On board the Oceana Ranger research catamaran, the marine conservation organisation Oceana has carried out a campaign to study and characterise the seabed of Galicia, Asturias, Cantabria and the Basque Country, analysing their state and collecting graphic material on the most vulnerable species and habitats.

The campaign is part of the collaboration agreement that Oceana has been developing for three years with the Biodiversity Foundation in an effort to document and propose marine spaces of special interest or vulnerability to be protected. Ana Leiva, Director of the Biodiversity Foundation, highlighted the importance of increasing the number of protected marine areas, and the positive impact that this measure can have on the preservation of marine resources and biodiversity.

During this campaign, more than 3,000 nautical miles have been covered and dives have been carried out in some thirty places. With the help of an underwater robot and a team of divers, bottoms up to 350 meters deep have been observed, where yellow coral forests, sponge fields, communities of feathery or crinoid stars, cleaning stations for sunfish, cold-water white corals, sharks and deep-sea chimaeras have been found. etc.

The material collected, which consists of nearly 200 hours of underwater filming and more than 5,000 photographs, is being analysed to prepare a report that Oceana will present to the public together with Fundación Biodiversidad in 2009. This report will serve as a basis for the creation of new marine protected areas in these European seas.

According to the agreements signed by the European Union and all its member states, by 2010, all countries bordering the Northeast Atlantic must submit a list of protected areas for inclusion in a network of conservation areas. Likewise, and according to the United Nations Convention on Biodiversity, by 2012, at least 10% of the planet’s marine surface must be under some form of protection.

To date, the Cantabrian Sea and the Galician coasts have very few marine protected areas. The Atlantic Islands National Park and the Os Miñarzos Reserve in Galicia, the Cachucho Marine Protected Area off Asturias or the protected biotope of San Juan de Gaztelugatxe are, together with some small coastal areas, the only places that fall under this category. “In total, the protected area does not even reach 0.3% of the marine area, very far from the objectives set,” says Xavier Pastor, Director of Oceana in Europe. It is very possible, in the coming years, the bank of Galicia will become part of this list.

In an initial and preliminary evaluation of the data obtained, Oceana has reached some conclusions, some worrying and others encouraging. “We were surprised to discover that the Cantabrian waters show an alarming shortage of fish. Many commercial species, such as monkfish, hake, sole, Norway lobster, etc., are in serious danger of collapse,” says Ricardo Aguilar, director of the expedition aboard the Oceana Ranger. Equally worrying are the continuous oil slicks that can be observed in the Bay of Biscay due to the illegal dumping of bilge water by the merchant fleet that sails through the area.

On the other hand, the state of the seabed shows some well-preserved areas of great interest for the recovery of ecosystems in the future, including the lowlands of Bermeo and Niebla in Galicia, the Avilés canyon in Asturias, the lowlands of La Maruca or Castro Verde in Cantabria or the surroundings of Cape Matxitxaco in the Basque Country.

Other places of interest are all the Galician estuaries, the Sisargas Islands, the Cape of Peñas and nearby lowlands, the surroundings of the Oriñón estuary or the Aquitaine canyon.