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The IHO capacity building programme seeks to assess and advise on how countries can best meet their international obligations and serve their own best interests by providing appropriate hydrographic and nautical charting services. Such services directly support safety of navigation, safety of life at sea, efficient sea transportation and the wider use of the seas and oceans in a sustainable way, including the protection of the marine environment, coastal zone management, fishing, marine resource exploration and exploitation, maritime boundary delimitation, maritime defence and security, and o...[more]
The Department of Fisheries and Marine Research of the Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment of the Republic of Cyprus aims to strengthen scientific research on marine ecosystems, from shallow to deep realm, to build up a concrete knowledge base upon which to identify and protect areas that accommodate ecological important features and to support decision-making towards the protection and conservation of the marine environment and the sustainable management of marine resources for a more healthy and productive marine environment. The abovementioned objectives will be pu...[more]
According to the Study of Maritime Traffic Flows in the Mediterranean Sea, published by REMPEC in 2008, the Mediterranean Sea is amongst the worlds busiest waterways accounting for 15 per cent of global shipping activity and it is estimated that some 18 per cent of global seaborne crude oil shipments take place within or through the Mediterranean. Hydrocarbon pollution is probably one of the most serious threats to the marine environment. Serious incidents are extremely difficult to deal with using the resources of any single country, while the consequences can be devastating for whole reg...[more]
The Mediterranean is a semi-enclosed sea and by being oligotrophic is also highly susceptible to eutrophication problems. Discharges of wastewater (treated or untreated) are a major cause of eutrophication which results in imbalance of the ecosystem and encourages the spread of invasive species. Cyprus, since the early 1980s has taken the political decision to eliminate all treated and untreated wastewater discharges in the sea, reducing therefore the risks of eutrophication and its negative effects. Since then all successive governments have adhered to the policy not a drop of water in ...[more]
