That the Adriatic Sea risks turning into a water desert is something that all of us know.

Overfishing, bottom trawling, pollution, and climate change are seriously threatening the biodiversity of the Adriatic.

Which, together with the neighbouring Ionian Sea, is home to almost half of the marine species of the entire Mediterranean.

For decades, this sea has been synonymous with big business.

European hake, which the Adriatic Recovery Project indicates as the most economically relevant species for bottom trawling, is being fished 5.5 times above sustainable limits; stocks do not have time to regenerate.

Unsurprisingly, catches dropped by as much as 45 percent between 2006 and 2014.

For almost three years, experts and NGOs have been calling for the establishment of a Fisheries Restricted Area (FRA) in the Strait of Otranto, between the Italian region of Puglia and Albania.

FRAs are geographically-defined areas in which some specific fishing activities are temporarily or permanently banned or restricted.

Read more:

https://euobserver.com/environment/150784