(drones) and soundtraps (passive acoustic monitoring) in collaboration with the Marine Mammal Research Program of the University of Hawaii and with the Sea Mammal Research Unit of the University of St. Andrews, respectively. In the semi-enclosed, highly degraded, Gulf of Ambracia (Natura 2000 code GR2110001) the IDP studies a resident population of 150 common bottlenose dolphins that display a unique behaviour and ecology. The research documents how the local dolphin community interacts with its environment and how human activities may influence its conservation status. This work led to the listing of the Bottlenose Dolphin Gulf of Ambracia subpopulation as Critically Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. In the waters surrounding the islands of Paxos and Antipaxos (Natura 2000 code GR2230004) a series of preliminary opportunistic surveys started in 2015. Since 2020, these waters became the third IDP’s study area. Data gathered in these years showed that bottlenose, common and striped dolphins are regularly present, and monk seals are occasionally sighted around the numerous caves in the western side of Paxos island. In the western limit of the Nat2000 site, where the slope is more pronounced and waters drop beyond 1,000 m depth, a few Cuvier’s beaked whales have also been spotted. Conservation actions In addition to making the results of its research projects available to marine conservation and management activities, Tethys’ members are actively participating in the international conservation process in collaboration with many intergovernmental organisations, including the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), the Barcelona Convention for the Protection of the Marine Environment and the Coastal Region of the Mediterranean, the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS), the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the Society for Marine Mammalogy, and the European Cetacean Society. 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 taxa, such as the regional sub-populations of fin whales, short-beaked common dolphins, sperm whales, Risso’s dolphins, common bottlenose dolphins, and the spinetail devil ray (Mobula mobular). In terms of practical conservation on the ground, based on the results of its research cruises in 1987-89 Tethys first conceived and proposed the creation of an