Gathered data will also support advocacy efforts to ban bottom trawling in European Marine Protected Areas Single-use plastics, abandoned fishing gear, and untreated waste most common pollutants found in seven-day expedition Madrid – Oceana concluded its expedition to the Alboran Sea (South of Spain), where the organisation gathered first-hand evidence of plastic pollution and bottom … Read more
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
The mapping of its deep habitats could be used as a model to improve the management and conservation of this and other protected areas In the research journal Aquatic conservation: Marine and freshwater ecosystems, the Spanish Institute of Oceanography (IEO) and Oceana have published a map of the deep habitats of Seco de los … 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
Along the Oceana marine exploration trips (2011–2012) it has been collected 17 species of cold water corals (Cnidaria: Anthozoa) from deep Alboran basin and submarine mountains located South of Portugal. There are two new records from theMediterranean and also an important found regarding the enigmatic Dendrobrachia bonsai. The paper is completed by some images with … Read more
Seamounts are biodiversity hotspots. Oceana’s work in Seco de Olivos confirmed that the area is home to vulnerable species like red coral, various species of black coral and the angular roughshark—which is in danger of extinction in the Mediterranean. It’s waters are also a migratory area for numerous types of cetaceans and it is a … Read more
The ministry has proposed to include four more areas of the LIFE+ INDEMARES project in the Natura 2000 network, which gives protection to the most important natural areas in the EU Oceana applauds the protection of Seco de los Olivos, a seamount 12 nautical miles south of the coast of Almerimar (Almería) that the … Read more
Seco de los Olivos (aka Chella Bank) was chosen for protection within Natura 2000, the network that gathers together the most valuable natural areas of the EU. Oceana spent five years studying this seamount in south east Spain. Its range of depths varies between 76 and 700 metres below the surface, so it could only … Read more
No, it’s not a figment of my imagination haunting my nightmares, but a real life form found by Oceana at the Chella bank, a seamount just off the southeast coast of Spain. But this place holds even more secrets than meat-eating sponges; it’s practically brimming with biodiversity. Deep-sea coral reefs, cetaceans, octopuses, sharks and a … 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.
