The Mediterranean Sea, or Mare Nostrum, is one of the world’s most important seas. Located between Africa, Asia and Europe, it is also a primary trade route given its strategic — and geopolitically — important location. Within the coastal region, the people inhabiting the area have had centuries of interactions with the marine environment. Extensive … Read more
High habitat diversity was observed on the Seco de los Olivos Seamount (SW Mediterranean Sea), a Site of Community Importance belonging to the Spanish marine Natura 2000 Network. Thirteen epibenthic habitats were identified by analysing 55 Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) transects from 76 m to 700 m depth and derived data from multibeam bathymetry and … Read more
The United Kingdom (UK) is a global fishing nation and a major player in fisheries in Europe. However, fisheries in Europe are in an alarming state of affairs. Sixty-four percent of stocks in European seas are now classed as ‘overfished’1, meaning that fish are caught at a quicker rate than they can naturally reproduce. Key … Read more
Der Bericht von Oceana analysiert die für Deutschland 44 kommerziell wichtigsten Arten in Bezug auf Handelswert und Anlandungen, die zusammen 75% der deutschen Gesamtfangmenge ausmachen. Eine nachhaltige Fischereiwirtschaft in den nächsten zehn Jahren hat folgendes Potential: • Die Fangmenge könnte sich um 72.000 Tonnen (+44%) erhöhen. • Der Wert der Anlandungen könnte um 68 Millionen … Read more
Fisheries Restricted Areas (FRAs) are spatial management measures adopted under the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean and Black Sea (GFCM) to regulate or restrict demersal fisheries in the high seas. Since 2006, a total of six FRAs have been established in the GFCM area, each under different management objectives. Three were established to protect … Read more
How has the EU action against illegal fishing changed our seafood trade flows? And what do these trade patterns tell us? Just over 10 years ago, it was estimated1 that 500,000 tonnes of illegally caught seafood products were entering our EU markets every year. An illicit activity valued at EUR 1.1 billion that was not only damaging local communities and … Read more
A core aim of the European Union’s (EU) Regulation to end illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing – Regulation (EC) No. 1005/2008 – is to prevent, deter and eliminate trade in fisheries products deriving from IUU fishing into the EU. Prior to the adoption of the IUU Regulation in 2008, approximately 500,000 tonnes of illegal … Read more
According to FAO, a marine ecosystem should be classified as vulnerable based on the following characteristics: uniqueness or rarity, functional significance, fragility, life-history traits of species that make its recovery difficult and structural complexity. However, a VME is also described by its vulnerability, which is dependent upon the nature of the fishery and hence region … Read more
Book: Marine Animal Forests Oceana chapter: Sponge Grounds as Key Marine Habitats: A Synthetic Review of Types, Structure, Functional Roles, and Conservation Concerns This chapter reviews the major known monospecific and multispecific sponge aggregations in the world’s oceans. They are shown to occur from the intertidal to abyssal depths, in tropical, temperate, and high latitudes … Read more
Underestimation of catches is especially important in countries where fishing fleets are highly diversified, the enforcement of fishery management is low, data availability is poor, and there is high demand for fish products in local markets. This is the case for southern European and Mediterranean regions. Adapting a catch-reconstruction approach, we estimated the total removals … 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.
