Several Tethys’ officers and members are actively participating in and supporting the international scientific progress and conservation process, in many ways. Organisations include:
- the Convention on Biological Diversity, in particular for what concerns progress with the Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) and the attainment of Aichi Target 11;
- the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (Tethys participates in the activities of its Scientific Council through the appointment of G. Notarbartolo di Sciara as the Councillor for Aquatic Mammals);
- the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS), with leadership roles within the agreement’s Scientific Committee since its beginning;
- the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean and the Mediterranean Action Plan, and in particular with the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas in Tunis;
- the International Whaling Commission (IWC), with regular attendance to the meetings of its Scientific Committee;
- the European Cetacean Society (with two of the Society’s presidents having been from Tethys); and
- the Society for Marine Mammalogy, with a Tethys’ member currently chairing the society’s International Relations Committee.
A specially articulated working relationship exists between Tethys’ members and the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN), through the active participation in:
- the Work Commission on Protected Areas (coordination of the Mediterranean region),
- in the Species Survival Commission (Cetacean Specialist Group and Shark Specialist Group), and
- in founding and co-chairing the Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force.
- Finally, as members of the IUCN Red List Authority for cetaceans, and in collaboration with the Red List Secretariat, Tethys’ experts have contributed to the inclusion in the Red List of Threatened Species of a number of Mediterranean species, including the giant devilray, Mobula mobular and the regional sub-populations of fin whales, short-beaked common dolphins, sperm whales, and common bottlenose dolphins.
