Baltic Sea gets special protection
02/04/2004
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Baltic Sea gets special protection
One of the world's most extraordinary seas has finally been given the protection it desperately deserves!
The International Maritime Organisation (IMO) meeting in London on April 2nd decided to designate the Baltic Sea as a "Particularly Sensitive Sea Area."
Designating PSSAs requires ships to take special care when navigating through such areas, and enables coastal states and the IMO to agree on best protective measures. It’s a tool that WWF has long been promoting to protect the Baltic Sea from a major oil accident.
Russia had enlisted the support of Panama and Liberia in its efforts to block the proposed designation of the Baltic Sea, and two other areas - the Galapagos, and the Canary Islands - as Particularly Sensitive Seas Areas (PSSAs). Despite this, the PSSA applications for all three areas were accepted by the IMO.
And we couldn’t have done it without you!
Close to 8,000 messages were sent to each of the targets of our Passport campaign, generating considerable pressure and media interest.
“The enthusiastic response from Passport holders was instrumental in achieving our goals to protect this unique marine environment and its species, such as seals, harbour porpoises and sea birds from the disastrous effects of oil accidents." Päivi Rosqvist, Head of Communications, WWF Finland
A special place now under special control
The PSSA status reflects the high ecological importance of the Baltic Sea, the second biggest brackish sea in the world, and will enable a sustainable co-existence of shipping and the unique wildlife in the Baltic Sea.
It will also ensure additional safety measures in the Baltic, one of the planet’s smallest seas with some of the busiest maritime traffic, such as routing systems and vessel traffic services, reducing the risk of an oil accident.
WWF is now encouraging the Baltic Sea States to develop and propose effective associated protective measures to strengthen the safety of shipping on the Baltic Sea by 2005. Associated protective measures, such as compulsory pilotage, are of particular importance for high-risk areas such as the Danish Straight and the Gulf of Finland and within the international shipping straights of the Baltic Sea.
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