16th Scientific and Technical Committee

On April 10^th, the 16^th Scientific and Technical Committee of the Pelagos Agreement was held in Rome.

The meeting took place at the headquarters of ISPRA (Italian Institute for Environmental Protection and Research), in the presence of the Permanent Secretariat of the Pelagos Agreement, the representatives of the Delegations of France, Italy and Monaco, the coordinators of the Pelagos Working Groups, the Scientific consultants and observers from various national and international organisations.

During the meeting, the Presidency of the advisory body of the Pelagos Agreement was handed over for the biennium 2024-2025 from Dr Éric Béraud, researcher at the Monaco Scientific Centre, to Dr Caterina Fortuna, senior researcher at ISPRA.

The technical meeting enabled the three delegations to discuss the Programme of work for the biennium 2024-2025 approved at the 9^th Meeting of the Parties (Nice, 25 & 26 January 2024) and the implementation of priority activities with the support of the Pelagos Working Groups and the stakeholders concerned.

In addition, technical interventions covered several priority topics for the Agreement such as the update of cooperation activities in the framework of the PSSA (Particularly Sensitive Sea Area) in the Northwester Mediterranean as well as the first results of the six technical-scientific projects financed by the Agreement in the framework of topics of priority interest for the Sanctuary, such as cetacean species distribution maps; the assessment of maritime traffic and underwater noise; the presence of chemical and biological pollutants; the status of the pathogenic effects of these pollutants; sustainable ports; and the effects of fishing-related activities.

The Pelagos Agreement would like to thank the Delegations and all participants for their commitment.