The report released in Rome last week highlights the 13 most important areas in need of protection, and urges governments to commit to their protection for the next 10 years.

The WWF report, "Mediterranean Marine Gap Analysis," designates as vulnerable at least 10 percent of the Mediterranean marine and coastal area.

Recommendations include a Mediterranean wide ban on coastal trawl fishing to 50 meters deep. Eighty percent of all marine biodiversity is found in this shallow coastal rim of the sea.

WWF wants coastal construction in the 13 areas prohibited and international pollution laws applied uniformly across the Mediterranean.

"The Mediterranean, the oldest cradle of European civilisation, is also the region with the highest number of endemic species in the world, after tropical regions," said Paolo Guglielmi, marine officer at WWF's Mediterranean Program Office. Endemic species are those native to a region that are found nowhere else on Earth.

"These 13 areas should be absolutely protected if we want to save the Mediterranean's unique heritage," Guglielmi said.

The 13 areas are:

cAlboran sea which touches Spain, Morocco, and Algeria

Balearic Islands of Spain

Liguro-Provençal coast of France, Italy, and Monaco

Corso-Sardinian coast of France and Italy

Southern Tyrrhenian coast of Italy

Dalmatian coast of Croatia

Eastern Ionian coast and islands Albania, Greece

Aegean sea of Greece, Turkey and Anatolya coast Turkey

Cilician coast Turkey and Cyprus Island coast

Cyrenaica in Lybia

Gulf of Sirte in Libya

Gulf of Gabes in Tunisia

Algero-Tunisian coast of Algeria and Tunisia

Three major areas of importance for threatened species are identified: the Aegean sea and the Turkish Mediterranean coast for monk seals and sea turtles, and the Sardo-Corso-Liguro-Provençal Basin for dolphins and whales.

The WWF claims that 14 percent of the Mediterranean coast is heavily damaged. Some areas are so degraded the organization is already classifying them as "lost." These lost regions include the Italian Adriatic coast, the coast between Syria and the mouth of the Nile, the coast which links the mouth of the Rhône in France to Spain, and the Spanish coast from Barcelona to Valencia.

Currently less than one percent of the coastal Mediterranean sea is protected. The most pristine of the sites highlighted by the study are the Sirte and Cirenaic coasts in Libya, the Aegean sea, and Turkey's Cilician coast. The WWF is warning that all could easily join the ranks of the "lost" without the proper protective measures.

The report was welcomed by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), which is pushing for similar protective measures in the area under its Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) plan.

"This tool will be a key instrument for the future work of institutional bodies to drive Mediterranean nations to increase the protection of their coasts," said Lucien Chabason, coordinator of the MAP.

Earlier this month, Greece was ordered to pay a daily fine of nearly US$20,000 for failing to shut down a waste disposal plant spewing toxic rubbish into a ravine 200 meters (650 feet) from the Mediterranean Sea. It was the first time the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg had fined a European Union member state for refusing to comply with one of its judgments.

On June 30, the Italian environmental group Legambiente called Italy's coastline a garbage tip after releasing a report documenting untreated sewage disposal, oil slicks, dumping, illegal building, and widespread breaches of navigation and fishing rules.

Last year, more than 19,000 offences were committed along Italy's coasts, or one every 400 metres, Legambiente reported. Error: Unable to read footer file.