An Alliance for Mediterranean whales and dolphins

Cetacean Alliance is a newly-born not-for-profit network of non-governmental organizations committed to preserving marine biodiversity and reducing human impact on cetacean populations in the Mediterranean Sea.

Its aim is to develop synergies and create opportunities for collaboration among individuals and organizations sharing a determination to protect these magnificent and vulnerable animals.

The network includes NGOs with bases in Argentina, Australia, Austria, Croatia, Germany, Greece, Italy, Slovenia, Spain, the UK and the US.

Visit the Cetacean Alliance web site

How sharks find their next meal

Ever wondered how marine animals find their next meal?

Apparently, the same way we do our shopping: we don't wander aimlessly but go down the road and, if we don't find what we want, make a couple of longer trips downtown. This special type of random motion is known as a Levy walk.

Ecologist David Sims of the Marine Biological Association laboratory in Plymouth, U.K., and collegues have found evidence of Levy walks analyzing more than a million dives of 31 large marine predators - including sharks, fish, sea turtles and penguins - as they apparently hunted for food.

The team also conducted computer simulations showing that if prey is scattered in the ocean, but concentrated in clumps, repeated short dives with an occasional much longer plunge would be the best strategy to find it.

This research was published today on Nature.
Sims D.W. et al. 2008. Scaling laws of marine predator search behaviour. Nature 451:1098-1103. doi:10.1038/nature06518

Eleonora de Sabata

Save the Mediterranean tuna

Tuna are vanishing, worldwide, due to unsustainable fishing pressure and short-sighted environmental management.

That tuna are collapsing is now perfectly clear. It has been repeated by a number of scientists and experts, and even by fishermen. So, it’s time for us to act. If you want to change the situation, there is something you can do.

If you don’t buy tuna, you give to this amazing species a chance of survival. Take action now: stop consuming tuna, and recommend to your friends to do the same.

Silvia Bonizzoni / Tethys Research Institute
(Drawing by Massimo Demma)

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For more information:
www.wildlifeextra.com
www.panda.org
environment.newscientist.com

All About Dolphins

A booklet providing information about dolphins, their daily lives and the threats they face. For school children, teachers and parents.

Information is delivered through interactive exercises and games, making the manual suitable for use in the classroom and during leisure time.

Produced in eight languages (Arabic / English / Italian / French / German / Greek / Spanish / Turkish) and available for free download.

Go to the booklet's web page

Our Friends the Dolphins

An educational colouring book for children featuring dolphins, the threats affecting them, and ways to protect them.

The booklet can be viewed online at different sizes and can be freely downloaded.

Available in five languages (English / Italian / French / German / Greek).

Go to the booklet's web site

Sanctuaries of the Sea

Sanctuaries of the Sea - Are Marine Protected Areas for Cetaceans a Solution? explores whether whales, dolphins and porpoises can be the catalyst in protecting marine biodiversity in this ancient sea.

earthOCEAN interviews Erich Hoyt of WDCS, and Ana Canadas and Ric Sagarminaga of Alnitak.

Disappearing Dolphins

Disappearing Dolphins features the efforts of Tethys researchers to study and protect dolphins in western Greece. Common dolphins were once abundant throughout the Mediterranean Sea.

Today they are declining rapidly, surviving only in portions of their former range. In western Greece, the sea around the island of Kalamos is their last stronghold, or at least it used to be...

Fishy Business

Fishy Business documents the illegal driftnet fishery. Despite a world-wide ban by the United Nations in 1992 and by the European Union in 2002, the driftnet fishery continues illegally throughout the Mediterranean Sea.

Driftnets are banned because they take large quantities of unwanted catch, called bycatch, putting populations of migratory fish, sea turtles and cetaceans at risk.

The Sperm Whales of Greece

The Sperm Whales of Greece - Life in the Trenches documents a scientific expedition through Greece in search of the elusive and endangered Mediterranean sperm whale.

earthOCEAN joins Alexandros Frantzis of Pelagos on a journey into the deepest trenches of the Mediterranean.

Victoria, a rehabilitated monk seal pup, released back into the Aegean Sea

MOm, the Hellenic Society for the Study and the Protection of the Mediterranean Monk Seal, is celebrating its 20th year of activities with the release today of Victoria, the 16th seal pup the organisation has rehabilitated since it began operating. With only 300-400 monk seals still existing in the Mediterranean, most of which in Greek waters, the survival of each individual is of greatest conservation importance.

Victoria was named after a lady who in October 2007 braved the rough seas near the Greek island of Tinos to rescue the seal pup, hours after she was born. When found, Victoria weighed just 15 kg, was malnourished and suffered from serious injuries. Having been treated for four months at MOm’s monk seal hospital, located on the island of Alonissos, she fully recovered and was taught the skills needed to survive on her own in the open sea.

At the time of her release in the waters of the National Marine Park of Alonissos - the world’s largest and most important Mediterranean monk seal sanctuary - Victoria now weighs more than 50 kg and is quite capable to hunt for her prey. To keep track of her movements and conditions, Victoria carries with her a special transmitter developed in cooperation with scientists from the Sea Mammal Research Unit in Scotland. This will transmit to MOm via SMS constant information on the seal’s whereabouts, depth of dives, time spent in and out of the water and swimming speed.

Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara

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Photograph by Vangelis Paravas, MOm

For more information
MOm, the Hellenic Society for the Study and the Protection of the Mediterranean Monk Seal

Cetacean Investigation

Cetacean Investigation is a series of documentary programmes produced by earthOCEAN combining the collective wisdom of scientists and conservationists with a remarkable range of expertise and perspectives.

Cetacean Investigation includes the series Whales of the Mediterranean Sea - five documentaries that examine the ecology of cetaceans in the region, while exploring the causes of increasing pressures on their populations and habitats.

Four marine protected areas added to the SPAMI List

During their last meeting in Almeria, Spain (15-18 Jan. 2008), the Parties to the Barcelona Convention adopted the inclusion of four marine protected areas (MPAs) from Italy in the List of Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMI): Miramare, Plemmirio, Tavolara–Punta Coda Cavallo, and Torre Guaceto. These four now join the Pelagos Sanctuary and 16 coastal MPAs from France, Italy, Spain and Tunisia, bringing to a total of 21 the SPAMI List, and significantly contributing to a greater geographical balance for the protected area system within the Barcelona network. Hopefully this development will provide a further stimulus to eastern and southern Mediterranean nations to establish MPAs in their waters to be proposed as further SPAMIs in the near future, thus completing the geographical balancing process.

(photograph: Tavolara, from www.parks.it)

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For more information: www.rac-spa.org

How does one become a cetacean researcher?

My suggestion is to come up with reasonably clear ideas about what you want to do, where and how. Ideally, one should aim to something felt as important, and also feasible based on one’s skills and existing opportunities.

I started working on cetaceans by volunteering on board oceanographic research vessels - looking for dorsal fins and flukes during the day and working in the wet lab during the night. Then I used my father’s small inflatable boat to start a study on dolphins around Losinj, Croatia. Eventually, this became the longest-running study of bottlenose dolphins in the Mediterranean.

Don’t miss opportunities to make experience. You may try to participate in some field or lab activity, doing work as close to your interests as possible to gain practical experience on that particular subject. Find out what is the area where you do particularly well (this may include lab work, photography, statistics or even management, environmental policy, public awareness). If you ‘feel good’ doing something and have a sense of being ‘at home’ whenever you do that, then you may have found your own specialty. Go for it, and try to develop a specific project or an interesting proposal to motivate other people and attract funding.

Do not rely too much on letters and CVs. Try to meet the relevant people in person, at their offices or even in the field. Attend marine mammal and marine conservation conferences, visit various institutes and NGOs. Show that your choice of working with a person or organization is motivated and based on some kind of ‘affinity’.

Courses organized by the Tethys Research Institute can be a reasonable first step for gaining basic experience, knowing how you feel on a boat or at a field station, chat with researchers and possibly identify your areas of interest. You may consider trying different experiences and research groups before deciding what works best for you. In any case, do not put everything in somebody else’s hands: the choice should be yours.

As a general rule, you have better chances of success if you do something based on enthusiasm and passion, and you do not lose sight of your goals along the way.

Giovanni Bearzi

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Useful link:
SMM - Strategies for Pursuing a Career in Marine Mammal Science

One day of dolphin research in the field

In a recent interview for a Swiss magazine, I was asked to describe a typical day of a dolphin researcher on site.

In my experience, this involves waking up early in the morning, rushing to the research boat after having checked and set up all the equipment, spending hours scanning the sea surface in search for dorsal fins. Sometimes dolphins will be found and sometimes not, but you know that you will come back with useful data that help explaining what is going on out there.

And then spending the rest of the day entering data, lecturing to volunteers, training the assistants, discussing and solving personal issues that are inevitable when one shares the same roof with colleagues and students, fixing boats, engines and computers that never stop making trouble, refilling the fuel tanks, buying stuff at the supermarket (if one exists), running, running, running.

On some days you will have a good time over dinner, but on other occasions you may be forced to share the table with people who have little in common with you. Ups and downs, moments of glory and moments of deep frustration. Now enjoying a moment of peace with dolphins all around the boat, and then fixing a leaking toilet in a hell-like summer heat. But always having a sense of living your life at full speed, not wasting a minute, and being fully engaged in something that has a meaning.

To me, what gives a sense to this kind of hectic life in the field is the feeling that you are contributing to an attempt to preserve wildlife. If one loses track of this fundamental goal, life as a field researcher does no longer make sense. You are paid little money to work a lot and take care of a number of logistical, relational and other problems that do not look like research at all.

Therefore, it is important to realize that conservation-oriented research needs people who are equally determined and capable of recording good behavioural data during a dolphin sighting, talking to the mechanic about that weird noise made by the engine, transcribing the contract for the renting of the field station, or moping the floor. All that is equally important, and nobody is allowed to sign off the most miserable of duties.

Giovanni Bearzi

Marine Conservation on Paper? An urgent call for action to protect cetaceans

(a statement presented at the 3rd Meeting of the Parties to ACCOBAMS, October 25th, 2007)


We, the undersigned institutions and non-governmental organisations (NGOs), note that despite the positive intent of the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS) and the commitment of ACCOBAMS Parties demonstrated through many Resolutions, Recommendations at previous and in particular at this 3rd Meeting of the Parties, an equivalent degree of essential, tangible conservation activity has not yet taken place.

We are conscious and appreciative of the significant depth of work that has been developed for the Parties by the Scientific Committee of ACCOBAMS in order for them to mitigate threats to cetaceans. We also recognise that several Parties have made progress in implementing Resolutions and some ambitious decisions have been made and Resolutions adopted at this MOP3 of which we highly appreciate. However, although recognizing the overall will by Parties to improve the protection and conservation status of cetaceans in the Agreement area, we wish to express a strong call for action, recognizing that a slow response in implementing decisions and conservation measures would mean the objectives of the Agreement will not be reached.

We note in particular the following concerns:

1. the critically endangered, endangered, or vulnerable status of most cetacean populations in the Mediterranean and Black Seas (as recognized in Resolution 3.9)

2. the continued use of driftnets in part of the Agreement area, causing an unacceptable level of cetacean bycatch and a destructive impact on marine ecosystems in general, including in the PELAGOS Sanctuary

3. the continuation of the employment of non-selective fishing methods, the growing intensity of fishing, and the widespread impact of over-fishing leading to ecosystem damage and depletion of cetacean prey

4. the continued lack of implementation of appropriate mitigation measures to reduce underwater noise.

We therefore urge all Parties to take immediate and concrete action to fully meet their commitments under ACCOBAMS and thereby ensure the survival of cetacean populations within the Agreement area.

Signed on October 25th, 2007, by:

WDCS, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW)
OceanCare
Delphis
Oceana Europe
Morigenos – Marine Mammal Research and Conservation Society
Animal Friends, Croatia
Blue World Marine Institute for Research and Conservation
Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC)
WWF Med PO

Mediterranean Coastal Dolphins

A short video on the decline of coastal dolphins in the Mediterranean Sea, produced in 2004.

Watch the video online

DolphinPeople

A story featuring the work of three enthusiastic and dedicated researchers who study coastal dolphins in western Greece.

The video highlights the importance of personal commitment to protect endangered marine mammal populations.

DolphinPeople was filmed in western Greece between 2001-2003.

Watch the video online

The Story of Stuff

From its extraction through sale, use and disposal, all the stuff in our lives affects communities at home and abroad, yet most of this is hidden from view.

The Story of Stuff is a 20-minute, fast-paced, fact-filled look at the underside of our production and consumption patterns. The Story of Stuff exposes the connections between a huge number of environmental and social issues, and calls for a more sustainable and just world.

This video is not related to Mediterranean conservation... or is it? Aren't many of the problems affecting the oceans also a result of our patterns of consumption and unsustainable daily habits?

In any case, The Story of Stuff is likely to teach you something, and it may change the way you look at all the stuff in your life.

Watch The Story of Stuff

What can be done, so that Mediterranean common dolphins will survive?

(This is a portion of an interview on the decline of Mediterranean common dolphins)


A number of management actions are likely to benefit dolphins and the marine environment. Marine Protected Areas, fishery reserves (areas closed to fishing), strict enforcement of the existing laws (much of the fishing out there is illegal), to name just a few.

However, we should avoid just blaming the governments and seeing ecosystem destruction exclusively as the result of somebody else’s choices and activities.

We are partly responsible, too. As voters, in the first place. At the last political elections have we voted ‘with our wallet’, or have we attempted to shift the centre of gravity towards a more sensible environmental policy? Have we ever tried to reduce our own consumption rates, recycle, and make our lives a little more sustainable? Ultimately, the ongoing lack of respect towards the marine environment results from our collective desires and demands. People who never consider taking a train instead of an airplane, or walking instead of driving, should consider that a link might exist between their own behaviour and air pollution, or even climate change. Those who enjoy eating swordfish and tuna may want to think about the implications for the marine environment.

Whilst there are practical and feasible actions that could stop the decline of coastal dolphins in some areas, I think that we should realize that damage to the marine environment is also - at least in part - a result of our life styles and habits. Changing our own behaviour and giving up something felt as desirable can be as pleasant, and even more fulfilling, than increasing our consumption rates. The reward consists in knowing that we are part of the solution, rather than part of the problem. We do not only blame others for declining biodiversity and beauty all around us. We are actually doing our best to protect the things we treasure, and we enact consistent behaviour. Our choices might even influence those of others and eventually develop into new behavioural trends.

Giovanni Bearzi

The decline of common dolphins around Kalamos, Greece

Seeing common dolphins bowriding and surrounding our research boat from all sides was a frequent event around the island of Kalamos. When I first moved to study dolphins in western Greece, back in 1996, these magnificent marine mammals were so abundant that one could frequently spot them from the coast, or even from the patio of our field station. 



Tuna and swordfish were equally abundant, and from a distance it was sometimes difficult to tell a school of foraging tuna from a group of foraging common dolphins, as both animals performed a similar behaviour when catching anchovies and sardines near the surface. The sea was full of life, and navigating those waters was an endless source of wonder and excitement for pleasure boaters and researchers alike. The situation was so special that the area, one of the few in the central Mediterranean containing key common dolphin habitat, was declared a EC Site of Community Importance. This designation was expected to result in a commitment to protect the local resources and prevent habitat degradation. 



However, only a few years later common dolphins around Kalamos had become a rare sight. Tuna and swordfish also vanished. What caused such a quick decline of high-order marine predators in this portion of the eastern Ionian Sea? 

Was it pollution? Collisions with speedboats? Intentional killings? Interactions with fisheries? Pathogens? 



More than a decade of intensive research at sea and much data analyses done by personnel from the Tethys Research Institute suggest that the main cause of common dolphin decline is overfishing of their prey. Purse seine nets, in particular, seem to be responsible for the local overexploitation and depletion of epipelagic stocks of sardines, anchovies and other fish that make the daily diet of common dolphins, tuna and swordfish.

Prey depletion has been so intensive and continuous that large marine predators such as common dolphins can no longer find easy prey. 

To face scarcity of food, common dolphins started dispersing and roving. Their formerly large groups broke up into smaller units, which became increasingly sparse. Between 1997 and 2007, common dolphins declined from about 150 to only 15 animals, possibly as a result of reduced reproductive success and increased mortality in an area that - as far as prey availability was concerned - had turned from paradise to hell. 



Problems caused by prey scarcity summed up to entanglement and mortality in fishing gear, as documented by dead dolphins found stranded or adrift and showing amputations. Today, only a few common dolphins can still be found in the area, and this brings a feeling of sadness to those who have seen them thriving until only a few years ago. 



The decline of common dolphins in the area of Kalamos flashes a red light for the conservation of the Mediterranean population. Once one of the most common cetacean species in the Mediterranean, common dolphins have declined throughout the region during the last 30-40 years. Conservation problems for the species have been recognised since the 1970s, but at that time there was little information about cause-effect relationships, as few were recording information at sea about population status and threats. After the turn of the century, however, threats affecting the animals became progressively clear. These basically included incidental mortality in fishing gear (also known as “bycatch”), habitat degradation and prey depletion caused by overfishing. 



In 2003 the Mediterranean population of common dolphins was classified as Endangered in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. In 2004, ACCOBAMS - the UNEP's Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic Area - presented a comprehensive 90-page Conservation Plan for Mediterranean common dolphins, providing a detailed description of actions needed to protect the animals. Finally, in 2005 the Mediterranean population of common dolphins was included in Appendix I of the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species (CMS) as a consequence of their threatened status.



Have all these institutional steps contributed to making life easier for Mediterranean common dolphins? So far, they apparently haven’t. Despite all the expressions of concern, recommendations, strategic planning and scientific background produced, no relevant action has been taken that may result in common dolphin recovery in the region. Sadly, the threats which are thought to be causing decline are continuing to jeopardise the survival of relict groups such as those found around Kalamos, and the Mediterranean population at large.



Scientific research, conservation action plans and declarations of intents by the concerned Governments do not seem to suffice to reverse the present trends. Much public awareness actions, and attempts to define and communicate practical solutions to local problems are also essential. 



Giovanni Bearzi
 / Tethys Research Institute

More about the decline of common dolphins around Kalamos, Greece

We'll keep fishing endagered sharks in 2008

The European Union Council of Ministers has issued the Total Allowable Catch (TAC) quota for fishing in 2008.

The International Council for Exploration of the Sea (ICES) scientists, who offer advice for the TAC setting process, have repeatedly advised that the depletion of European spiny dogfish and porbeagle shark populations is so severe that fishing should no longer be allowed. And yet, catch quotas were issued for these two Critically Endangered species.

The TAC for the porbeagle shark - a large, migratory species - was increased to 581 metric tons from the 422t proposed by the Commission. While this first-ever porbeagle limit is, as such, a step forward, it was set roughly on a par with recent landings and is far in excess of the scientific advice for no fishing.

TACs for spiny dogfish - a small, migratory species - reflect only a 25% reduction in catch, as proposed by the Commission, even though ICES has warned of population collapse and advised zero take of the species. Spiny dogfish meat is sold as fish and chips in the UK and as smoked belly flaps in Germany; filets are eaten in other EU countries including Belgium, France, and Italy.

Concern for these species prompted the EU to propose listing both species under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) in June.

Eleonora de Sabata

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For more information, please see the Shark Alliance press release

The most dangerous sea on earth for sharks and rays

42% of shark and ray species in the Mediterranean are threatened with extinction, according to a new report from the IUCN – World Conservation Union. The region has the highest percentage of threatened sharks and rays in the world.

Overfishing, including bycatch, is the main cause of decline; habitat degradation, recreational fisheries and other human disturbances are also significant. Bottom dwelling species appear to be at greatest risk in this region, due mainly to intense fishing of the seabed.

These are the findings of an expert workshop at which 71 Mediterranean species of sharks, rays and chimaeras (cartilaginous fishes) were assessed using IUCN Red List categories and criteria. Participants deemed 30 species as threatened with extinction, of which 13 are classified at the highest threat level of Critically Endangered, eight as Endangered and nine as Vulnerable. Another 13 species were assessed as Near Threatened, while a lack of information led to 18 species being classified as Data Deficient. Only 10 species are considered to be of Least Concern.

Eleonora de Sabata

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For more information:
Cavanagh, Rachel D. and Gibson, Claudine. 2007. Overview of the Conservation Status of Cartilaginous Fishes (Chondrichtyans) in the Mediterranean Sea. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Malaga, Spain. vi + 42 pp.

What is Mediterranean Conservation?

Mediterranean Conservation explores the possibility of merging the communication efforts of individuals committed to marine conservation in the ancient Tethys Ocean.