The Extraordinary Meeting of the Parties to the Pelagos Agreement was held on February 9, 2018, at the Rainier III Auditorium in Monaco, chaired by Cyril Gomez, Director General of the Department of Public Works, the Environment and Urban Development.
The event was attended by representatives of the three member countries – France, Italy and Monaco – as well as observers.
The meeting agreed to financial activities of the last three years, the report of the expenditures in 2017 and approved the programme for 2018 and 2019.
Among the resolutions adopted, a number related to the standardisation of research methods on marine mammal populations in the Pelagos Sanctuary – including satellite telemetry – as well as the terms of reference for assessing the impacts of plastics on marine mammals and for the identification of plastic accumulation in the Sanctuary.
The Parties decided to continue to strengthen cooperation with the municipalities and marine protected areas within the Pelagos Sanctuary as well as with the Marine Mammal Sanctuaries beyond them.
An international workshop bringing together the different actors for the marine environment will also be held at the end of 2018, in Italy, to discuss possible solutions to reduce the risk of collisions between ships and large cetaceans.