On Friday, 13 October 2023, the Ministry of Economy and Sustainable Development organised the final conference “Croatia under the waves” as part of the project “Mapping of coastal and underwater habitats in the Adriatic Sea under national jurisdiction” The conference took place in the Brijuni National Park and was attended by numerous experts from Croatian scientific and professional institutions as well as various guests.

The conference was also attended by the Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Associate Professor Dr Davor Filipović. He expressed his satisfaction with the implementation of the project and the creation of conditions for a systematic approach to the sustainable use and conservation of the Adriatic Sea and the implementation of optimal conservation measures in protected areas and ecological networks. He emphasised that this research will be continued with the aim of creating a map of marine habitats for the entire Adriatic Sea under Croatian jurisdiction.

The Fund for Environmental Protection and Energy Efficiency highlighted that non-repayable grants from the Operational Programme Competitiveness and Cohesion 2014 – 2020 in the amount of 10.1 million euros and national resources from the Fund in the amount of 676,000 euros were secured for the implementation of the project.

As the name of the project suggests, a mapping of marine habitats was carried out. The main result was the creation of a comprehensive map covering 51% of the area of coastal and submarine marine habitats in Croatian territorial waters and on the continental shelf. The new map was produced at a scale of 1:5,000 to 1:50,000 in coastal waters, while the scale in the exclusive economic zone ranged from 1:25,000 to 1:50,000. This represents a significant improvement in resolution and quality compared to the previous map, which was produced at a scale of only 1:100,000 and contained very little field data.

The final topic of the conference was a panel discussion entitled “Across the Adriatic for Nature and People” Participants included Dr Aljoša Duplić, Director of the Institute for Environment and Nature, Bojan Lindarić, Director of the Institute for Spatial Development, Dr Izidora Marković Vukadin from the Institute for Tourism, Dr Nedo Vrgoč from the Institute for Oceanography and Fisheries and Dr Igor Stanković from the Josip Juraj Strossmayer Water Institute. The panel concluded that this map is one of the most important prerequisites for the proper management of water in the Adriatic from various aspects, including the economy, nature conservation and water management. The overview of marine habitats provides an excellent basis for even better monitoring of water quality. This overview serves as an excellent basis for improving water quality monitoring, which currently comprises 77 monitoring stations in transitional waters and 123 monitoring stations in coastal waters, covering a total of 112 water bodies.