Dear Colleagues, On behalf of OceanCare, I am delighted to bring the results of a three-year pilot project to your attention which focussed on the development and validation of a real-time acoustic observatory for sperm-whale localization in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. The project results have just been published in FRONTIERS and can be accessed under the following LINK. A real-time acoustic observatory for sperm-whale localization in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea<https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2022.873888/full> For additional information about the context of the project, the situation of sperm whales in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, the threat ship collisions pose to this regional population, as well as context given to the potential as well as limitations of the developed system please refer to the article as well as the enclosed communication to the media by OceanCare. OceanCare is extremely grateful to the scientists, experts and partners involved within this project, in particular the Institute of Applied and Computational Mathematics FORTH (Greece), the Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute (Greece), Marine Traffic and CINTAL at the University of the Algarve (Portugal). We are likewise very grateful for the generous support we have received from donors who made it possible to funding this project. We hope that the expertise and knowledge gathered within this project boost efforts to implement this and similar systems as a complementary measure to re-routing and slowing down shipping speed to reduce the risk of collisions between vessels, sperm whales and other large toothed whale species. Please do not hesitate getting back in case you have further inquiries. Kind regards Sigrid ____________________________________ OceanCare Sigrid Lueber, President and Founder Gerbestrasse 6, P.O.Box 372 CH-8820 Waedenswil - Switzerland Phone: +41-44-780 6688 Directline: +41-43- 477 6124 Cellphone +41-79-475 2687 slueber@oceancare.org<mailto:slueber@oceancare.org> www.oceancare.org<https://linkprotect.cudasvc.com/url?a=http%3a%2f%2fwww.oceancare.org%2f&c=E,1,pAR3G_wFnOZ6B-KqCdbrwaQRKzNeJkW7ymP8HYp6vjSoj1MWUJfSP34-b8AfwJ_mVRv6EYnx-kQ09AAd8flM1rJCkm3b-iGnTpB-_ouAeNF1iU9EkHxyjA,,&typo=1> OceanCare is a Swiss non-profit organisation. It was founded in 1989 and has a strong commitment to realistic and cooperative initiatives. The organisation works at national and international level in the areas of marine pollution, environmental changes, fisheries, whaling, sealing, captivity of marine mammals and public education. OceanCare holds Special Consultative Status with the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC) and is partner of the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM), the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), and the UNEP/CMS Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS), as well as UNEP/MAP. Since 2021, OceanCare is accredited observer to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) and the International Seabed Authority (ISA). The organisation has been an observer at the IWC since 1992. OceanCare has also been accredited as part of the Major Group 'Science & Technology' to the United Nations Environment Assembly (UNEA), which is the governing body of UNEP and is a part of the UNEP Global Partnership on Marine Litter. Please consider the environment before printing this e-mail. This email and any files transmitted with it are confidential and intended solely for the use of the individual or entity to whom they are addressed. If you have received this email in error please notify the sender and delete the message.