In the North Seas region, a coalition of 9 countries expressed the ambition to quadruple their offshore wind capacity from 30 GW to 120 GW by 2030, and to then more than double the capacity between 2030 and 2050 to reach 300 GW. Regional cooperation to achieve these ambitions can be organized in...

The European Union (EU) Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 sets the target for protected areas in the EU at 30% of its sea area, one third of which needs to be strictly protected. While there is growing interest in studying the progress of ocean protection, there is a need for an overview of the...

In total, nine case studies in the Baltic Sea, North Sea, Atlantic EU Western Waters and some outermost regions (Madeira and Canary Islands) were selected to gather more information on the response of the fishing activities to MPA designation and implementation. The selection of case studies is...

German fisheries are regulated under the EU Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). As a Federal Republic, Germany has five coastal federal states that collaborate to implement the CFP. These states are responsible for the implementation of structural policy measures – particularly those related to the...

The European Union’s Methane Emissions Regulation (EU MER), effective from August 2024, introduces a methane intensity standard for fossil fuel imports into the EU. It places new compliance requirements on EU importers and, indirectly, on non-EU producers and exporters, including those...

Russische Schiffe sind seit einigen Jahren damit beschäftigt, kritische Infrastruktur in den Gewässern rund um Europa auszukundschaften. Dieses "Mapping" dient offenbar der Vorbereitung möglicher Sabotageakte und stellt somit eine erhebliche Sicherheitsbedrohung dar. Nach internationalem...

This study focuses on safety aspects which are spatially relevant and defined in legal requirements. All other aspects, such as safety on board or occupational safety are not the subject of this study, nor is the evaluation of defined safety requirements with regard to their relevance. The...

Fifteen case studies in the Baltic Sea, North Sea, EU Atlantic Western Waters and some outermost regions (focusing on the Azores, Madeira and Canary Islands) were selected to gather insights into potential spillover effects of different types of marine protected areas (MPAs). The majority of the...

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are widely recognized as an important tool for biodiversity conservation and fisheries management. Despite empirical evidence that abundance and biomass of fished species increase within MPA boundaries, the potential for MPAs to provide fisheries benefits to...

Purpose - This study critically examines the transformative impact of the "North Sea TikTok" phenomenon on the marine tourism sector, emphasizing the role of employee training in fostering resilience and adaptability within marine economics and integrated marine systems. It delves into how viral...

We highlight a coordination problem between the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and the EU’s offshore energy strategy. We exemplify this coordination failure by analyzing carbon leakage effects associated with Denmark’s planned North Sea energy island. The island will not start production...

Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) has been identified as an essential part of the lowest-cost path toward reaching the goals of the Paris Agreement. In Europe, an accelerated pace of CCS development indicates that a CO2 transport and storage system could be established by 2030. However, we know...

Baumkurrennetze werden bauartbedingt sehr nahe am Meeresboden geschleppt. Um das Durchscheuern der Unterblätter dieser Netze am Meeresboden zu verringern, werden dort häufig Matten aus Kardeelen von Polyethylenseilen angebracht. Diese Tauwerks-Kardeele sind als „Dolly Ropes“ bekannt. Ein...

We investigate the effect of technology adoption on competition by leveraging a unique dataset on production, costs, and asset characteristics for North Sea upstream oil & gas companies. Relying on heterogeneity in the geological suitability of fields and a landmark decision of the Norwegian...

The mixed-demand model allows for very flexible specification of what should be considered endogenous and exogenous in demand system estimation. This paper introduces a revealed preference framework to analyze the mixed-demand model. The proposed methods can be used to test whether observed data...

The ACTOM toolbox is designed to provide value over a range of field cases with diverse subsurface geology and environmental marine characteristics. Whereas the end-product of the toolbox is to aid users in defining a monitoring plan that will satisfy local stakeholders, one intermediate outcome...

Baumkurrennetze werden bauartbedingt sehr nahe am Meeresboden geschleppt. Um das Durchscheuern der Unterblätter dieser Netze am Meeresboden zu verringern, werden dort häufig Matten aus Kardeelen von Polyethylenseilen angebracht. Diese Tauwerks-Kardeele sind als 'Dolly Ropes' bekannt. Ein...

The usage of the North Sea is in transition, influenced by the European blue growth strategy and the national follow-ups. Based on the principles of smart, sustainable and inclusive growth at sea, policies are formulated to stimulate growth in the existing and new maritime sectors. Creating blue...

Coastal and marine areas represent an increasingly important and relevant action space for spatial planning. However, to a large extent marine (or maritime) spatial planning has emerged separately from terrestrial spatial planning, constituting its own epistemic community. In particular,...

"Cold Water Oil: Offshore Petroleum Cultures is a collection of essays examining how societies conceive of fossil fuel extraction in the inhospitable but fragile waters of the North Atlantic and Arctic oceans. Around a third of the world's oil and gas is produced from beneath the ocean floor,...

The Sustainable Development Goal for the oceans and coasts (SDG 14) as part of the 2030 Agenda can be considered as an important step towards achieving more comprehensive blue growth. Here, we selected a set of 18 indicators to measure progress against SDG 14 for EU coastal states in the Baltic...

In this paper we apply the so-called partition function approach to study coalition formation in the North-east Atlantic mackerel fishery in the presence of externalities. Atlantic mackerel is mainly exploited by the European Union (EU), the United Kingdom (UK), Norway, the Faroe Islands and...

This contribution provides a composite overview of the continental shelf boundaries in the North Sea and the Atlantic Ocean from a historical perspective, dating back to the early days of the North Sea oil and gas industry, before considering live issues such as those surrounding the remote...

Trotz anfänglicher Bedenken gegenüber einer Raumordnung auf dem Meer wurden inzwischen in Deutschland die notwendigen rechtlichen Regelungen geschaffen und auf dieser Grundlage maritime Raumordnungspläne aufgestellt. Die Herausforderung für die Zukunft ist, die Nutzung des maritimen Raums...

This baseline examines the relevant aspects of the current state of the environment within the study area in relation to: biodiversity, flora and fauna; population and human health; soils, geology and sediment; water and water quality; air quality and climatic factors; materials assets; cultural...

All of the target Member States within the study area have developed maritime plans of relevance to the development of an offshore renewables energy system. As part of the Scoping Stage for the project which was carried out in May 2016, each of the target Member States were contacted and asked...

The development of an offshore renewable energy system, including grid infrastructure, in the Irish and North Seas represents a significant opportunity towards meeting the European Union's energy goals. To ensure that environmental concerns and impacts are appropriately considered at an early...