution near the coast, and in shallow … Read more
Oceana joins in the celebrations of the 25th anniversary of the Cabrera Archipelago Maritime-Terrestrial National Park by releasing a video showing the extraordinary marine wealth of the national park and its surroundings. The presentation of the video comes two days after the meeting between Oceana and the Balearic Regional Government in which the latter announced … Read more
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We have already protected nearly 4 million square miles of ocean and innumerable sea life - but there is still more to be done.
Oceana in Europe gratefully acknowledges EU funding support.
