Marine mammals sanctuaries

The Sanctuary is a maritime area of 87 500 km² covered by an agreement between Italy, Monaco and France for the protection of marine mammals which use it. The originality of the Pelagos Sanctuaire for Mediterranean marine mammals lies in the fact that it constitutes a tripartite management area in a coastal and high seas territory perceived as a ‘large ecosystem’ of great scientific, socio-economic, cultural and educational interest. The sanctuary as a whole can be considered, in very general terms, to be a separate biogeographically sub-unit of the Mediterranean Sea Ecosystem Marin de Grande Dimension (LME).