Marine Protected Areas Archives

Oceana calls on UK government to rewild our seas by creating 10% Highly Protected Marine Areas

Oceana calls on the UK to protect at least 10% of UK seas in Highly Protected Marine Areas. At present, about 30% of UK seas are designated as Marine Protected Areas, but most are “paper parks” – protected only in name. With the UK government soon to release a review into Highly Protected Marine Areas … Read more

Oceana welcomes new EU Biodiversity Strategy as critical to rebuilding marine resilience and enabling a ‘blue’ future for Europe

Oceana welcomes the European Commission’s much expected new 10-year plan, presented today, to save biodiversity and its ambition to deliver urgent action to protect the environment – something that 90% of EU citizens support (Eurobarometer Survey). Restoring healthy, well-functioning and resilient natural ecosystems is also central to the European Green Deal and has become an … Read more

Measures to avoid fisheries impacts on vulnerable marine ecosystem coral species

Protecting Marine Nature by 2030

Oceana urges strong ambition to restore nature and oceans, EU to lead by example

Today the European Commission and the UN Environment Programme launched a Global Coalition for Biodiversity, building momentum ahead of the international negotiations of the UN Convention of Biological Diversity COP15 in China in October 2020. Oceana welcomes this call for action and urges all governments to agree on ambitious post-2020 targets that protect oceans effectively, … Read more

Protecting the North Sea: Cleaver Bank

A high resolution version of this report can be found here.

Oceana calls on Finland and Sweden to designate a joint area to protect Quark’s unique ecosystem

Oceana proposes that Finland and Sweden create a transboundary marine protected area in the Quark, as current protections are patchy and do not guarantee the preservation of this unique area. The Quark (Kvarken in Swedish, Merenkurkku in Finnish) is one of a kind in Europe, because of its unusual geological formations and its mix of … Read more

Seulement 1,5% des mers françaises sont réellement protégées

Du 22 au 24 octobre 2019 se tiendra le 4ème Colloque national des Aires Marines Protégées, à Biarritz. Les enjeux sont très importants puisque la France possède le 2ème espace maritime au monde, dont 22,3% sont justement classés « Aires Marines Protégées ». Pourtant dans ces zones, au détriment des recommandations des scientifiques et malgré l’effondrement de … Read more

Using “big data” to evaluate MPA effectiveness – the case of reefs in EU

The study looked into the fishing activity across marine Nature 2000 sites having a focus on variety of protected features protected by the Habitats Directive. Significant incompatible fishing activity was observed inside Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) across all of the European Union (EU), particularly within reef and sandbank habitats types (codes 1170 and 1110).This poster summarizes … Read more

Cold-Water Coral Associated Fauna in the Mediterranean Sea and Adjacent Areas

Recent Discoveries of Extensive Cold-Water Coral Assemblages in Maltese Waters Recent deep-water remotely operated vehicle surveys around the Maltese Islands resulted in the discovery of highly diverse habitats, including extensive hard bottom areas dominated by gorgonians and living cold-water corals with a rich variety of associated fauna. Black coral (Leiopathes glaberrima) forests were dominant at … Read more