DAM pilot mission: Exclusion of mobile bottom-contact fishing in marine protected areas of the German EEZ of the North Sea and Baltic Sea (MGF North Sea and MGF Baltic Sea)

ACRONYM

MGF-OSTSEE-2

General information

The German Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) of the North and Baltic Seas includes ten Natura 2000 areas. The term Natura 2000 refers to a coherent network of protected areas within the European Union. Together with the Birds Directive, the so-called Fauna-Flora-Habitat Directive regulates the protection of endangered wild plants and animals in their natural habitats in the Natura 2000 areas. Since September 2017, the ten marine Natura 2000 areas of the EEZ have been nationally protected as nature reserves by six reserve-regulations. Marine nature reserves are reported internationally as marine protected areas (MPA). Overall, the MPAs “Doggerbank”, “Borkum Riffgrund” and “Sylter Außenriff – Östliche Deutsche Bucht” cover an area of 7,920 km² and thus approx. 28 percent of the North Sea's EEZ. The MPAs in the EEZ of the Baltic Sea "Fehmarnbelt", "Kadetrinne" and "Pommersche Bucht - Rönnebank" have a combined area of 2472 km², which is around 55% percent of the much smaller EEZ in the Baltic Sea.

Start

March, 2023

End

February, 2026

Funding (total)

Funding (GEOMAR)

233000

Funding body / Programme

BMBF /

Coordination

Leibniz-Institut für Ostseeforschung Warnemünde (IOW), Germany

Contact

Stefan Sommer

Partners

Senckenberg Society for Nature Research, Germany
University of Rostock, Germany University of Cologne, Germany Johann Heinrich von Thünen-Institut, Germany Helmholtz Centre Potsdam - GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences (GFZ), Germany Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research (IOW), Germany