Bonn, 3 February 2008 - The extension of the ASCOBANS Agreement Area, agreed on by the Baltic and North Sea Parties at MOP4 in 2003, has entered into force on 3 February 2008. Finland was the fifth country to formally accept the Amendment to the Agreement, following France, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands. The Agreement‘s name also changes to reflect the new geographic coverage: “Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas”.

With the significant westward enlargement of the area covered by ASCOBANS, not only did ASCOBANS gain three more Range States, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, who will continue to be encouraged to join the other ten Parties as member states, also its political footprint will be significantly larger. The new areas of the North East Atlantic and Irish Seas bring with them different species compositions and a wider set of issues and threats that need to be addressed. But they also increase the scientific expertise the Agreement bodies can draw from and provide a chance to coordinate conservation measures of small cetaceans more effectively in a wider context. The ASCOBANS area will then be contiguous to that of its sister Agreement, ACCOBAMS.
Congratulations to ASCOBANS!