From sea monsters to charismatic megafauna: changes in perception and use of large marine animals

Marine megafauna has always elicited contrasting feelings. In the past, large marine animals were often depicted as fantastic mythological creatures and dangerous monsters, while also arousing human curiosity. Marine megafauna has been a valuable resource to exploit, leading to the collapse of populations and local extinctions. In addition, some species have been perceived as competitors of fishers for marine resources and were often actively culled. Since the 1970s, there has been a change in the perception and use of megafauna. The growth of marine tourism, increasingly oriented towards the observation of wildlife, has driven a shift from extractive to non-extractive use, supporting the conservation of at least some species of marine megafauna. In this paper, we review and compare the changes in the perception and use of three megafaunal groups, cetaceans, elasmobranchs and groupers, with a special focus on European cultures. We highlight the main drivers and the timing of these changes, compare different taxonomic groups and species, and highlight the implications for management and conservation. One of the main drivers of the shift in perception, shared by all the three groups of megafauna, has been a general increase in curiosity towards wildlife, stimulated inter alia by documentaries (from the early 1970s onwards), and also promoted by easy access to scuba diving. At the same time, environmental campaigns have been developed to raise public awareness regarding marine wildlife, especially cetaceans, a process greatly facilitated by the rise of Internet and the World Wide Web. Currently, all the three groups (cetaceans, elasmobranchs and groupers) may represent valuable resources for ecotourism. Strikingly, the economic value of live specimens may exceed their value for human consumption. A further change in perception involving all the three groups is related to a growing understanding and appreciation of their key ecological role. The shift from extractive to non-extractive use has the potential for promoting species conservation and local economic growth. However, the change in use may not benefit the original stakeholders (e.g. fishers or whalers) and there may therefore be a case for providing compensation for disadvantaged stakeholders. Moreover, it is increasingly clear that even non-extractive use may have a negative impact on marine megafauna, therefore regulations are needed.SFRH/BPD/102494/2014, UID/MAR/04292/2019, IS1403info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Raising awareness about the consequences of human activities on natural environments through multisensory augmented reality: Amazon rainforest and coral reef interactive experiences

Cultural and educational institutions have been subjected to important changes in the approach they use to involve the public in the last years. For example, museums are more and more playing a pedagogical role, referring not only to exhibitions of pieces of art, but also to exhibitions concerning current topics in cultural and social affairs. Storytelling and interaction are two of the most popular methods used to make exhibitions more interesting for the visitors, and many works have demonstrated that Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality technologies can be effectively used to support these approaches in the context of museum exhibitions. This paper presents a research work aimed to design and develop an interactive multisensory AR application (based on sight, hearing, and olfaction senses), which can be used for improving the users' engagement in exhibitions and generate awareness about the dramatic outcomes of pollution on the environment. Specifically, the paper describes a case study of multisensory Augmented Reality interactive experiences concerning the negative effects of human activities on natural environments

Nuovi dati sulla presenza e distribuzione della fauna ittica d'acqua dolce in Italia

Grazie al contributo di alcune importanti ricerche, si sono recentemente aggiunte nuove informazioni che hanno permesso di aggiornare lo stato delle conoscenze sulla fauna ittica d’acqua dolce italiana. Ciò ha consentito di dirimere alcune importanti questioni ancora non del tutto chiarite, sia per quanto riguarda gli aspetti zoogeografici sia per quanto riguarda il punto di vista tassonomico e nomenclaturale. Sono state ampliate le conoscenze di base attraverso l'acquisizione di nuovi dati riportati sia in recenti pubblicazioni su riviste peer rewieved, sia dalla "letteratura grigia". Molto lavoro rimane ancora da fare, perché ampie sono le lacune conoscitive ancora esistenti. L’obiettivo del presente contributo è quello di aggiornare l’elenco delle specie introdotte, migliorare le informazioni sulle specie presenti in Italia e individuare gli aspetti relativi alla fauna ittica d’acqua dolce italiana allo stato attuale ancora controversi, sui quali occorre concentrare gli sforzi di future ricerche. Attraverso tale lavoro di revisione e il dibattito che ne conseguirà, internamente ed esternamente al Gruppo di Lavoro sulla Sistematica e nomenclatura dell’A.I.I.A.D., sarà possibile proporre una nuova versione della Checklist dell’ittiofauna italiana che migliori quella attuale (ver. 3.0