Mediterranean Sea

The Workshop was held in Chania, Crete (Greece) at the Panorama Hotel, between 24 and 28 October 2016, in cooperation with the UNEP CMS Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS).  The workshop was funded by a grant from the MAVA Foundation.   The final report of the First IMMA Regional Workshop from the Mediterranean Region can be dowloaded here and the Executive Summary detailing the outputs from the workshop is below.

Mediterranean Sea Region Workshop Summary

From 24 to 28 October 2016, the first IMMA Regional Workshop for the Mediterranean was held in Chania (Island of Crete, Greece) with the primary objective to identify and delineate Important Marine Mammal Areas.  The workshop was attended by 34 expert participants from 17 countries.  Some 41 cIMMAs and 37 AoIs were identified by workshop participants. From this list, 26 IMMAs were accepted by the independent review panel, some with detailed revisions, along with 5 areas that remained cIMMAs subject to further revision. The IMMAs that were not approved have joined the list of Areas of Interest (AoI) which now number 39 in the Mediterranean region. These AoIs will be reconsidered for IMMA status during the next iteration in the Mediterranean region.  The approved IMMAs, cIMMAs and AoIs are displayed on the IMMA e-Atlas and can be found in the searchable database.

For updates regarding Mediterranean IMMAs refer to the Mediterranean Regional Expert Group and other Task Force Activities