This year’s Black Sea Action Day has arrived while the world is facing the coronavirus pandemic, a global epidemic unlike any other most of us have experienced. National Institute for Marine Research and Development “Grigore Antipa” from Romania and Turkish Marine Research Foundation from Turkey, beneficiaries of the project “Assessing the vulnerability of the Black Sea marine ecosystem to human pressures – ANEMONE”, invited online the stakeholders to celebrate, discuss, brainstorm together the Strategic Action Plan for the Rehabilitation and Protection of the Black Sea.
Via Pontica Foundation and the Municipality of Burgas conducted on 30 September 2020 a clean-up action of the beach north of the “Chernomorski solnici” (Black Sea salt pans), located 10 km from Bourgas. The volunteers from the English Highschool “Geo Milev” from Burgas came together for the third major beach clean-up organised on Solnitsite beach –Salt Pans Beach by the partner teams of the project “Innovative Techniques and Methods for Reducing Marine Litter in the Black Sea Coastal Areas”.
The launching conference of the project “BeECO – Joint actions for environmental protection in Black Sea Basin” was held on 25 September 2020, in Yerevan. In Armenia, the project is managed by the Urban Foundation for Sustainable Development.
During 14-18 September 2020, 20 members from the project team are attending the online workshop on PRIMER 7 software. The workshop delivered by the Plymouth Marine Laboratory introduces to the participants the latest updates on PRIMER v7 which provides a wide range of univariate, graphical and multivariate routines for analysing arrays of species-by-samples data from community ecology.
The Association for Sustainable Development “Prut – Danube” Galati equipped the protected area Lunca Joasă a Prutului Inferior in Galati County, from Cavadinești to Braniștea, with 50 selective recycle bins. The local towns from Galati Fishing areas where the bins are placed will ensure their proper maintenance. The purpose is to turn waste into a resource and diminish the negative impact on the environment.
Institution of Fist Resources, lead beneficiary of the project “Promoting Technology Innovation in Environmental Monitoring and Modelling for Assessment of Fish Stock and Non-fish Resources – TIMMOD” is organizing on 11 September 2020 in Varna (Bulgaria) the project launch dissemination event. The main goals, activities and expected results of the TIMMOD project will be presented, as well as information on the current state of fish and non-fish resources in the Black Sea. А discussion on the application of modern technologies for monitoring and evaluation of Black Sea resources will take place.
The project “Assessing the vulnerability of the Black Sea marine ecosystem to human pressures” has completed the second round of national stakeholder engagement workshops. While the first round was dedicated to marine litter, the second was focused on cetacean monitoring and finding ways of stakeholder involvement in dolphin monitoring activities.
During July – August 2020, Bulgarian Association for Transfer of Technology and Innovation with the support of Red Cross Varna and Red Cross Burgas held 10 Training seminars for civil protection and coping with accidents. The aim of the sessions was to train the citizens on how to react in crisis and accident situations and to perform first aid.
The American University of Armenia (AUA) Acopian Center for the Environment in collaboration with project partners publicly launched the 30-months Copernicus Assisted Environmental Monitoring Across the Black Sea Basin project, also known as PONTOS.