Aligning marine conservation with sustainable use

The interplay of marine use and marine protection in the North Sea and Baltic Sea: Today (30 August), the second annual conference of the DAM research mission “Protection and Sustainable Use of Marine Areas”, sustainMare for short, began at Kiel University (CAU). More than 170 scientists and representatives of various interest groups are taking part in the mid-term conference.

In the research mission funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF), more than 250 scientists in two pilot projects and five research networks are investigating the ecological, economic and social impacts of marine use and pollution in German marine areas. During the three-day conference, first results of eighteen months of research will be compiled and the course for the future scientific agenda will be set. The researchers are concentrating on three thematic focal points: Biodiversity and the effects of anthropogenic stresses and uses on marine ecosystems, pollutant burdens with a focus on residual munitions from the world wars, and the development of modelling tools to create future scenarios, especially considering climate change and the utilisation of offshore wind energy, fisheries or sediment management.

The annual conference started with greetings from CAU President Simone Fulda, Karin Prien, Minister for Education, Science, Research and Arts of the State of Schleswig-Holstein, Tobias Goldschmidt, Minister for Energy Transition, Climate Protection, Environment and Nature of the State of Schleswig-Holstein and DAM Chairman Dr Joachim Harms. Federal Minister of Education and Research Bettina Stark-Watzinger sent a video message. Mission spokesperson Corinna Schrum from the Helmholtz Centre Hereon chaired the conference. “The North Sea and Baltic Sea are under increasing pressure from human utilisation. Our greatest challenge is to reconcile the different interests of use with the protection of our two seas – in order to preserve them as a basis of life for future generations. Developing scientific findings for this is the focus of the sustainMare mission,” says Dr Jochen Harms, Chair of DAM, in his welcome address at the beginning of the conference.

During three days of the conference, participating scientists will discuss with each other and with representatives from politics, industry and society how to reconcile the increasing interests in the use of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea with marine protection in order to preserve them as a basis of life for future generations.

During three days of the conference, participating scientists will discuss with each other and with representatives from politics, industry and society how to reconcile the increasing interests in the use of the North Sea and the Baltic Sea with marine protection in order to preserve them as a basis of life for future generations.

Press release (German) of the CAU on the sustainMare annual conference

Header photo: Friederike Balzereit, Kiel University