Some progress has been made, but there is still a long way to go to restore the Baltic Sea. Over the past two days, government representatives met in Copenhagen, Denmark, to review progress against the targets in the HELCOM Baltic Sea Action Plan (BSAP). Conservation NGOs, Coalition Clean Baltic (CCB), FISH and Oceana are disappointed … Read more
This week, representatives from all EU member states around the Baltic Sea and stakeholders met in Latvia at the Baltfish forum. Baltfish works on two levels – the High Level Group (HLG) and the Forum seminars. The HLG is currently only open to member state administrations and the Baltic Sea director of the EU Commission, … Read more
Yesterday, the European Commission released its advice for setting 2014 Total Allowable Catches (TAC) in the Baltic Sea. Oceana recognizes the EU’s efforts to move closer to a sustainable approach, but maintains that the fishing quota recommendations fall short of already agreed upon international targets. In the case of the Western cod stock, while scientific … Read more
Since Oceana is a global organization you get to learn a lot about what’s going on in other parts of the world. Every week I get to see pictures from the beautiful Mediterranean or the rich waters off the coast of Chile, for example. Compared to these places my good old Baltic Sea is not … Read more
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
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
Governmental representatives will today review the current targets and discuss the future of the Baltic Sea in Helsinki, Finland. In a call for action, the NGOs Coalition Clean Baltic, FISH, and Oceana have made a joint statement and launched a public campaign – Race for the Baltic – to implement the already approved HELCOM Baltic … Read more
Over the last couple of years, several reports have come out on the come-back of cod in the Baltic Sea. It turns out; a lot of stocks are doing pretty well and are growing. Of course, the fish are still smaller in size than 20 years ago and most scientists advise a cautious approach, but … Read more
The Baltic Sea has the oddly contradictory record of being a frontrunner both in good and bad – on one hand it holds the unfortunate record of being one of the most polluted seas in the world, but on the other, countries in the region have ambitious political plans for its restoration which, if implemented, … Read more
We thought it was high time to bring back a Friday tradition we started a while ago, to introduce our readers to some interesting sea creatures. This week, we are featuring the spiny sea star (Marthaasterias glacialis). Sea stars belong to the Echinodermata phylum, which also includes sea urchins, sea cucumbers and brittle stars. Most … 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.
