11 research outputs found
New Mediterranean biodiversity records (March 2016)
In this Collective Article on âNew Mediterranean Biodiversity Recordsâ, we present additional records of species found
in the Mediterranean Sea. These records refer to eight different countries mainly throughout the northern part of the basin, and
include 28 species, belonging to five Phyla. The findings per country include the following species: Spain: Callinectes sapidus
and Chelidonura fulvipunctata; Monaco: Aplysia dactylomela; Italy: Charybdis (Charybdis) feriata, Carcharodon carcharias,
Seriola fasciata, and Siganus rivulatus; Malta: Pomacanthus asfur; Croatia: Lagocephalus sceleratus and Pomadasys incisus;
Montenegro: Lagocephalus sceleratus; Greece: Amathia (Zoobotryon) verticillata, Atys macandrewii, Cerithium scabridum,
Chama pacifica, Dendostrea cf. folium, Ergalatax junionae, Septifer cumingii, Syphonota geographica, Syrnola fasciata, Oxyu-
richthys petersi, Scarus ghobban, Scorpaena maderensis, Solea aegyptiaca and Upeneus pori; Turkey: Lobotes surinamensis,
Ruvettus pretiosus and Ophiocten abyssicolum. In the current article, the presence of Taractes rubescens (Jordan & Evermann,
1887) is recorded for the first time in the Mediterranean from Italy. The great contribution of citizen scientists in monitoring
biodiversity records is reflected herein, as 10% of the authors are citizen scientists, and contributed 37.5% of the new findings.peer-reviewe
Estimating Trends of Population Decline in Long-Lived Marine Species in the Mediterranean Sea Based on Fishers' Perceptions
We conducted interviews of a representative sample of 106 retired fishers in Italy, Spain and Greece, asking specific questions about the trends they perceived in dolphin and shark abundances between 1940 and 1999 (in three 20 year periods) compared to the present abundance. The large marine fauna studied were not target species of the commercial fleet segment interviewed (trawl fishery). The fishers were asked to rank the perceived abundance in each period into qualitative ordinal classes based on two indicators: frequency of sightings and frequency of catches (incidental or intentional) of each taxonomic group. The statistical analysis of the survey results showed that both incidental catches and the sighting frequency of dolphins have decreased significantly over the 60+ years of the study period (except for in Greece due to the recent population increase). This shows that fishers' perceptions are in agreement with the declining population trends detected by scientists. Shark catches were also perceived to have diminished since the early 1940s for all species. Other long-lived Mediterranean marine fauna (monk seals, whales) were at very low levels in the second half of the 20th century and no quantitative data could be obtained. Our study supports the results obtained in the Mediterranean and other seas that show the rapid disappearance (over a few decades) of marine fauna. We show that appropriately designed questionnaires help provide a picture of animal abundance in the past through the valuable perceptions of fishers. This information can be used to complement scientific sources or in some cases be taken as the only information source for establishing population trends in the abundance of sensitive species
A MSFD complementary approach for the assessment of pressures, knowledge and data gaps in Southern European Seas : the PERSEUS experience
PERSEUS project aims to identify the most relevant pressures exerted on the ecosystems of the Southern
European Seas (SES), highlighting knowledge and data gaps that endanger the achievement of SES Good
Environmental Status (GES) as mandated by the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). A complementary
approach has been adopted, by a meta-analysis of existing literature on pressure/impact/knowledge
gaps summarized in tables related to the MSFD descriptors, discriminating open waters from coastal
areas. A comparative assessment of the Initial Assessments (IAs) for five SES countries has been also
independently performed. The comparison between meta-analysis results and IAs shows similarities
for coastal areas only. Major knowledge gaps have been detected for the biodiversity, marine food
web, marine litter and underwater noise descriptors. The meta-analysis also allowed the identification
of additional research themes targeting research topics that are requested to the achievement of GES.
2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY license.peer-reviewe
Bottom trawl fishing footprints on the worldâs continental shelves
Publication history: Accepted - 23 August 2018; Published online - 8 October 2018.Bottom trawlers land around 19 million tons of fish and invertebrates
annually, almost one-quarter of wild marine landings. The extent of
bottom trawling footprint (seabed area trawled at least once in a
specified region and time period) is often contested but poorly
described. We quantify footprints using high-resolution satellite vessel
monitoring system (VMS) and logbook data on 24 continental shelves
and slopes to 1,000-m depth over at least 2 years. Trawling footprint
varied markedly among regions: from <10% of seabed area in Australian
and New Zealand waters, the Aleutian Islands, East Bering Sea,
South Chile, and Gulf of Alaska to >50% in some European seas.
Overall, 14% of the 7.8 million-km2 study area was trawled, and
86% was not trawled. Trawling activity was aggregated; the most
intensively trawled areas accounting for 90% of activity comprised
77% of footprint on average. Regional swept area ratio (SAR; ratio
of total swept area trawled annually to total area of region, a metric
of trawling intensity) and footprint area were related, providing an
approach to estimate regional trawling footprints when highresolution
spatial data are unavailable. If SAR was â€0.1, as in 8 of
24 regions, therewas >95% probability that >90%of seabed was not
trawled. If SAR was 7.9, equal to the highest SAR recorded, there
was >95% probability that >70% of seabed was trawled. Footprints
were smaller and SAR was â€0.25 in regions where fishing rates consistently
met international sustainability benchmarks for fish stocks,
implying collateral environmental benefits from sustainable fishing.Funding for meetings of the study group and salary
support for R.O.A. were provided by the following: David and Lucile Packard
Foundation; the Walton Family Foundation; the Alaska Seafood Cooperative;
American Seafoods Group US; Blumar Seafoods Denmark; Clearwater Seafoods
Inc.; Espersen Group; Glacier Fish Company LLC US; Gortons Seafood; Independent
Fisheries Limited N.Z.; Nippon Suisan (USA), Inc.; Pesca Chile S.A.;
Pacific Andes International Holdings, Ltd.; San Arawa, S.A.; Sanford Ltd. N.Z.;
Sealord Group Ltd. N.Z.; South African Trawling Association; Trident Seafoods;
and the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations. Additional
funding to individual authors was provided by European Union Project
BENTHIS EU-FP7 312088 (to A.D.R., O.R.E., F.B., N.T.H., L.B.-M., R.C., H.O.F.,
H.G., J.G.H., P.J., S.K., M.L., G.G.-M., N.P., P.E.P., T.R., A.S., B.V., and M.J.K.); the
Instituto PortuguĂȘs do Mar e da Atmosfera, Portugal (C.S.); the International
Council for the Exploration of the Sea Science Fund (R.O.A. and K.M.H.); the
Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (C.R.P. and
T.M.); the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (R.A.M.); New
Zealand Ministry for Primary Industries Projects BEN2012/01 and DAE2010/
04D (to S.J.B. and R.F.); the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University
of Tasmania and the Department of Primary Industries, Parks, Water and
Environment, Tasmania, Australia (J.M.S.); and UK Department of Environment,
Food and Rural Affairs Project MF1225 (to S.J.)
IMAS-Fish: Integrated MAnagement System to support the sustainability of Greek Fisheries resources. A multidisciplinary web-based database management system: implementation, capabilities, utilization and future prospects for fisheries stakeholders
The Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR) holds a significant amount of scientific data covering various disciplines of the marine environment in the Greek Seas. The Institute of Marine Biological Resources (IMBR/HCMR) endeavors to assess the fishery resources by undertaking fishery independent experimental surveys, as well as monitoring the commercial fisheries activities with on-board observers. However, accession to these data and furthermore compatibility of the available formats was a complicated task, since data were either stored on a local intranet database or on many individual PCs . âIMAS-Fishâ was developed to overcome these issues by: (i) homogenizing all the available datasets under a relational database, (ii) facilitating quality control and data entry, (iii) offering easy access to raw data, (iv) providing processed results through a series of classical and advanced fishery statistics algorithms, and (v) visualizing the results on maps using GIS technology. Available datasets cover among others: Fishery independent experimental surveys data (locations, species, catch compositions, biological data); Commercial fishing activities (fishing gear, locations, catch compositions, discards); Market sampling data (species, biometry, maturity, ageing); Satellite derived ocean data (Sea surface temperature, Salinity, Wind speed, Chlorophyll-a concentrations, Photosynthetically active radiation); Oceanographic parameters (CTD measurements); Official national fishery statistics; Fishing fleet registry and VMS data; Fishing ports inventory; Fishing legislation archive (national and EU); Bathymetry grids. Currently, the homogenized database holds a total of more than 100,000,000 records. The web-based application is accessible through an internet browser and can serve as a valuable tool for all involved stakeholders: fisheries scientists, state officials responsible for management, fishermen cooperatives, academics, students and NGOs . This article describes in detail the IMAS-Fish implementation technicalities and provides examples on how can it be used for scientific and management purposes setting new standards in fishery science.JRC.G.4-Maritime affair
Ecological mapping and data quality assessment for the needs of ecosystem-based marine spatial management: case study Greek Ionian Sea and the adjacent gulfs
Mapping of ecosystem components (natural and socioeconomic) is a prerequisite for ecosystem-based marine spatial management
(EB-MSM). To initiate the process of EB-MSM in the Greek Ionian Sea and the adjacent gulfs, the main relevant ecosystem
components were mapped based on existing spatial information and expert judgment. The natural components mapped included
habitat types and species targeted for conservation, according to national and European legislation and international agreements.
Main human activities/pressures related to fisheries, aquaculture, tourism, and industry were also mapped. In order to assess the
quality of data used to map ecosystem components and therefore take into consideration the inherent uncertainty, an assessment
of 5 semi-quantitative data indicators based on a pedigree matrix was conducted. Through this qualitative approach we gained
information related to the sources, acquisition and verification procedures, statistical properties, and temporal & geographical
correlation, along with the collection process quality of the ecosystem components under study. A substantial overlapping between
ecological features and human activities was identified, confirming the need for a well-planned approach to marine space management,
in order to mitigate conflicts for marine resources and conserve marine ecosystems and their associated goods and services.JRC.H.1-Water Resource
Large-scale distribution of deep-sea megafauna community along Mediterranean trawlable grounds
The large-scale distribution pattern of megafauna communities along the Mediterranean middle slope was explored. The study was conducted between 500 and 800 m depth where deep-water fishery occurs. Although community
studies carried out deeper than 500 m are partly available for some geographic areas, few large-scale comparative studies
have been carried out. Within the framework of the MEDITS survey programme, we compared the megafauna community
structure in ten geographical sub-areas (GSAs) along the Mediterranean coasts. Additionally, the spatial distribution of fishing was analysed using vessel monitoring by satellite information. Overall, the community showed a significant difference
between sub-areas, with a decreasing eastward pattern in abundance and biomass. Longitude was the main factor explaining
variation among sub-areas (by generalized additive models). However, we found a region which did not follow the general
pattern. GSA 6 (northern Spain) showed significantly lower abundance and a different composition structure to the adjacent
areas. The decrease in community descriptors (i.e. abundance and biomass) in this area is probably a symptom of population changes induced by intense fishery exploitation. Overall, a combination of environmental variables and human-induced
impacts appears to influence the bentho-pelagic communities along the slope areas of the Mediterranea
Size-dependent survival of European hake juveniles in the Mediterranean Sea.
Most studies on European hake focus on the recruitment process and nursery areas, whereas the information is
comparatively limited on the ecology of the juvenile stage (ca. second year of life)âthe one most exploited by the Mediterranean trawl fisheries. Using information of the MEDITS programme, we provide a spatial and temporal assessment of
the influence of body size and growth on hake survival from recruits (age 0) to juveniles (age 1), along with the impact of
surface temperature and chlorophyll variability. At a biogeographic scale, size-dependent survival is supported, with areas
with higher mean length of recruits and juveniles yielding higher survival. A similar pattern was observed at interannual level in some western Mediterranean areas, also mediated by a density-dependent effect on growth. However, the most recurrent
inter-annual pattern was a negative effect of size on survival, which could be attributed to potential ontogenetic changes in
catchability and underrepresentation of intra-annual recruitment pulses that are seasonally inaccessible to the MEDITS sur- vey. Results also evidence that survival in the Alboran and Adriatic seas is dependent on the primary production variability,
and that Corsica and Sardinia could be potential feeding grounds receiving juveniles from neighbouring areas. The present
study reveals the importance of size- and growth-dependent survival in the juvenile stage of European hake in the Mediter- ranean Sea