News

La Gomera, July/August 2018. As part of its research and education activities, M.E.E.R. e.V. regularly supports students with their bachelor and master theses. Currently, Maita Bengsch is working on her thesis, including data collection on La Gomera. She introduces herself as well as her project here: “Hey, my name is Maita Bengsch and I am studying Sustainable Tourism at the University for Sustainable Development Eberswalde in Germany. Together with MEER e.V. I am currently working on my master thesis. The goal of this master thesis is to detect gaps and differences in the environmental marine education of residents and tourists... Continue Reading

Berlin/La Spezia, May 2018. Wow, this year’s ECS workshop, co-organized by M.E.E.R., set new standards. More than 50 participants came together to talk about plastic litter and marine mammals, more than ever before. M.E.E.R.’s 2nd chairman Volker Smit presented the results of the plastic pirates, who want to avoid plastic waste even before getting into the oceans. We had talks about current developments as well as about the whole extent of the problem, others dealt with approaches to solve the problem. These included the campaign “I care” by the Swiss organization “OceanCare” and the project One World One Ocean for... Continue Reading

Berlin, March 2018. We proudly announce that M.E.E.R. e.V. offers its 6th workshop in a row on the annual conference of the European Cetacean Society (ECS). It is an educational full-day workshop in the series „Communicating marine mammal science to the general public“, bringing together enthusiastic people in the field of marine mammals and education. This year’s subject is “Plastic litter and marine mammals: how communication can properly address the issue”. We will focus on the growing problem of plastic litter (macro and micro plastic) in the marine environment representing a great threat to marine mammals as well as on... Continue Reading

Berlin, February 2018. M.E.E.R. celebrates its 20th anniversary this year! On this occasion we are very pleased to present the new film: “Das Meer vor La Gomera” (The Sea off La Gomera). As part of a student project, the cooperation with the University of Dessau (Department of Design) has resulted in a beautiful and informative image film that reflects the work of the NGO M.E.E.R. and its cooperation partner OCEANO Gomera. The film shows with enchanting images the uniqueness of this island and the wonderful encounters with whales and dolphins. The urgency and need for protection of this habitat is... Continue Reading

La Gomera, October 2017. This week, for the first time ever, the large catamaran high-speed ferry came to Valle Gran Rey on La Gomera to start operating on a regular basis. While we acknowledge the advantages this might have for the local people, we worry about the cetaceans that live in one of the cetacean species richest areas in Europe, because it has been well established that high speed ferries pose a serious threat to various whale species… see https://m-e-e-r.de/science/collisions/problemgebiet/?lang=en      

Middelfart/Berlin, April 2017. The 5. Workshop on the topic “Communicating Marine Mammal Science to the General Public”, organized by the 2. chairman of MEER Volker Smit, was again a great success. This year the focus was on “Marketing” and Silke Carstens – experienced Consultant from the market sector – presented the topic “Marketing” to the community of scientists together with Volker Smit. In the future this topic should be a permanent part of the workshop, which is to be continued next year. Overall the tenor from the workshop as well as from the ECS conference, which took place right afterwards,... Continue Reading

Berlin, March 2017. We proudly announce that M.E.E.R. e.V. offers its 5th workshop in a row on the annual conference of the European Cetacean Society (ECS). It is a full-day educational workshop „Communicating marine mammal science to the general public“, bringing together enthusiastic people in the field of marine mammals and education. It is organised by Volker Smit (M.E.E.R. e.V., Germany) and his colleague Dr. Luigi Bundone (Archipelagos ambiente e sviluppo, Italy). The workshop is open to all, especially suitable for researchers, educators, science teachers, students and the media. This year, we will focus on protocols related to objectives and... Continue Reading

Berlin/La Gomera, December 2016. Currently, we are working on the setup of a station for land-based observations of cetaceans. In November 2016, we conducted successful test runs, land-based observations were documented. By guiding the whale watching boats from aboveaccording to aur land-based observations we were able to contribute to a sustainable whale watching management. Recently, IFAW  (International Fund for Animal Welfare) and the Beatrice-Nolte-Stiftung assured  M.E.E.R. e.V. financial support. We are very grateful for that – now the project can start! In December 2016, the construction of the shelter began and we ordered professional optic equipment. First systematic data collection... Continue Reading