There are seven species of sea turtles swimming the world’s oceans. Six of the species can be found in EU waters: greens, hawksbills, loggerheads, leatherbacks, olive ridleys and Kemp’s ridleys. (link to our species content) A seventh species, the flatback, only inhabits the waters around Australia. Female sea turtles, like all other reptiles, lay eggs. Most … Read more
There are hundreds of species of sharks, ranging in size from the spine pygmy shark (7 inches) to the whale shark (40 feet), inhabiting all ocean waters and consuming a variety of prey species. Contrary to popular belief, sharks don’t eat anything and everything in the sea; many sharks have specific prey. For example, whale … Read more
Changes in legislation. Oceana works to eradicate “finning ”, cutting off fins and throwing the body overboard while the shark is still alive. This practice has increased as Asian countries demand more fins for “shark fin soup”, while also raising the price of the fins. Oceana is focused on changing European legislation to prohibit finning … Read more
The Canary Island government compiled a list of species whose catch is prohibited, including crustaceans like the brown spiny lobster (Palinurus echinatus), molluscs from the genus Charonia spp., fish species like the Gorean snapper (Lutjanus goreensis), the goldentail moray eel (Gymnothorax miliaris), etc., although this list was created only for commercial reasons. In addition, the … Read more
The proposal made by Oceana and Fundación Biodiversidad (Spanish) includes 42 measures that address the EU’s requirements. The initiative aims to create a coherent network of marine protected areas (MPA) that also protects a variety of species and habitats that are currently not included in management plans for conservation. As such, many threatened species are … Read more
Nearly 100,000 vessels make up the European Union fishing fleet. This includes boats that fish both in EU waters (the domestic fleet), in the waters of other countries and in international waters (the deep-sea fleet). In addition, there is an unknown number of vessels belonging to other European countries that are not members of the … Read more
The appearance this summer of several cetaceans stranded on the coasts of the Canary Islands and the Azores while naval manoeuvres were being carried out has reopened the debate on the impact on cetaceans from the use of sonar and other acoustic pollution arising from these exercises. This is not the first time this has … Read more
There are eight species of sea turtle, five of which can be found in the North Atlantic; and, of these, two are regularly caught as accidental catches by longliner fleets: the leatherback turtle (Dermochelys coriacea) and, above all, the loggerhead sea turtle (Caretta caretta). Less frequently, the hawksbill sea turtle (Eretmochelys imbricata) and the Kemp’s … Read more
A seamount is a regarded as a geological elevation that reaches a minimum of 1,000 metres in height and can consist of very different physical, geological and chemical properties. Therefore, seamounts can only exist where there are sea beds more than one kilometre deep, or, which is one and the same thing, over 60%-62% of … Read more
Oceana urges the Balearic government to prohibit bottom trawling on the continental shelf or at less than 150 meters depth. The international marine conservation organisation sent island authorities a series of comments on the new Fishing Law of the Balearic Islands that is currently being reviewed. In its analysis, Oceana also disagrees with the reduction … 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.
