Threats and solutions for the protection of the open sea

The high seas, beyond 12 miles from the coast, are essential for marine life and consequently for our health and well-being. However, two-thirds (66.8%) of the Italian open sea are under siege: maritime traffic, unsustainable fishing, and pollution. All this is worsened by the impacts of climate change, which strongly affect the entire Mediterranean. In this space live, feed, reproduce, or simply pass through during their movements, the pelagic species, including common fin whales, sperm whales, pilot whales, bottlenose dolphins, striped dolphins, monk seals, as well as sea turtles, sharks, tunas, swordfish, and above water birds such as Scopoli’s shearwaters, terns and storm-petrels. 

It is urgent to save this unknown and incredibly rich space of life, rich in varied landscapes with underwater mountains (about 300 throughout the Mediterranean), deep trenches that plunge to 5,000 meters and more than 500 underwater canyons, where biomass and species abundance can be 2 to 15 times higher than in surrounding areas at the same depths. The alarm comes from the WWF Italy report “Sos Mare fuori. Minacce e soluzioni per la tutela del mare aperto” (Sos Mare Fuori. Threats and Solutions for the Protection of the Open Sea), launched on World Oceans Day and which also inaugurates the WWF GenerAzione Mare Campaign of 2023.