Marine Protected Areas are an effective way of protecting parts of the oceans from fishing and other maritime activities in order to give ecosystems a chance to recover. Nations agreed during the Convention on Biological Diversity protect 10% of the marine ecoregions by 2012. To achieve this goal, the European Union has built up the … Read more
Overfishing and destructive fishing practices like bottom trawling represent a major threat to the Baltic ecosystems. In 2008, fishermen from all the surrounding countries caught more than 50 different fish species in the Baltic, for a total of 742 thousand tons of fish. Finland, Sweden and Poland are the largest Baltic fishing nations. Sprat and … Read more
Kelp are large brown algae (1) that form a habitat very similar to a terrestrial forest. In Europe, their place is taken by other Laminaria forests that can be found in both the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. The most common species to be found in these ecosystems are Saccorhiza and Laminaria. Despite their great biological importance, kelp … Read more
Sea turtles are a migratory species which, no sooner have they broken out of their eggs on the laying beaches of Florida, Yucatan and other locations on the east coast of the Americas, embark on a frenzied race towards the sea. At the water’s edge, hundreds of tiny turtles barely 15 centimetres long meet the … Read more
Marine phanerogams, coralligenous communities and maërl beds have managed to achieve protection from destructive fishing practices. The biological importance and vulnerability of these ecosystems has been championed by Oceana from the outset. The characteristics of these ecosystems and their distribution in the Mediterranean are fundamental to understanding the importance of their protection and the giant … Read more
The EU Habitats Directive is the most important legislation on environmental matters in Europe. This Directive establishes, amongst others, a list of species for which each Member State must create Special Areas of Conservation with specific protection objectives and measures. These areas set up a global European network of protected areas, called the Natura 2000 … 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.
