Victory for Adriatic Sea: Croatia and Italy Ban Fishing in Jabuka Pit
Victory for the Adriatic Sea; after several months of tense negotiations between Croatian and Italian administrations, an agreement has finally been reached to ban fishing near the Jabuka Pit in the Adriatic Basin from 1 September 2017 to 31 August 2020.
Adriatic Oil Drilling: Prime Minister Speaks to Campaigners in Seattle
(photo by Ryan Chittum)
From our friends at Clean Sea Adriatic Alliance
CASA greets Croatian Prime Minister, Zoran Milanovic, in Seattle on Sept. 28, 2014
September 29, 2014
SEATTLE - On Sunday, September 28, 2014 supporters of the Clean Adriatic Sea Alliance (CASA) waited for the Croatian Prime Minister, Zoran Milanovic, and his party to arrive at the ship wharf on Lake Union, for a chance to speak with him about Croatia's Adriatic drilling plans.
As Prime Minister Milanovic approached the wharf to attend a reception organized by the Seattle Croatian community, CASA supporters held up a banner that read in English and Croatian respectively: "WELCOME PM Milanovic - When you return home please don't drill the Croatian Adriatic Sea!" | DOBRODOŠLI premijeru Milanović - Kad se vratite kući, molimo Vas nemojte dozvoliti bušenje NAŠEG Jadrana"
CASA supporters waved to the Prime Minister and greeted him as he walked down the path in front of them towards the Virginia V Steamship. Sam Evich, CASA's founder, spoke out: "Dobrodošli! Could we ask you a few questions?"
Mr. Milanovic turned and answered in the affirmative, while stopping his entire entourage to approach the group of supporters.
The Prime Minister spent several minutes speaking with Mr. Evich and the CASA supporters with HRT (www.hrt.hr) Hrvatska radiotelevizija (Croatian radio-television) cameras pointed in their direction.
"Mr. Milanovic was kind enough to stop and answer our questions", said Mr. Evich. "However, we are extremely disappointed that he continues to express that he is powerless over the reality of the situation. We urged the Prime Minister to stand up and protect Croatia's heritage which is so strongly tied to the clean, healthy ecosystem of the Adriatic Sea. I expressed to him my sadness that the drilling plans are seriously threatening my Croatian heritage, being from a Dalmatian family, and all the people of Croatia that are connected to the sea. He tried to calm our worries of environmental risk or disaster by saying that mostly gas would be extracted, and I informed him that this is still an extremely dirty process of extraction that pollutes our oceans."
"I would hope that Mr. Milanovic, as the Prime Minister of Croatia, would fight for his own belief that there should be no drilling in the Adriatic Sea, as it is aligned with not only the health of his people, the health of the region, but also the health of the world. We urge him to listen to his country's citizens and stand by them in rejecting these flawed plans in the coming days."
Photo by Ryan Chittum on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ryanchittum/status/516346235650076672
Clean Adriatic Sea Alliance: Opposition to Oil Drilling in Croatia
Croatia will never cease to amaze me.
Some things you would expect to be huge stories barely get a mention, and then other causes grab the national media for weeks.
The latest surprise relates to the very little media coverage which exists on one of the most important aspects of tourism here - the future of the Adriatic Sea. Without the pristine Adriatic, Croatia's tourism offer would be severely diminished, and so it was more than a little alarming in some quarters to hear the government unveil plans to start drilling for oil and gas from 2015, in various locations, including off the coast of the island of Brac.
I wrote a Google News article about it which was widely read, but there has been relatively little coverage of an issue which has the potential to bring great wealth but also great destruction to the country's precious tourism industry.
It seems that some people are very concerned, however, and I came across a Facebook page called Clean Adriatic Sea Alliance recently, which describes itself thus:
CASA is a united group of citizens for preservation of the Adriatic Sea. Opposed to oil drilling in the Adriatic! Let's get #AdriaticMillion supporters!
Description
The goal of this page is to show support both within Croatia and internationally for the preservation of one of the world's most beautiful bodies of water, the Adriatic Sea | Jadran!
We are committed to No Adriatic Drilling!
Find us on Twitter: @CleanAdriatic
Note: We welcome comments and support freedom of speech. However, please keep your discussions/comments civil, free from insults, and as vulgar-free as possible! We reserve the right to remove comments.
I contacted the page and asked for a little more background.
The reason I started the Clean Adriatic Sea Alliance (CASA) Facebook Page was due to hearing news that the Croatian government had plans to drill for oil in the Croatian Adriatic. This was very troubling for me on many levels. I often explain my Dalmatian heritage and the importance of the Adriatic Sea to the culture, by saying to friends: "I have the waves of Adriatic Sea flowing through my veins." This news puts that culture at risk. I also find the news troubling for the many negative effects that offshore oil drilling places on the environment.
As a citizen of the world, I find it my responsibility to protect the environment that gives us life, and I wanted to provide a place for citizens to speak out on this issue. As time goes by, more and more people travel to Croatia. I have encountered many people that have told me it has touched their lives in a very special way. This also gave me encouragement to start the social media presence. As a solution to boost the economy, I find it a very narrow plan that benefits only a select few, but hurts many more that have invested in the country's tourism, fishing, or ecology. In terms of oil's future in energy consumption, it is a very antiquated product that I fear could leave Croatia behind, while people continue to move forward, and make choices outside of petroleum in their daily lives.
