Oceana | Protecting the World's Oceans

Sport fishing has throughout history been a way to relax, get away from it all and be closer to nature. Many people think that recreational fishing doesn’t have a big influence on fish populations, but in fact it accounts for approximately one quarter of the total amount of salmon caught in the Baltic Sea region and nearly one half of the catch taken from the shore or rivers.

Today Race for the Baltic  launched; the campaign is a joint initiative of three environmental NGOs (Fish Secretariat, Coalition Clean Baltic and Oceana) in collaboration with the political organization GLOBE, entrepreneurs, and business partners, joining forces to call for action to save the Baltic Sea.

Nudibranchs are a group of sea slugs that have magnificent bright colors and are known around the world for that. There are really few restrictions to what color these creatures can have. Mostly they are natives to more tropical waters but actually, 178 species have been described in Scandinavian waters.

Nudibranchs are fascinating creatures –they have no gills or shell, they are hermaphrodites and communicate with chemical signals. Here you can see some of our favourite species in the North of Europe.

When you hear about sharks, most people automatically think about the tropics and crystal clear blue waters. But the truth is that there are sharks all around the world, even in the cold waters of the Baltic Sea.

In fact, 31 species of sharks, rays and chimaeras (class of Cartilaginous fish-Chondrichthyes), have been recorded in the Baltic Sea & Kattegat, but we rarely hear about them because there are so few left.

Holidays are here and many people in Europe go out and buy some eel for their Christmas dinners, as they do every year. But what many might not know is that the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) is critically endangered and threatened with extinction. To provide some perspective, this threat level is higher than that given to the polar bear or the giant panda.