8th Meeting of Parties to the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS)

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At this meeting, held in St Julian’s in Malta from 29 November to 2 December 2022, the 24 ACCOBAMS member states committed to working to protect cetaceans in the Black Sea, the Mediterranean Sea and the contiguous Atlantic area.

The Presidency was handed over from Turkey to Malta, and a new Bureau of five countries – Malta (Presidency), Bulgaria, Lebanon, Montenegro and Portugal – was elected for the period from 2023 to 2025.

An ambitious work programme featuring cetacean conservation measures will be put in place over the next three years to improve efforts to reduce the threats faced by cetaceans – these include underwater noise, bycatch of cetaceans in fishing gear, collisions with ships and stranding incidents.

The continuation of long-term, regional cetacean monitoring campaigns is a priority for ACCOBAMS’ future progress, drawing on the unprecedented international campaign to survey the dolphins and whales in the ACCOBAMS zone.

The countries adopted a communications strategy as a key information and awareness tool. This will gradually become a central repository of knowledge on cetaceans in the ACCOBAMS geographical area, with a view to disseminating knowledge and encouraging different audiences to take actions to protect cetaceans.

The eighth Meeting of the Parties adopted 23 resolutions, half of which were derived from the recommendations issued by the ACCOBAMS Scientific Committee.

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ACCOBAMS Secretariat
Tel: +377 98 98 20 78
www.accobams.org

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