CIESM recommendations on submarine canyon systems
Seventeen marine experts met in Sorrento, Italy, in mid April 2015, at the invitation of CIESM to review the latest knowledge on submarine canyons dynamics in the Mediterranean and Black Seas ...

Restoration of HC mooring in the Ibiza channel
The Instituto Español de Oceanografía (IEO) has installed a new mooring whose purpose is to restore the Ibiza channel Hydrochanges mooring that was "temporarily interrupted" ...

The Ocean Sampling Day : "A leap forward for research on marine biodiversity"
A worldwide initiative to sequence the Oceans for Marine Microbial Diversity takes place on 21st June. This event, conducted for the first time, will study the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in marine waters through genomics, the science of sequencing genes ...

A fast changing see !
In 2002 the 1rst edition of the CIESM Fish Atlas of Exotic Species listed 90 carefully selected taxa. The number of non-indigenous Fishes has been growing ...

Russia ratifies adhesion to CIESM
On 4 October in Moscow ...

Cyprus contributes to the CIESM Hydrochanges program
The Oceanography Center, University of Cyprus, successfully managed the recovery of long time series data from four deep moorings of the CYCOFOS–OCB observing platform ...

Hydrochanges Program: a new mooring station in the Southern Adriatic
With the collaboration of CNR-ISMAR (Institute for Marine Science, Italy), a new mooring station is operational in the CIESM Hydrochanges Program. The mooring has been deployed in the Bari canyon ...

CIESM on Strategic Board of JPI Oceans
CIESM is pleased to announce the election of Dr Laura Giuliano, Scientific Advisor at CIESM Headquarters, to the eminent Strategic Advisory Board of JPI Oceans - Joint Project Initiative ...

MOU signed between ICES and CIESM
On 30 August, CIESM and ICES did formalize their growing collaboration by signing a Memorandum of Understanding which outlines priority areas for joint concertation and initiatives ...

MedJelly - A new iPhone App being tested in the beaches around Barcelona
In the context of its JellyWatch Program, CIESM in collaboration with the Barcelona-based Institute of Marine Science (ICM/CSIC) has developed a new Application, MedJelly, for the iPhone. The app is free ...

The HydroChanges Gibraltar international campaign (3-8 July 2012)
HydroChanges is a CIESM initiative to build a Mediterranean-wide network of moorings recording long-term time series of temperature and salinity, a priority in the current context of global change. Moorings are located in key Mediterranean areas such as straits and deepest waters ...

CIESM becomes a partner of WAVES – a flagship program of the World Bank
Following negotiations between CIESM and the World Bank, the Mediterranean Science Commission and its new Program in Marine Economics have joined WAVES, thus allowing a Regional Sea – the Mediterranean – to become the first test-case for marine ecosystem accounting ...

The first Geological and Morpho-Tectonic Map of the Mediterranean domain
Two months after the publication by CGMW - the Commission for the Geological Map of the World - of a new Morpho-Bathymetric Map of the Mediterranean Sea at the 1:4,000,000, we are pleased to announce the publication of a second synthetic map of the Mediterranean domain at the same scale (1:4,000,000): a Geological and Morpho-Tectonic Map of the Mediterranean domain ...

A new Morpho-Bathymetric map of the Mediterranean Sea
After the joint publication by CIESM and IFREMER, in 2008, of a Morpho-bathymetric synthesis of the Mediterranean Sea, we are pleased to announce the edition by CCGM/CGMW (Commission for the Geological Map of the World of UNESCO) of a new Morpho-Bathymetric map of the Mediterranean Sea at the 1:4.000.000 scale ...

Making Research count in Marine Governance - A CIESM international seminar
Some twenty experts in marine research, journalism, social media, science festivals, and research-policy interface did meet on 15 March 2012 at the invitation of CIESM at the edge of Rome, on the beautiful INSEAN/ CNR research grounds, for an exploratory seminar entitled 'Innovative communication approaches - How to make research count in marine governance' ...

Overfishing leaves much of Mediterranean a dead sea, study finds
National Geographic Society
Centuries of overexploitation of fish and other marine resources — as well as invasion of fish from the Red Sea — have turned some formerly healthy ecosystems of the Mediterranean Sea into barren places, the National Geographic Society said in a news release ...

The Mediterranean, a major research laboratory for Global warming in need of a GO-SHIP program
The Mediterranean Sea strongly affects the climate of the surrounding lands. To define its impact and interaction with atmospheric forcing, basin-wide repeat surveys of this sea are of primary importance. In this context the Mediterranean Science Commission (CIESM) invited 17 international scientists, all experts of the region, to a brainstorming Workshop in Supetar, on the island of Brac, Croatia ...

Soutien apporté par la CIESM au nouveau réseau algérien RASMER
A l'invitation des Autorités algériennes, le Directeur Général de la CIESM, Frédéric Briand, a pris part le 8 juin à la Journée RASMER qui s'est tenue à l'Université Badji Moktar d'Annaba en présence d'une centaine de chercheurs marins provenant des diverses Universités (Oran, Constantine, Alger, Mostaganem, Annaba) engagées dans le secteur marin ...

Mediterranean Marine Peace Parks for conservation – a bold CIESM initiative
Creating coast-to-coast, trans-frontier marine peace parks to preserve the best of Mediterranean marine diversity across political and cultural divides ... this is not a dream but a new, realistic vision backed-up by CIESM marine scientists who met at the end of November in the ancient Sicilian city of Syracuse (Italy) ...

Blue biotechnology and bio-nanotechnology now within reach of practical applications, highlights CIESM
The CIESM Workshop on 'Marine biotechnology and bio-nanotechnology' brought together 40 leading research and industrial representatives from the marine and maritime sectors to explore commercial perspectives of these rapidly expanding areas of research and development ...

Lost and found – another alien jellyfish in the Mediterranean Sea
Following a winter storm in 2006 an odd jellyfish was found stranded on the beach next to the National Institute of Oceanography (NIO), Israel. The specimen was photographed, preserved and mailed to a jellyfish taxonomist – and alas lost in the mail! Four years later ...

Hydrochanges Program – new deep site in the Tyrrhenian at 3,410 m
A new deep site of the CIESM Hydrochanges Program is now operational in the Tyrrhenian Sea thanks to the efforts of an Italian group consisting ...

39th CIESM Congress (Venice, 10-14 May 2010). Highlights ...

Accord de Siège conclu entre la Principauté de Monaco et la CIESM
Répondant à un souhait formulé de longue date par le Bureau de la CIESM, un Accord de Siège a été conclu le 4 décembre 2009 entre les Autorités Monégasques et la Commission en présence de nombreux Représentants des Pays Membres ...

Joint International Workshop on "Impact of large coastal Mediterranean cities on marine ecosystems"
CIESM recently joined forces with ASRT (Egypt), IAEA/MEL, IFREMER (France), NIOF (Egypt), and UNEP/MAP-MEDPOL to organize an International Workshop (10-12 February 2009, Bibliotheca Alexandrina, Alexandria, Egypt) aiming to promote the sharing of experiences and tools among main Mediterranean actors so as to better manage the marine environment ...

Some like it hot – or how Mediterranean marine species face global warming with diverse fortunes
According to the new scientific Report 'Climate warming and related changes in the Mediterranean biota' just released by the Mediterranean Science Commission (CIESM), global warming is transforming the Mediterranean into a much different sea than it was only 20 years ago ...

Hydrochanges Program: up-to-date Gibraltar analysis (by Claude Millot)
The T-S hourly time series at Gibraltar are now almost 6 years long, as shown by Figures 1 and 2 below.
In the southern part of the strait, the interface between the inflowing warm fresh Atlantic Water (AW) and the outflowing cold salty Mediterranean Waters (MWs) is immersed, on average, at ~150 m ...

Hydrochanges Program: latest from the Gibraltar Strait
The two Hydrochanges moorings set at Gibraltar since January 2003 were successfully recovered for the third time on October 29 onboard the Moroccan Royal Navy's vessel RaisAl Mounastiri, commanded by Captain Bengebara ...

Training Workshop on Polonium-210 - CIESM Mediterranean MusselWatch II
In the framework of the newly launched Phase II of its Mediterranean Mussel Watch Programme (more info), CIESM joined forces with ENEA, and IAEA to organize an international training workshop "Polonium-210 (Lead-210) Survey in the Adriatic Sea ...

Marine genetic resources: immense biotechnology potential for Mediterranean nations
The vast chemical diversity of the oceans, revealed in full by recent screening molecular tools, opens new, exciting scenarios for research at the interface between science and business. Since much of sea life, particularly in deep waters, is yet untapped, marine (or “Blue”) Biotechnology is a fast emerging sector ...

Acidification – Marine life takes a bad trip
Owing to the increasing amounts of carbon dioxide being released to the atmosphere “ocean acidification may soon threaten unique ecosystems in the Mediterranean Sea ”, concluded an international group of 15 leading scientists who just met in Menton, France, at the invitation of the Mediterranean Science Commission (CIESM) ...

In memory of Francois Doumenge (1926 – 2008)

Hydrochanges Program: a new mooring station in the Antikithira Strait
With the collaboration of HCMR (Hellenic Centre for Marine Research), the easternmost station in the CIESM Hydrochanges Program is now operational after a phase of testing. The CTD has been launched in the Antikithira Strait ...

CIESM and Prince Albert II Foundation engage a new Partnership to track Mediterranean tropicalization
The Prince Albert II Foundation has endeavoured to support, over five years, a new CIESM Programme that will detect, quantify and map changes of selected, sensitive species indicating climate warming in the Mediterranean Sea ...

New consensus on Messinian Salinity Crisis – CIESM Workshop 33
The Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) is widely regarded as one of the most dramatic episodes of oceanic change of the past 20 million years. It occured some 6 million years ago, when vast amounts of evaporite salt were deposited in the Mediterranean area, leading to a significant drop in Global ocean salinity ...

Mediterranean Mussel Watch Program: CIESM publishes 1st cesium-137 survey.

38th CIESM Congress (9-13 April 2007, Istanbul ). Highlights ...

CIESM investigations point to drastic hydrological changes in the western Mediterranean
The Strait of Gibraltar is a “strategic” location for monitoring the state of the Mediterranean Sea. There, close to the sea bottom, a sensor operated by CIESM as part of its Hydrochange program continuously records long-term changes in salinity and sea temperature on an hourly basis ...

CIESM about to launch SUB2 cruise

Gibraltar moorings - CIESM Hydrochanges Program
In cooperation with the Moroccan Hydrographical Service, a CIESM team retrieved its two CTD moored in the Strait of Gibraltar.

CIESM SUB 1 cruise successfully completed

CIESM launches multi-disciplinary cruise to explore deep Tyrrhenian Sea
CIESM renews with a century-old tradition, launching its first “multi-disciplinary” research cruise in 80 years to explore poorly studied areas in the northern Sicily Channel and the south-Tyrrhenian Sea ...

Disparition du Prince Rainier de Monaco, ancien Président de la CIESM

In Memoriam - Marko Branica (1931-2004)

Post-Congress comments by CIESM President and DG
In the aftermath of a very successful 37th Congress (early June 2004, Barcelona, Spain), the President and the Director General of the Commission held a press conference at CIESM Headquarters in Monte Carlo ...

37th CIESM Congress (7-11 June 2004, Barcelona ). Highlights ...

Portugal officially joins CIESM
To celebrate the adhesion of Portugal to CIESM, the President of the Commission - Prince Albert of Monaco - paid an official visit to Lisbon on 13 and 14 April ...