Our Mission The Commission was created early in the last century to promote international research in the Mediterranean and the Black Seas. CIESM represents a rare forum for the exchange of ideas and scientific findings across a particularly sensitive, often conflictual region. In service to science, the Commission organizes Congresses, international research workshops, and synthesizes the latest scientific knowledge in the form of authoritative Monographs and Marine Policy Reports. In this way it is able to deliver independent, impartial advice on a large number of emerging issues (see activity map). In service to society, the Commission maintains a scientific watch over key indicators of change, such as warming trends in deep waters, the invasion of tropical species, or the disappearance of sharks and seabirds.