ZMT - Leibniz Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung

26/11/2025 | The North Sea is unique - but fishing, shipping traffic, plastic waste and noise from offshore installations are taking their toll. It urgently needs better protection - especially for the native harbour porpoises, whose populations have been declining for two decades. That is the view of marine scientist Wiebke Homes from the ZMT, who studies these small whales. ‘Harbour porpoises are an example of how much biodiversity is under pressure, and how necessary effective protection measures are’, according to Homes. She is now an active member in the newly founded alliance, the “North Sea Protection Network” (NeNo). 

It all started in 2023 with an exchange between various associations about the situation of porpoises in the German North Sea. This led to a trusting collaboration, which resulted in a joint position paper calling for strengthened measures to protect harbour porpoises in the Whale Sanctuary off the islands Sylt and Amrum in the Wadden Sea National Park. That position paper was personally handed over to the Environment Minister of Schleswig-Holstein, Tobias Goldschmidt, in February 2025. 

Wiebke Homes (2nd from left) at the hand-over of the position paper to Schleswig-Holstein's Environment Minister Tobias Goldschmidt in February 2025. | Photo: Schutzstaion Wattenmeer

From that cooperation a permanent alliance has now emerged: the “North Sea Protection Network” (NeNo). From now on, NeNo will work through joint actions and projects to effectively protect the North Sea, to promote intact ecosystems and to protect endangered species such as harbour porpoises. The goal of the network is to raise awareness of harbour porpoises and their protection through environmental education and public communication and outreach. As part of this, they will implement environmental-education measures and formulate demands to political decision-makers. 

The current partners of NeNo include: 

• Gesellschaft zur Rettung der Delphine e.V. (GRD), Munich
• Leibniz‑Zentrum für Marine Tropenforschung (ZMT), Bremen
• Naturschutzbund Schleswig-Holstein e.V. (NABU SH)
• Naturschutzgemeinschaft Sylt e.V.
• Öömrang Ferian (Amrum)
• Schutzstation Wattenmeer e.V.
• Sölring Foriining e.V.
• Verein Jordsand e.V.
• WWF Wattenmeerbüro, Husum

The network is open to further partners and initiatives that want to commit to effective marine conservation and sustainable use of the North Sea.