Victory for Mediterranean whales and dolphins
A legal action taken by Greenpeace Italy against the authorisation for an offshore liquid natural gas terminal (LNG), inside a cetacean sanctuary, was successful yesterday. Our request to withdraw the authorisation has been accepted and plans for the first industrial marine area within a marine protected area have failed!
The sanctuary is in the Ligurian Sea, which contains one of the highest concentrations of whales and dolphins in the Mediterranean. As many as eight cetacean species live there including the impressive fin whale.
But this sea is severely affected by human impacts, including pollution, heavy vessel traffic and intense fishing activities. So the last thing cetaceans need here is an LNG terminal.
After years of lobbying by environmental organisations, the Governments of Italy, France and Monaco got together in 1993 and signed a joint Declaration for the creation of a Mediterranean Sanctuary for Cetaceans. The agreement was finally ratified in 2003 and the Sanctuary is included in the official list of the Italian Marine Protected Areas of the Ministry for the Environment. It has also been included in the SPAMI list (Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Interest).
In October 2007 after plans were announced to have an industrial gas terminal here we started a legal action against the proposal. Our Italian oceans campaigner Alessandro Gianni just told us about this success - saying he was "out of his skin" with happiness! Alessandro expects the LNG folks to fight back but for now, the dolphins and whales have won.
Image: Fin whale and dolphin escort in the Mediterranean © Greenpeace/ Paul Hilton
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Comments
in the cost of chile, the whales are protected for the law
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Posted by: padme | August 16, 2008 2:28 AM