Nature Restoration Law on its way to Plenary

Today, 27 June, Members of the European Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) committee maintained their tied position on the Nature Restoration Law. The final vote on the report tied by 44-44 votes, resulting in the report not being formally adopted.  The Nature Restoration Law is far from dead and buried, however, having … Read more

Council of the EU gives Nature Restoration the green light: EU environment ministers support much-needed law to combat climate and biodiversity loss crises

Brussels – At today’s [20 June] meeting of European environment ministers in Luxembourg, Member States displayed widespread support for the EU Nature Restoration Law currently being negotiated. Ministers’ willingness to move the law forward sends a strong signal to the European Parliament, where political games have stalled negotiations. Importantly, Member States have committed to restore … Read more

Blue NGOs call for ambitious targets towards carbon-neutral fisheries in new Energy Transition Partnership

European Commission kick-starts multi-stakeholder cooperation to decarbonise sector and achieve 2050 climate goals   Brussels – Today, on the occasion of the European Commission’s high-level conference on an energy transition initiative for EU fisheries, blue NGOs Oceana, ClientEarth and Our Fish are calling on the Commission and on fisheries stakeholders to set ambitious targets to achieve … Read more

Blue Manifesto: The roadmap to a healthy ocean in 2030

This report reviews the progress –if any– on the milestones of the Blue Manifesto, the roadmap to a healthy ocean by 2030. This third assessment looks at the milestones set for 2022 and updates the milestones for 2021 and 2020. When comparing the scoring between these three years, it is clear that there is a … Read more

World Ocean Day: Poor ocean policies put iconic marine wildlife at risk

Oceana urges the EU to raise the ambition to rebuild marine abundance and increase ocean resilience to the climate crisis On World Ocean Day, Oceana calls on decision-makers to create and enforce laws to rebuild European seas and increase their resilience to the climate crisis. Most of the problems that are devastating the ocean can … Read more

Conservative politicians, profits, and pan-seared sturgeon

This World Ocean Day, ‘the tides may be changing’, but political will remains stagnant when it comes to saving Europe’s seas. Dozens of Europe’s most iconic marine species are critically endangered. That’s CRI-TIC-CAL-LY endangered—just two steps below “extinct in the wild” and “extinct” in the IUCN Red List. Sharks and rays, including the hammerhead and … Read more

Finding a home for sharks

If you want to protect sharks, you need to protect the places they call home. It’s easy to identify many marine animals’ homes. Clownfish, like our friend from Finding Nemo, oddly enough, don’t tend to stray too far away from their favorite anemones in coral reefs. The same goes for seahorses, who often live their … Read more

German and Dutch Marine Protected Areas Closed to Destructive Fishing Gear

Following joint recommendations by Germany and the Netherlands, the European Commission closed over 3,500 square kilometers (over 1,350 square miles) of the North Sea to bottom trawling, and prohibited the use of destructive fishing gears such as gillnets, trammel nets, and driftnets across an additional 1,700 square kilometers (over 650 square miles). These fisheries restrictions … Read more