State of the Med: the UNEP 2009 report

The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Mediterranean Action Plan (MAP) and its Regional Activity Centres have released the first State of the Environment and Development report covering the Mediterranean region, which tackles key environmental issues, including climate change. The “State of the Environment and Development in the Mediterranean 2009″ was released during the 16th Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention, which took place from 3-5 November 2009, in Marrakech, Morocco.

The report is a pilot exercise, based on available sources of information and covers the 21 countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. It finds that climate change is already occurring in the region and forecasts that it will lead to, inter alia, a decline in rainfall, increased periods of droughts and rises in sea-level. The report also identifies the most vulnerable Mediterranean zones and states that climate change will also affect agriculture and fishing, the attractiveness of tourism, coastal zones and infrastructure, and public health.

---

The Report

Where have all the sharks gone?

Several species of sharks in the Med have almost disappeared, their numbers 97% below what they were 200 years ago.

This is the scary figure that emerges from a new research (Loss of large predatory sharks in the Mediterranean), founded in part by the Lenfest Ocean Program, just published on Conservation Biology.

Fishing (both direct and by catch), coastal degradation and lack of management, coupled with the life history of sharks (who grow slowly, mature late and produce few young) caused this massive loss.

Blue, thresher, mako, porbeagle and hammerhead sharks have almost totally vanished in catch records from all sorts of different sources (tuna traps records, coast guard, fishing market, recreational fishing tournaments data) over the years, the authors found.

The consequences on the ecosystem of losing these key players is still poorly understood, as populations of other fish and invertebrates shift in unpredictable ways. But the extent of this collapse "may hold serious implications for the entire marine ecosystem, greatly affecting food webs throughout this region,” said the lead author of the study, Francesco Ferretti, a doctoral student in marine biology at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia.

Better management of shark fisheries is clearly needed to reverse this trend.

---
For more information:
- The press release
- The Lenfest Report "Shark Declines in the Mediterranean sea: a summary of a new scientific analysis"
- Ferretti et al. 2008. Loss of large predatory sharks from the Mediterranean Sea. Conservation Biology.

Contaminants and marine megavertebrates - a workshop

'Contaminants and pathology in marine megavertebrates as environmental assessment tools' is the title of a workshop organized by University of Bologna on May, 8th, in Cesenatico, Italy. The meeting is organized in conjunction with Gruppo di Ricerca sui Grandi Vertebrati Pelagici.

Aim of the workshop is to focus on potential effects of pollutants on the health of marine megavertebrates. It will focus on different aspects of natural and anothropogenic pollutants and on suspected or proved connections with specific pathologies. Proceedings will be published on Endangered Species Research.

The workshop is open to students as well. Registration deadline is April, 30th.

---
For more information:
http://www.eulasmo.org/content.asp?did=30233

Mediterranean shark fisheries

Few elasmobranchs are subject to directed fisheries in the Mediterranean, but the region has the highest percentage of threatened sharks and rays in the world (42%).
Bycatch is the main cause of decline. Catsharks, dogfish and skates have a greater commercial value; other species may be discarded. In Italy elasmobranchs represent less than the 2% of reported total catches.

Bottom trawl fisheries catch various elasmobranchs such as catsharks and skates. Trammel nets may also catch larger species, including even basking and white sharks. Many shark species are taken as bycatch of Mediterranean deep-water fisheries. Migratory oceanic sharks constitute a large component of the bycatch in tuna and swordfish fisheries using longlines, driftnets and purse seines. Large driftnet fisheries are prohibited by the EU but the gear is still used by both EU and non EU boats.

Finning is not known to be practiced in the Mediterranean basin, but recently the Italian Coast Guard stopped a Spanish fishing boat finning in international waters just off the Calabrian coast (13 nautical miles out of Italy).

Eleonora de Sabata

---
For more information:
Hareide et al. 2007. European Shark Fisheries: a preliminary investigation into fisheries, conversion factors, trade products, markets and management measures European Elasmobranch Association

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

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

---
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

---
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.