Marine conservation: Will rangers soon be patrolling the North Sea and the Baltic Sea?

Initially, there was talk of a new supervisory body for the Wadden Sea: rangers to monitor the protected areas from the water. At the end of May, Schleswig-Holstein’s Environment Minister Tobias Goldschmidt announced at an international conference that, together with Lower Saxony and Hamburg, he intended to deploy rangers with boats in the national park’s waters. The term “Wadden Sea police” began doing the rounds – and caught the attention of coastal fishermen and water sports enthusiasts on the North Sea. What do these rangers do? What powers do they have? Who decided this, and who was consulted?

The answers to these questions are complicated. Documents that were previously unknown to the public reveal that this is not just about the Wadden Sea. The planned project is called MaRa and aims to develop a marine ranger system for the entire network of German marine protected areas. It therefore covers the North Sea and the Baltic Sea. An application for funding has already been submitted to the German Federal Environmental Foundation. A decision is imminent.

​Rangers on land – and soon on the water too?

Anyone who has ever visited the Wadden Sea will be familiar with the national park rangers: they lead mudflat walks, explain to visitors why seals need space, and protect breeding bird colonies from overly curious tourists. So far, they have done this exclusively on land. That could soon be a thing of the past.

Schleswig-Holstein, Lower Saxony and Hamburg are planning to deploy rangers on the water in future – using boats – within the protected areas of the German North Sea and Baltic Sea. A funding application has already been submitted. It remains to be seen whether this will result in new rules, new checks or even new restricted zones for water sports enthusiasts. The debate on this has only just begun.

​How it all came about

The political starting point dates back to October 2023. In Cuxhaven, the Environment Ministers Tobias Goldschmidt (Schleswig-Holstein) and Christian Meyer (Lower Saxony), together with Hamburg’s Senator for the Environment, Jens Kerstan, signed a joint position paper – the so-called Cuxhaven Declaration. In it, they called for the establishment, in collaboration with the Federal Government and the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation, of a marine ranger team – equipped with vessels and the necessary gear, responsible not only for the territorial waters but also, explicitly, for the Exclusive Economic Zone, that is, the maritime area extending up to 200 nautical miles off the German coast.

The project did not attract public attention until much later: at the end of May 2026, at the 15th Trilateral Governmental Conference on the Protection of the Wadden Sea in Esbjerg, Denmark, Goldschmidt once again called for the Establishing a marine ranger force, complete with vessels – and linking this to the call for more so-called ‘zero-use zones’ in the Wadden Sear, that is, areas where all human activity would be prohibited.

The Weser-Ems Regional Fisheries Association has announced that these announcements are already backed by a specific funding application submitted to the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU). In a press release dated 4 September 2026, the association wrote: “According to the information available so far, the German Federal Environmental Foundation is to finance the preparatory work initially.” It remained unclear where the association had obtained this information, given that, by its own account, it had not been informed during the state’s fisheries dialogue. A enquiry made shortly afterwards by YACHT to the environment ministries of the three coastal federal states regarding the contents of the project application remained unanswered.

Over the past few days, there has been nationwide media coverage based on a dpa report. The Lower Saxony Ministry of the Environment had confirmed to the news agency that the DBU application existed. The media are unanimously reporting on the plans for marine rangers in the Wadden Sea. However, the project has a wider scope.

​The project: Larger than previously thought

YACHT has received a brief description of the project proposal. It is entitled: “Marine Rangers for an effective network of marine protected areas in the German North Sea and Baltic Sea."

The project, known as MaRa for short, therefore extends far beyond the Wadden Sea. The applicant is the “Stiftung Nationale Naturlandschaften” (National Nature Landscapes Foundation), a non-profit limited liability company, which submitted the application to the DBU in collaboration with the relevant protected area management bodies in the coastal states, the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation and the Eberswalde University for Sustainable Development. Since 2025, the DBU has had its own Marine Nature Conservation Fund, which provides around ten million euros annually. A funding decision for MaRa is expected this autumn. Planned project duration: 24 months; planned start date: January 2027.

What MaRa specifically envisages – and what it does not

According to the brief project description, the first phase does not involve the immediate establishment of a ranger service, but rather a conceptual and development phase. The initial step is to carry out a technical assessment to determine whether and how marine rangers could be usefully deployed, what tasks, qualifications and responsibilities they would have, and what organisational, legal and financial framework would need to be established for this purpose.

The document lists the following as possible tasks: managing protected areas, monitoring, environmental education, visitor management and communication with users of the marine environment.

During the concept phase, the aim is also to clarify which forms of cooperation with the fishing industry, nature conservation organisations, the tourism sector, water sports organisations and other stakeholders are both sensible and necessary. The exact form such cooperation might take remains to be seen. The end result should be a robust concept – not a ready-made implementation model.

What this means in legal terms

For sailors, one question is surely key: could marine rangers enforce regulations on water sports enthusiasts in future? Michael Stoldt, legal adviser to the German Sailing Association (DSV) and head of its Environment and Legal Affairs department, gives a clear answer in an interview with YACHT: no – at least not under the current legal framework.

The crucial issue is jurisdiction: the entire Wadden Sea is a federal waterway. The three coastal states cannot impose their own bans or restrictions on water sports enthusiasts in this area. Restrictions on navigation for nature conservation reasons can only be regulated by an order issued by the Federal Ministry of Transport in consultation with the Federal Ministry for the Environment. The ‘no-use zones’ publicly called for by Goldschmidt could not be established by the states on their own. This would require a request from the states to the federal government and a new navigation regulation from the Federal Ministry of Transport.

The rangers themselves are permitted to observe, document and inform the authorities – but under current legislation, they are not authorised to take official action, such as issuing fines for administrative offences.

​Furthermore, the management of protected areas and the rules governing navigation are two separate matters. For federal waterways in the Wadden Sea, the following applies: North Sea Navigation Regulations. It will not be altered by the Ranger project. In January 2026, the Federal Government also stated that a There are currently no plans to amend the regulation. For possible Navigation rules in the Baltic Sea protected areas The responsibilities relating to federal waterways must also be taken into account. This was pointed out by DSV legal adviser Michael Stoldt in the YACHT interview on protecting the Baltic Sea explained.

Voluntary measures rather than bans: a tried-and-tested model

In conversation, Stoldt recalls a model that has worked well in the Wadden Sea for many years: voluntary agreements between nature conservation authorities and water sports associations, which were established around the turn of the millennium when national park legislation was comprehensively overhauled. Compliance was high and breaches minimal – as confirmed by the National Park Authority at regular annual meetings. Stoldt considers the pressure on rangers to monitor boat traffic in the Wadden Sea to be low: “Anyone who sails there knows how quiet it actually is.”

However, the water sports federations and clubs have not yet been involved in the planning for MaRa. Stoldt therefore sets out a clear expectation: if specific structures relating to water sports are to be put in place, he hopes “that we will then be brought on board as well.”

​Why sailors on the Baltic Sea should also take a closer look

On the Baltic Sea coast of Schleswig-Holstein, the issue of management and visitor guidance in protected areas is not merely a theoretical one. Since March 2026, there have been three new marine nature reserves: between Geltinger Bay and the mouth of the Schleim, in the southern part of Hohwacht Bay and to the west of Fehmarn. These areas were identified in the Baltic Sea Protection Action Plan 2030, following the failure of plans for a Baltic Sea National Park.

It is not clear from the brief description whether the MaRa concept examines these three areas, other protected areas on the Baltic Sea, or, for the time being, merely explores opportunities for cooperation.

Fishermen feel they have been overlooked

The coastal fishing industry has reacted in a similar vein. In its press release of 4 September 2026, the Weser-Ems Regional Fisheries Association states that the project was “not even mentioned in passing” during the recently concluded fisheries dialogue in Lower Saxony. Association chairman Dirk Sander said: “We expect the state government to set out in full what plans exist for the coastal waters. A dialogue thrives on openness and trust. The fishing industry does not feel it has been kept informed on this matter.”

Behind this lies a disappointment in terms of economic policy: the ‘Fisheries 2025 Commission’, set up by the federal government, had recommended that coastal fisheries be more closely integrated into environmental monitoring tasks under the banner of ‘diversification’. Now, according to the association’s criticism, it is precisely these tasks that are to be assigned to a new state-run ranger service that is to be established.

As an alternative, fishermen and part-time fishermen in Lower Saxony are discussing a model based on the Sea Ranger scheme in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where, since autumn 2023, fishermen have been able to obtain an additional qualification as a marine ranger, enabling them to carry out monitoring and conservation tasks.

Lower Saxony’s Environment Minister Meyer is trying to broker a compromise: he told the dpa that the plan for marine rangers should also examine whether interested crab fishermen could be involved as qualified partners for nature exploration, seal-watching trips or mudflat walks.

What sailors need to know right now

For the next trip, the project plans will not change anything for the time being. In the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, the existing rules for the respective protected areas will continue to apply. What is changing is the political framework: what began in Cuxhaven in 2023 as the Wadden Sea Initiative has, by 2026, become a conceptual project for both of Germany’s coastal seas – with a timeframe extending well beyond the current parliamentary term. Whether this will actually result in ranger boats operating in the North Sea and the Baltic Sea, and what their duties and powers will be, will be decided in a process that is only just gaining momentum.

For sailors, a practical question arises as early as the conceptual phase: who will, in future, provide information on safety rules whilst on the water, document observations and liaise with the crews? The brief explicitly identifies water sports as a key stakeholder with whom potential forms of cooperation are to be developed. It remains to be seen whether and when water sports federations and clubs will take part in this process.

What tasks could Marine Rangers usefully take on in the Baltic Sea, and in which areas should water sports enthusiasts be involved in decision-making at an early stage?