‘Marine Mammals Science Education’ project has just been announced the winner of the ASCOBANS Outreach and Education Award 2020 at the Ninth Meeting of the Parties, which began today and will continue online until 11 September. ‘Marine Mammals Science Education’ is an EU-funded project, which aims to engage young people in natural science to prevent future shortages of specialists in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). Nine scientific and educational research institutes plus NGOs from Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Poland and Sweden joined forces to carry out the project.  The core work of all of the partners’ work focuses on marine mammals and related topics.

The North-East Atlantic population of the Short-beaked Common Dolphin (Delphinus delphis), Common Dolphin for short, is facing increasing anthropogenic pressures, the most significant of which is bycatch. Other key threats are chemical and noise pollution. The ASCOBANS Species Action Plan (SAP) for the North-East Atlantic Common Dolphin was adopted in 2019.

Small cetacean distributions are influenced by the distribution and diversity of their main prey species and there is evidence that prey depletion is posing a threat to small cetaceans within the ASCOBANS Agreement Area.  The quality and quantity of the prey have a considerable bearing on the health of small cetaceans, and the deterioration of both is a serious concern. A draft resolution on Resource Depletion will be proposed for adoption at ASCOBANS MOP9.

Worldwide, marine debris, which includes abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) and plastics, has a negative impact on a substantial number of marine animals. Ingestion of plastics and entanglement, including in ‘ghost nets’, are both increasingly giving rise to conservation and welfare concerns for cetaceans and other marine mammals.