Blue World Institute of Marine Research and Conservation is a community-oriented, science-based non-profit organisation dedicated to marine research, education, and conservation.
We work at the local, national and regional scales – to expand the scientific foundation for conservation, advancing environmental literacy, furthering on-the-ground conservation actions, and overall widening of public engagement for the protection of marine ecosystems and resources.
We work with partners from all sectors and levels – from empowering local communities to liaising with international initiatives – as we seek to create new, and expand existing collaborations to transform current exploitative development models towards a sustainable form of growth and an equitable, smart reliance on the natural resources of the region.
We are based on Lošinj island in Northern Adriatic, but we work throughout the Adriatic, surveying from Trieste to Otranto, in Croatia, Italy, Montenegro and Albania. Our Adriatic Dolphin Project is the longest ongoing research and monitoring of one resident bottlenose dolphin population in the Mediterranean, started in 1987! Based on our research Croatia declared six special areas of conservation for bottlenose dolphins and the Adriatic Sea became one of the best surveyed areas for large marine vertebrates in the Mediterranean. We opened a Losinj marine education centre visited by more than 100K people and hundreds of school groups. Also, we are running a sea turtle rescue centre.
Our achievements are possible only because of the hard and dedicated work and conservation optimism of our staff and members! Therefore, we would like to join ConservationNOW as we are looking forward to sharing our stories and learning from the experience of other similar organisations and people all over the world.