The marine conservation research is progressing well this summer, with many key species being logged – such as this lovely Posidonia pipefish:

Posidonia pipefish by Gaynor Rosier of Kenna Eco Diving, L'Escala, Costa Brava, Spain

Volunteer divers are always needed to help with marine conservation research projects on the Costa Brava with Kenna Eco Diving. 

If you’re not a qualified diver yet, you can come and learn to dive with us, taking the PADI Open Water Course with native English-speaking instructors, and then join in with the Eco Diving to gain more underwater experience.

We love to have the participation of divers who care about protecting marine ecosystems. It is a wonderful way to enjoy Mediterranean diving whilst helping to conserve the marine environment, and gives budding marine biologists lots of underwater fieldwork experience.

Volunteers tends to come for anything from a few weeks to a couple of months, during April to October. To help volunteers’ budgets, the subsidised cost structure provides the best value for longer stays. The subsidised cost for Eco Dive volunteers starts from €148 per week, which includes all transfers, shared bunkhouse accommodation, and all volunteer Eco Diving. There are options for subsidised food, towel, linen/sleeping bag hire and dive equipment hire available (see: Booking Info page )

Volunteers usually do 2 dives per weekday, staying underwater for around an hour per dive (depending on air consumption) as the research sites are quite shallow. There is always plenty of time for underwater fun, exploration, underwater photography as well as collecting key species data.

Volunteers have the weekends off from Eco Diving to do other optional coastal dives, to visit the famous Medes Islands Marine Reserve, which is always a wonderful experience,  to do tourist stuff or just have a rest and enjoy L’Escala.

Come and get some sun and join in the scuba diving fun!

Email: eco@kennaecodiving.net NOW to check availability for this summer.

Several of these tiny molluscs were spotted in shallow water on returning from an Eco Dive on the Costa Brava. After searching various seaslug website they remain unidentified. 

Description:  2-3 cms long with an opaque, white body through which the innards can be seen as a dark mass. A definite external shell and black-tipped antennae.

Please post any suggestions as to the species. Thanks.

Maria Damanaki, European Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries decided to close the bluefin tuna fishery to purse seiners in the Mediterranean and Eastern Atlantic, due to the exhaustion of the quotas allocated to them, in early June.

France, Greece and Spain were informed of this decision which became effective as of 10th June. The closure of the purse seine fishery was necessary to protect the fragile stock of bluefin tuna and to ensure its recovery as envisaged by the recovery plan of the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna (ICCAT). The Commission has declared a zero tolerance approach towards overfishing and will take all necessary measures to ensure full compliance across the board.

We dived and saw what could be the remaining Mediterranean fish!

Please sign the petition: www.ocean2012.eu/petition

Will there be any fish left for future divers to visit?

Transforming European Fisheries from OCEAN2012 on Vimeo.

Please sign the petition:  www.ocean2012.eu/petition

Join us on a special dive to learn about the state of EU Fisheries

Fun fish ID Eco Boat Dive over the endangered seagrass meadows followed by free buffet & showing of End of the Line film

Sun 6th June at 13.00 at International Diving Center, The Port, L’Escala

Years of intensive fishing in European waters have led to dramatic declines in once abundant fish populations. Eighty percent of assessed EU fish stocks are overfished and more than 30 per cent are outside safe biological limits.

The 2012 reform of the Common Fisheries Policy (CFP) is an opportunity to stop overfishing, end destructive fishing practices and deliver fair and equitable use of abundant fish stocks. OCEAN2012 is an alliance of organisations dedicated to transforming European fisheries policy and to facilitating greater participation in the reform by broadening stakeholder involvement.

European Fish Week 2010 will take place from June 5^th to 13^th. It is a unique opportunity for everybody across Europe to play their part in making this a truly fundamental reform of the Common Fisheries Policy.

OCEAN2012 member groups and friends will be organising events and activities throughout Europe, such as film screenings, panel discussions, food tastings, beachside activities and much much more. Together, we will be calling on the Commissioner for Maritime Affairs and Fisheries, Maria Damanaki, to make environmental sustainability a prerequisite for a reformed Common Fisheries Policy. Make your voice heard!

To register for this special dive please contact gaynor@kennaecodiving.net

Europe’s new Fisheries Commissioner Maria Damanaki opened her first fishing quota talks by stating that tougher measures were required to bring species back from danger to more commercially viable levels.

“I want to be clear that the quota levels set must respect all the European Union’s commitments to sustainability,” she said in a statement. However, her strategy will be hampered by widespread illegal fishing, a lack of data on the state of many stocks and fierce bargaining by coastal communities.

The Commission has proposed the establishment of an EU market for Individual Transferable Quotas (ITQs), which it thinks will reduce overcapacity, improve conservation and maximise the economic efficiency of the fishing fleet.

OCEAN2012 has sent a letter to the members of the Fisheries Committee to share its position on the proposal. OCEAN2012 believes the phasing out of the current quota allocation system, replaced with a system that grants access based on a set of environmental and social criteria, is better placed to achieve sustainable fisheries.

About 60 percent of European Union fish stocks are outside safe biological limits. However, fishing nations  catch around 34 percent more than scientists say is sustainable. Portugal and Spain have quotas that are still set 55 percent above the levels advised by fisheries scientists, pushing southern hake and anchovy outside safe biological limits, the Commission said in its report.

A target has been set by the EU Commission to get fisheries back to Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY) by 2015. However, some fish stocks are already so low that even if fishing stopped today MSY could not be achieved in that timescale.

The Pew Environment Group said Damanki’s strategy fell short on protection for deep sea fisheries. “For deep-sea fisheries in the Northeast Atlantic, the scientific advice is that all species, including endangered species of deep-sea sharks, are outside safe biological limits,” said Uta Bellion of the Pew group.

During European Shark Week 2009, over 300 activities were held in 15 European countries. Through these events, more than 93,000 people signed the petition urging Spain to end its opposition to improving the EU shark finning ban.

This year we need to keep the pressure on.

More than three years ago, Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) called on the European Commission to strengthen the EU finning ban, which is currently fraught with loopholes and puts sharks at risk. Next year, the European Parliament will be asked to vote on a new regulation that the Commission members are drafting and will be issuing for consultation soon.

We need to ensure that MEPs, as our elected representatives, continue to press for what they called for more than three years ago and help close the loopholes.

The Shark Alliance will be working with MEPs to ensure their support and this October we want them to hear many other voices as well.

Save the 9-17 October in your diaries for European Shark Week 2010. Watch for more information on plans, ideas, materials and a call to action.

Mercury Rising from Oceanic Preservation Society on Vimeo.