The Med Sea Alliance’s vision is a Mediterranean Sea with a rich and resilient ecosystem, where the rules and practice of fishing support the health of the marine environment and benefit the communities that depend on it. Our goal is for the Mediterranean Sea to no longer be seen as a resource for endless exploitation, but as a shared natural treasure to be protected for generations to come.
This complex region of breathtaking natural beauty encompasses 25 countries and territories. It has been shaped by a unique geography and its history as a cradle of civilizations. Today, the bountiful Mediterranean Sea is an essential source of food, livelihoods, leisure, culture, tourism and transport for millions of people.
The Mediterranean encapsulates many things – different interconnected cultures, languages, tastes, and sounds. It is evocative and powerful and at its heart is ocean: our Mediterranean Sea, a vibrant place of yellows, greens, and blues where the water sparkles.
But beneath that sparkle, the Sea is ailing. Its life force is ebbing away under an endless onslaught of anthropogenic threats, from overfishing to invasive species, plastic pollution to climate change.
To help reverse this decline, we are working to shift the priority in fisheries management away from unsustainable food production at the expense of the environment, and towards a focus on ecosystem restoration and resilience.
Our Alliance will support the recovery of the Mediterranean Sea by reducing the impacts of trawling, reversing the culture of non-compliance, and defending and expanding the network of marine protected and fisheries restricted areas. All our work is grounded on the principles of sustainability, transparency, and equitability.
We want to shine a light on widespread illegal trawling in the Mediterranean to build support for transparent, sustainable and legal fisheries in the region.
Max Schmid, Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Deputy Director
The Alliance will also work with broader civil society across the Mediterranean to raise public and media awareness, and encourage the civic engagement needed to generate public pressure to solve the environmental crisis of the Mediterranean Sea.
The result will be radical changes in the way that the Mediterranean Sea is perceived and treated.
Working together, we will have a more holistic approach and create greater ambitions, opportunities and achievements.
Miquel Ortega, Fundació ENT, Marine area Coordinator
The circulatory system of the Mediterranean gives life to the entire basin, just as the heart does in a human body. Our shared vision is a healthy Mediterranean Sea able to support all life in this remarkable region both now and in the future.
The States that depend on the Mediterranean Sea for livelihoods, food and commerce need to do so with some sense of combined responsibility and an eye on the future. Through this Med Sea Alliance, we will help build an openly accessible picture of the level of fishing activity in the Mediterranean Sea whilst advocating with our partners for increased transparency to drive improved governance, both at the national and regional level.
Tony Long, Global Fishing Watch, CEO