The project aims to preserve the exceptional population of marine mammals in the Pelagos Sanctuary, a transboundary area managed by France, Italy and Monaco.
On Wednesday 24, September 2025, at the occasion of the Green Shipping Industry Day in Brussels, Tethys and BlueSeeds presented the Pelagos Consortium project and its goal: to preserve the exceptional population of marine mammals in the Pelagos Sanctuary, a transboundary area managed by France, Italy and Monaco.
This consortium is led by Tethys Research Institute, ACCOBAMS, BlueSeeds and WWF Italy, and includes several other partners such as Green Marine Europe who was organising the event in Brussel. Over a four-year period, this consortium will follow an ecosystem-based approach and work on five major axes of improvement:
- Integration of a Pelagos-Specific Spatial Plan into National and Regional MSPs
- Regulatory Adoption of Speed and Noise Mitigation Measures
- Designation and Enforcement of Highly Protected Areas (HPAs)
- Reducing Fishery Impacts in the Sanctuary
- Enhancing Governance and Promoting Coordinated Management
Including both historical and new partners from Italy, France and Monaco, this project will improve collaboration within the Sanctuary in order to achieve concrete results in cetacean conservation and promote it as an example of effective conservation.
As usual within Together for the Med, the success of this project is based on the complementarity of its partners: Tethys will lead a first pillar on policy and advocacy, WWF Italy the second pillar on communication, BlueSeeds tackles the inclusion and engagement of various stakeholders, including actors from the private sector, and ACCOBAMS will focus on research and innovation to maintain a strong scientific basis for the project.