Introducing Oceana’s Baltic Sea Office

We’d like to let you all know that we recently opened a new office in Copenhagen, Denmark, which is focusing exclusively on the Baltic Sea. The Baltic is a unique environment with highly valuable biodiversity, but pollution, destructive fishing practices and poorly managed marine protected areas continue to threaten the richness and resilience of the … Read more

Protecting Deep-sea Corals in the North Pacific

A international delegation passed new conservation measures that will protect more than 16.1 million square miles of seafloor habitat in the North Pacific Ocean from bottom trawling and other bottom contact gear. Participating nations, including the U.S., Canada, Japan, Russia, China, Korea and Taiwan, PoC (Chinese Taipei), acted on a commitment they made at the United Nations … Read more

Meet: Sea Slugs and Oceana MedNet

Bet you never thought a sea slug could ever be stunning. This photo of a nudibranch (or sea slug) was taken during one of our expeditions in the Mediterranean off the coast of Alicante, Spain. Every time we send our photographers into the depths, we are amazed at the incredible diversity of marine organisms they … Read more

Oceana urges European Commission to amend deeply flawed shark finning ban

Oceana, the international marine conservation organisation, strongly urges the European Commission to move forwards on amending the EU shark finning ban, following a public consultation which closes today, by developing a strong proposal requiring all sharks to be landed with their fins still attached. The existing regulation on finning was intended to stop this wasteful … Read more

A New Friday Tradition: Meet Turtle

We’ve decided to start a new tradition on this blog: every Friday, we’ll share with you a picture of some of the amazing flora and fauna we are fighting so hard to protect and give you a little background on the threats it is facing. We have the advantage of having a terrific team of … Read more

Kung Hei Fat Choi – but hold the shark fin soup, please!

Today millions of people around the world are celebrating the Chinese New Year and ushering in the Year of the Rabbit with family, friends, food and conversation. Unfortunately, shark fin soup is a featured dish at many of these meals – a traditional dish that has had a devastating effect on shark populations worldwide that … Read more

Oceana warns that true extent of oceans’ depletion remains unknown

In two years’ time, the percentage of fully exploited, overexploited or depleted stocks has risen from 80% to 85% Oceana, the international marine conservation organisation, highlights the urgent need for better scientific data on worldwide fish stocks, following last night’s release of the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) report on the State of World Fisheries … Read more

Chondrichthyan observations with ROV in the Western Mediterranean and Southern Bay of Biscay

In 2006, 2007 and 2008, Oceana employed an ROV to complete bionomic seabed surveys in the Mediterranean Sea and Bay of Biscay, between 50 and 350 meters depth. Information on positions, depths and times of observations was recorded, providing new data on the geographic distribution and bathymetric range of chondrichthyans. Fourteen species were found: five … Read more

Distribution of Scyliorhinus canicula in the circalittoral seabeds of Cabrera National Park

The circalittoral seabeds of the Cabrera Archipelago National Park (Spain) and the surrounding areas are characterized by a combination of soft detritic bottoms scattered with coral or rock, which harbor a wide variety of Mediterranean flora and fauna, including several species of elasmobranchs. In 2007, Oceana carried out bionomic investigations to survey the seabeds in … Read more

Distribution of Deep-Sea Laminarians around three spanish Marine Protected Areas

Most marine protected areas (MPAs) have been declared marine extensions of protected terrestrial ecosystems. Therefore, these protected sites are around or beside coastal or island marine reserves, natural parks, etc. That means that most of the protected seabeds are normally shallow coastal areas usually no deeper than the infralittoral zone. Deep-sea laminarians extend down to … Read more