Habitat Protection Archives

Oceana requests explanations from the Spanish Socialist and Popular parties regarding their efforts to increase shark captures

In a letter addressed to the ruling Partido Socialista Obrero Español (Spanish Socialist Party, or PSOE) and to the main opposition force, the Partido Popular (People’s Party, or PP), Oceana, the international marine conservation organisation, requests answers for the recent proposals by their Members of the European Parliament (MEP) to increase shark fin removal, and … Read more

Spain ignores scientific evidence and blocks the UN proposal for protecting sea beds against bottom trawling

“It is an alarmist report with no scientific foundation”. With these disparaging words, Fernando Curcio, the Spanish government’s General Director of Fisheries Resources, dismissed the results of a study prepared under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC). The report was presented in London at the beginning … Read more

The Oceana Ranger documents critical habitats in the Mediterranean in order to argue for their protection by the European Union

The research catamaran of the international organisation for marine conservation, Oceana, is at this moment sailing in the Gulf of Genoa, where it is filming the ecosystems of the sea bottom. The aim is to document the state of conservation of a number of habitats which the organisation would like to see included in the … Read more

Oceana and fishermen’s associations join forces to call for ban on trawling in spanish territorial waters

The federations of Fishermen’s Associations of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country have written to the Ministry of Agriculture demanding the abolition of bottom trawling in the 12 miles of Spanish territorial waters in the North Atlantic, a request that Oceana has been making since 2003. Ever since Oceana was established in Europe, this … Read more

Important decision of the Spanish Government to protect mediterranean marine habitats

The new Ministerial Order, which establishes an Integral Fisheries Management Plan for the Mediterranean Sea, includes for the first time the protection of habitats of great importance in the Mediterranean against the impact of bottom trawling, purse-seining and drag nets. Up until now, only the marine phanerogam Posidonia oceanica enjoyed this protection, but with the … Read more

Black-mouth goby in the Danish kitchen?

The black-mouth goby (Neogobius melanostomus), or round goby, is an invasive species here in the Baltic Sea. It was first seen in 1990 in the Gdansk Bay in Poland from where it quickly spread to the rest of the Baltic. Originally, it comes from the Black Sea and is thought to have come over in … Read more

Oceana to study unknown Emile Baudot escarpment in the Balearic Islands

Today marks the launch of Oceana’s 2013 Mediterranean Expedition, which is bound for the Emile Baudot escarpment, a large rocky wall to the south of the Balearic archipelago, of which nothing about its ecosystem is known. A team of scientists, technicians and videographers from Oceana will spend ten days studying the area, which lounges the … Read more

Meet & Greet: the Eelpout (Zoarces viviparous)

I’ve spent over a year analyzing hours of expedition videos taken by our underwater robot (the ROV). I have to say that you quickly start recognizing the usual suspects of fish and algae. One of the fish that is most commonly seen is the eelpout (Zoarces viviparous). It is a slimy skinned fish with lots … Read more

Spanish Government to prohibit trawling in Cabrera and the underwater mountains of Mallorca

For seven years, Oceana has fought for the protection of these beds, which host threatened habitats that are essential for fishing. The Spanish Secretary for Fishing Affairs of the Ministry for Agriculture, Food and Environment and other involved sectors have reached an agreement to prohibit trawling over the coralligenous communities and rhodolites beds on the … Read more

Mediterranean deep-sea corals in need of protection

Since the entry into force of the SPA/BD Protocol and its Annexes several amendments have been adopted in the framework of the Barcelona Convention bringing up to more than 150 the number of species listed in Annex II and more than 40 the number of species listed in Annex III. Such modifications have corresponded to … Read more