The Press Conferences “How healthy is our Black Sea?” 19 April 2017, Kyiv and 21 April 2017, Odesa

In order to present the results of the Joint Black Sea surveys and to initiate the further public discussion of the marine environmental issues among the general public, two press events were organized in Ukraine.
The first one – press-briefing in the premises of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine (Kyiv) with participation of the Minister of Ecology and Natural Resources Ostap Semerak gave the general overview of the Black Sea issues raised as well as the future vision how it will be solved (in frame of the future Marine Strategy).
See video here:

The second one – press-conference in Odesa was devoted to detailed discussion of the surveys’ findings with journalists, NGOs, educational institutions. The event was finalized with the symbolic action – opening of the sculpture “Angel’s wings” at Lanzheron beach as a symbol of joint action to protect the Black Sea.
See video here:

The both events were widely covered in media. Please see the media overview report below.

General highlights

In general, the press-conferences can be considered successful as the information has been published in at least 54 sources (see the list below), including 8 TV channels.

The most widely discussed topics in the news were new pollutants fixed in the Sea. The provoking titles as “Ukrainian beauty harms the Black Sea” (meaning the sun and others). Journalists caught the information about caffeine, paracetamol and other medicals (called people’s “medicine chest”) and even PFOS (persistent organic pollutant that can accumulate in bodies of living organisms).

Another fact caught by the journalists was the percentage of the healthy Sea versa dead Sea (70% to 30%). Here it was also mentioned that Danube still remains the main source of the pollution.

The second widely discussed topic was marine litter concentrations. One article directly asked Odesa people to  do something about their water management behavior to reduce the contribution to the Black Sea pollution.

The further topics discussed was the reduction of the oxygen layer and invasive species.

The issue of dolphins and microbes found at 2 km depth is covered less.

The most of articles conclude with the information about the Marine Strategy, which is being developed by the MENR,  giving people a hope that the identified problems will the solved in an integral way.

A lot of articles are devoted to “Angel’s wings” and the story about the Black Sea angel. It goes like an attract introduction to the main issues of the Black Sea.

The positive sign is that in Odesa a lot of journalists attending the press-conference for Mare Nigrum in May 2016 came now again to learn about the results. It means that they are interested to hear the story to the end.

Some of the videos and articles are shared through Fans of the Black Sea in the Facebook for their further  dissemination. The each day growing community of subscribers to this group (at present 158 participants) shows the interest to this topic.

Conclusions

The idea of combination of some visual symbols and scientific facts presentation proved to be successful as well as the dissemination of the short interesting summary of the results for wide public as it was 12 facts.

The presentation of the results of the field survey both at national and regional levels and jointly with the future Marine Strategy, is a good approach, as  it makes the picture (analysis of the status and programme of measures) more complete.

The involvement of the children schools and NGOs also proves to be successful, as the knowledge about the Black Sea and relevant lessons got disseminated, and in general increased the awareness of public about our Black Sea.

List of the links

Ukraine, Kyiv press briefing (19 April 2017)

Ukraine, Odessa press-conference (21 April 2017)

 TELEVISION

47. Телеканал Репортёр http://reporter.od.ua/vyipusk-novostey-733/ (у випуску новин на 10:50 хв)
48. Телекомпанія «Круг» – Состояние Черного Моря http://krug.com.ua/news/28262
49. Думская ТВ – На Ланжероне появилась новая скульптура https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZjuXB5PuYgw&feature=youtu.be
50. 7 Канал – В Одессе появился памятник, посвященный моллюску http://7kanal.com.ua/2017/04/v-odesse-poyavilsya-pamyatnik-posvyashhennyiy-mollyusku-video/
51. Сайт Youtube – В Одессе появился памятник, посвященный моллюску https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AF2l-ddod4A
52. Телерадиокомпания Южная Волна – Одесса. Здоровье Черного моря http://volnatv.com/video/programmy/vipusk/6918-novosti-vypusk-21042017-volnatvcom.html (у випуску новин на 08:18 хв)
53. Преса України – Повернувшись із експедиції, вчені розповіли про негативні зміни в Чорному морі (ВІДЕО) http://uapress.info/uk/news/show/164545
54. Взгляд из Одессы – Одесситов призвали прекратить мусорить на улицах http://od-news.com/2017/04/21/odessitov-prizvali-prekratit-musorit-na-ulitsah/