New publication on the Pelagos Sanctuary

Back in 1990, the Tethys Research Institute proposed to the “European Association Rotary for the Environment” a project for the establishment of a marine protected area, a Biosphere Reserve, in the high seas encompassing the most important habitat for cetaceans in the region.

The rationale behind the proposal, which was named “Project Pelagos”, included the ecological representativeness of the area, its high species diversity, its intense biological activity, the presence of critical habitat for a number of pelagic species including cetaceans, and the opportunities that the area offered to baseline research.

Now, almost 20 years later, the pioneer of Pelagos Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara and other four authors published a comprehensive review on the Cetacean Sanctuary.

‘The Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean marine mammals’ provides a description of the rationale behind the initial proposal and an overview of the challenging process leading to the creation of the Sanctuary, a unique area that contains habitat suitable for the breeding and feeding needs of the entire complement of cetacean species regularly found in the Mediterranean Sea.

---
To download the article:
Notarbartolo di Sciara G., Agardy T., Hyrenbach D., Scovazzi T., Van Klaveren P. 2008. The Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean marine mammals. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 18:367-391.

For more information:
www.cetaceanalliance.org
www.tethys.org

Tuna conservationists attacked by Turkish fishermen

Three Turkish tuna fishing vessels surrounded the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise while the crew of one of the vessels attacked the ship in the Cypriot Channel.

Earlier, Greenpeace flew its helicopter to document the activities of tuna fishing vessels. One of the three, the Cinar Ibrahim, collided with the Arctic Sunrise. The tuna ship’s crew then started hurling lead fishing weights at the Greenpeace ship. Gunfire was also heard. No one was injured but the Greenpeace helicopter was damaged and is now inoperable.

The Arctic Sunrise was sailing between Turkey and Cyprus to draw attention to tuna illegal overfishing.

Photo: © Greenpeace / Gavin Parsons

---
For more information:
Greenpeace press release
Video of the incident
Artic Sunrise in Italian waters

MPAs export fish

MPAs export adult fish, egg and larvae to adjacent areas, as results of BIOMEX project (Assessment of BIOMass EXport from Marine Protected Areas and its impact on Fisheries in the western Mediterranean Sea) prove.

Depending on the MPA, the effect is on some species or groups of species. Fish biomass export varies greatly in space and intensity according to fish species, and is restricted to a small distance from MPA border, but it is likely to have positive effects on adjacent fisheries.

Photo: © Photo Pablo Sanchez / Biomex

---
For more information:
- MedPan, the Network of Managers of Marine Protected Areas of the Mediterranean
- Full Programme report and Biomex website

Fishing out the pirates of the Mediterranean

Greenpeace campaign "Defending Our Mediterranean" had barely begun when activists confronted Italian fishing “pirates” in the Ionian Sea and confiscated almost two kilometres of illegal driftnet containing dead undersized bluefin tuna and a small sea turtle that was later released alive.

The Greenpeace crew came across the Italian fishing vessel Diomede II, fishing with 8-10 km of driftnet in international waters approximately 50 kilometres off the coast of Sicily, Italy.

Diomede II - which is licensed only to fish with longline or anchored nets within 15 kilometres from the coast - was met at her home port by officials, alerted by the NGO, that confiscated its illegal driftnets.
---
For more information read the whole story on the Greenpeace web site

The most dangerous species in the Mediterranean

Campaign for the Government of Catalunya by Klas Ernflo to keep the Mediterranean sea clean (2005).

Made with copywriter Fran Segarra, Creative directors Xavi Hidalgo & Fernando Planelles for the agency Small in Barcelona.

EU tightens control on bluefin tuna fisheries

The European Commission launched a major control campaign aimed at preventing a repeat of last year's overfishing of Mediterranean bluefin tuna by a number of EU Member States.

The plan will bring together the resources of the seven main Member States involved in the fishery – Cyprus, France, Greece, Italy, Malta, Portugal and Spain – and will cover all stages in the market chain, including controls at sea, onshore, and at fattening farms.

The control campaign marks an unprecedented effort, in terms of both the scale of operations, and the technical means deployed. The Community Fisheries Control Agency will coordinate joint inspection and control activities involving 13 large patrol vessels, 36 coastal patrol vessels and 16 aircraft. There will be 14 campaigns at sea involving in all 30 inspectors, representing overall 160 patrol days. 25 joint inspections involving 50 inspectors are planned in the ports concerned. Commission inspectors will also be involved in 32 inspection visits both at sea and in ports.

As illustrated by a report published by the WWF, the whole fishery is plagued by overfishing by a fleet that keeps growing in size and efficiency - thanks also to 16 million Euro of EU fundings, as Oceana recently underlined.

---
For more information:
European Commission press release
EU funding for tuna overexploitation
Crazy race for last Mediterranean tuna

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

EU funding for tuna overexploitation

Oceana – the international ocean conservation organisation – reports that millions of Euros have been allocated for the overexploitation of bluefin tuna in the Mediterranean, calls for the immediate closure of the Balearic fishing grounds, and criticises the contradictory measures adopted by implicated states.

According to Oceana, overcapacity in Mediterranean bluefin tuna fishery denounced by a WWF report (see 12 March post), has been financed by the EU with more than 16 million Euros. The EU purse seine fleets involved in this fishery are from Spain, France and Italy.

Oceana also stressed that management measures and actions by the governments participating in this kind of fishery do not correspond to the reality of the fleet and the state of bluefin tuna stocks.

Once again, scientific recommendations are being ignored. Excessive quotas are established, the fleets continue to fish in spawning grounds, undersized tunas are being caught, illegal vessels catch and land bluefin tuna in unauthorised ports, the fleets continue to ignore the assigned quotas and do not declare the catches.

Silvia Bonizzoni

(Photo by Oceana)

---
For more information:
Oceana press release
Oceana website
WWF report
Mediterranean Conservation News - 12 March post

Ships dumping waste: illegal as of 2009

Dumping of waste by ships in the Mediterranean Sea will become illegal as of May 1, 2009, the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) said.

The new rules prohibit the ditching of "all plastics, including but not limited to synthetic ropes, synthetic fishing nets and plastic garbage bags and all other garbage, including paper products, rags, glass, metal, bottles, crockery, dunnage (loose material used in ship storage), lining and packing materials".

The application of International Maritime Organization measures had been suspended for years, until adequate garbage collection facilities were established in ports around the sea's coasts.

---
For more information:
UNEP News

Trawling near the coasts of Greece

Bottom trawling, a fishing method that drags a large net across the sea floor, is a known threat to the marine environment.

Due to the disruptive nature of this method, the European Regulation currently in force across the Mediterranean forbids trawling closer than 1.5 nautical miles from the seashore.

The Hellenic Centre for Marine Research has also demonstrated that trawling is the least selective of all fishing gears, with an annual bycatch rate up to 44%. The Greek Ministry for Rural Development and Food, in its National Operational Plan for Fisheries 2007-2013, acknowledges that “most benthopelagic species are in a state of relative overfishing or overfishing”.

Despite the European regulation and scientific evidence the Greek Ministry for Rural Development and Food, itself, has recently decided to allow the use of trawling nets at a distance of only 1 nautical mile from the coast.

A coalition of Greek conservation organizations, including Archelon, Mediterranean SOS Network, MOM, Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute, Greenpeace and WWF Greece, is calling for the immediate reversal of this decision, to prevent the destruction of coastal ecosystems and ensure sustainability of fishing in the long term.

Silvia Bonizzoni

---
For more information:
www.panda.org

Dolphins in a bottle

Giovanni Bearzi and other four researchers from the Tethys Research Institute recently published a paper reporting the work done in the Gulf of Amvrakikos during 2002-2005, resulting in the individual identification of 148 bottlenose dolphins.

This work shows that dolphin density and levels of site fidelity are high, and this was related primarily to prey availability, particularly of epipelagic schooling fish.

The importance of this semi-closed basin for bottlenose dolphins and other threatened species such as marine turtles and endangered birds supports the adoption of measures aimed to conserve its valuable ecosystems and raise the naturalistic profile of the area, while promoting environment-conscious development.

Paraphrasing the famous song by The Police, Dolphins in a Bottle sends a S.O.S. to the world to protect these unique animals and their environment, and we hope that someone gets it :-)

Silvia Bonizzoni

---
Bearzi G, Agazzi S., Bonizzoni S., Costa M., Azzellino A. 2008. Dolphins in a bottle: abundance, residency patterns and conservation of bottlenose dolphins Tursiops truncatus in the semi-closed eutrophic Amvrakikos Gulf, Greece. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 18(2):130-146. (502 Kb)

Rocky deserts at sea: causes and solutions

Many vegetated systems in temperate regions throughout the world may face dramatic ecosystems shifts to unvegetated states. So, flourishing kelp forests may become desolated bare rocky substrates void of the rich floras and faunas usually associated to forests.

In the Mediterranean there are no kelp forests, but rocky bottoms can be covered by macroalgae (e.g. Cystoseira spp) that host juvenile and adult stages of many invertebrate and fish species. The persistence of these macroalgal beds, that greatly contribute to maintain coastal biodiversity and productivity, is the result of a delicate equilibrium among environmental conditions, interactions among species and human disturbance.

In recent years it has been demonstrated that in Mediterranean rocky reefs where fishing is particularly intense fish predators may decrease in abundance and size. Their decreased predation impact on preys, including sea urchins (the most important grazers in such systems), may reflect in a dramatic increase of prey abundance.

The ultimate consequence of the fishing impact may thus be an increased grazing impact of sea urchins that causes the transition from macroalgal beds to the so-called ‘barrens’, that is bare rocks partially covered by encrusting coralline algae. They are a sort of rocky deserts.

How to cope with this? Management of complex natural systems is not easy because many processes may interact. Formation of barrens, for instance, can be also a consequence of other processes like water warming or sedimentation. However, fishing restrictions and fish predator recovery may be useful to reverse this phenomenon.

From this perspective, there is increasing evidence that the creation of effective Marine Protected Areas (and not paper parks) can allow fish predators to recover along with their potential in controlling sea urchin populations and their effects on macroalgae.

At the MPA of Torre Guaceto (SE Italy), in the same rocky reefs where in the past (before the establishment of the MPA) there were barrens, there are at present (after about 7-8 years of effective protection) more fish predators, less sea urchins and lower barren covers than outside the MPA, which is the proof that properly managed MPAs can allow the entire ecosystems to recover.

Paolo Guidetti

---
For more information:
Guidetti P. 2006. Marine reserves reestablish lost predatory interactions and cause community changes in rocky reefs. Ecological Applications 16(3):963–976.

How climate influences the deep sea

Picture the Grand Canyon in Arizona - then place it under the sea: the Mediterranean seafloor is criss-crossed with deep submarine canyons that in sheer size put their land counterpart to shame. Rivers of dense waters flow through these canyons, their capacity varying depending on climate-induced phonomena.

During such an event, the amount of water transported in 4 months from the Gulf of Lion to the deep Western Mediterranean via the Cap de Creus canyon equalled 2 years of input from all rivers draining in the Mediterranean.

How these dense shelf water cascading in the Gulf de Lion affect the population of the deep sea shrimp Aristeus antennatus, the most valuable deep-sea living resource in the Mediterranean Sea, was recently discovered by Spanish researchers. Initially, the strong currents (up to 80 cm/sec) displace shrimp populations from the normal fishing grounds, producing a temporary fishing collapse. However, the food provided by the currents soon leads to a large increase in recruitment - which results in plentiful landings of large shrimps 3-5 years after major cascading events.

These new findings resolve the paradox of a long-overexploited fishery that has not collapsed after 70 years of intense deep-sea trawling. But climate change is expected to cause a decrease of winter deep water formation in the Gulf de Lion, which in turn could decrease the frequency and intensity of dense shelf water cascading events. Without this regenerative mechanism, fishery pressure could quickly deplete the stock of Aristeus antennatus and other valuable deep-sea living resources in the area.

---
For more information:
Company et al (2008) Climate influence on deep sea populations. PLoS ONE 3(1): e1431.
Eureka alert press release (Jan 15th 2008)

Global MPA database

MPA Global Database is a project that aims to create a database on the existing Marine Protected Areas, worldwide.

Based largely on information in the World Database on Protected Areas (WDPA), the project has two main goals: to develop a more robust global MPA baseline than currently exists, and to develop alternative scenarios of global MPA networks using spatial modelling techniques.

MPA Global Database contains a great variety of information such as: names of MPAs for each country, area covered and year of designation, mean area of MPAs, percentage of MPAs located in a specific latitude etc.

This database shows that 4435 MPAs exist worldwide and they cover an area of 2.35 million km2. These numbers sound misleadinly big, but the fact is: only 0.65% of the world oceans is covered by MPAs!

Even more impressive is the estimate of global no-take areas (areas where fishing is banned). The percentage of world oceans subject to this specific regulation is only 0.08% !

This database is a new tool for the marine conservation and shows how much still needs to be done to protect marine biodiversity.

Silvia Bonizzoni

---
For more information:
http://mpaglobal.org
http://depts.washington.edu

Bycaught dolphins washing up dead on British coasts

A scaring number of dolphins and porpoises are washing up dead on British coasts.

Since the beginning of the year, 29 animals have been found on the beaches of south-west England. Experts suspect that most have drowned after being caught up in fishing nets.

Some dolphins have their tails or beaks amputated probably due to a useless attempt to free them from the nets, in other individuals bellies have been sliced open after death to try to make them sink.

Mark Simmonds, science director at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, said: "It is a horrid way for these dolphins to die and you can see that when they come ashore. Fishermen are getting more adept at hiding the evidence and what we see on land is only a proportion of the problem."

On the other hand, Andy Wheeler, from the Cornish Fish Producers' Organisation, said: "Every reasonable effort is made by fishermen to avoid bycatch of dolphins. The jury is still out on whether the level of bycatch is a threat to the population."

Considering that the fishing effort is increasing worldwide, it’s time to increase also our effort to eliminate bycaught animals, whether cetaceans, birds, marine turtles, sharks or others.

Silvia Bonizzoni

Photo: WDCS

---
For more information:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth
http://www.wdcs.org/news

French driftnets killed by the European Court of Justice

Oceana, an international organization that works to protect and recover the oceans in the world, has announced that the European Court of Justice has refused to grant France exemption from the prohibition of the use of driftnets in the Mediterranean.

Driftnets used to catch bluefin tuna and swordfish were outlawed in the European Union from 2002 because they constitute a threat to the conservation of cetaceans, sea turtles and sharks. However, years after the ban entered into force, France and Italy have continued using driftnets. While operations in Italy have been downright illegal, the French fleet had taken advantage of legal loopholes to continue carrying out its activities, with full support from its government. French driftnets have caused significant mortality to striped dolphins in the waters of the Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean cetaceans.

The European Court of Justice ruled that the French driftnet fleet should not have a temporary exemption from the ban as requested by its government. As such, France cannot offer the driftnet fleet its protection in 2008. Any fishing vessel using this gear to catch bluefin tuna must be sanctioned by French authorities.

Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara

---
For more information:
Oceana's press release, 17 March 2008

Mediterranean forecast

A great information tool for scientists working in our inland sea is the Mediterranean Ocean Forecasting System (MFS) created by GNOO, the Italian National Applied Oceanography Group.

Daily temperature, salinity, height, anomalies at the surface or in the depths; a forecast for the next 10 days and an analysis of the past 7 days are available.

Other regional forecasting systems, amongst others:

• the Adriatic Sea
• the Sicilian Channel
• the North-West Mediterranean

(image: MFS)

Crazy race for the last Mediterranean tuna

A new WWF report, 126 pages long, provides the first real estimate of the actual catch capability of the Mediterranean purse seine fleet targeting bluefin tuna.

The results are discouraging: few tuna stocks left are driven by unregulated and unsustainable fisheries to a tragic end point.

Without considering the potential catch from other fleets, such as pelagic trawlers, longliners etc., the Mediterranean purse seine fleet has a calculated yearly catch potential of 54,783 metric tonnes. This amount is twice the fishing capacity of current quotas and more than 3.5 times the catch levels recommended by scientists to avoid stock collapse.

How could we ever get to this point? Systematic upward adjustment of quotas, under-reporting of catches, uncontrolled increase in fishing capacity, illegal fishing, ever-increasing market demand ever-expanding fleet size and efficiency... these are some ingredients of the foolish management that brought the tuna stocks to nearly collapse.

Sergi Tudela, Head of Fisheries at WWF Mediterranean, has a clear view of the situation: “The fishery is unsustainable in every way – economically, socially, and ecologically. The time to act is now – while there are still bluefin tuna to save in the Mediterranean”.

Silvia Bonizzoni

---
For more information
http://www.panda.org
To download the report
http://assets.panda.org

Ocean deserts

The world oceans are deeply affected by human activities, from pollution to resource overexploitation, but now there is a new problem.

The least biologically productive areas of the oceans are expanding much faster than predicted. This is the result of a new study conducted by researchers at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the University of Hawaii.

The evidence of this expansion comes from data collected by a visual satellite sensor that reads reflective colour to measure the density of chlorophyll in phytoplankton, the microscopic organisms that are the base of the marine food web. Atlantic and Pacific Oceans are characterized by huge 'black' spots, which indicate zones of very low productivity. These zones, likened to deserts, now cover an estimated 51 million square kilometres in the two oceans and are replacing very fast adjacent prolific areas.

This change in ocean biology, probably linked to the warming of sea surface waters, can have deep consequences to all marine ecosystems. It may negatively affect all the marine food web from plankton to fishes, turtle and cetaceans.

Silvia Bonizzoni

(The image by NOAA shows black areas considered the least biologically productive)

---
For more information:
www.noaanews.noaa.gov

"Protected" marine protected areas are better than "just" marine protected areas

An obvious statement? Not so, as it seems. Many Mediterranean coastal states have established marine protected areas (MPAs), however more than 50% of these have no management plans and their regulations, particularly as far as fisheries are concerned, are not enforced. As a result, fish assemblages in these "paper parks" often cannot be distinguished from those found in non-protected waters.

Paolo Guidetti (University of Lecce, Italy) and colleagues have recently published (Biological Conservation, doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2007.12.013) results from research on fish assemblages simultaneously conducted across 15 Italian rocky shore MPAs within the framework of the "Sistema Afrodite" programme.

The authors discovered that only three of the marine reserves investigated had adequate enforcement, and that the degree of recovery of target fish species was tightly linked to the level of surveillance conducted in the MPAs. The study demonstrates the importance of including compliance among the factors considered in evaluating the conservation effectiveness of marine reserves, and warns that in careless analyses positive ecological responses in properly managed reserves can be masked by neutral or even negative results in paper parks.

Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara
(photograph by Tundi Agardy)

Guidetti P., Milazzo M., Bussotti S., Molinari A., Murenu M., Pais A., Spanò N., Balzano R., Agardy T., Boero F., Carrada G., Cattaneo-Vietti R., Cau A., Chemello R., Greco S., Manganaro A., Notarbartolo di Sciara G., Russo G.F., Tunesi L. 2008. Italian marine protected area effectiveness: does enforcement matter? Biological Conservation 141:699-709.

Rare monk seal sighted in Sardinia?

The sighting of a monk seal in the waters of the National Park of the Maddalena Archipelago (Sardinia, Italy), made two days ago, was reported in today's issue of La Nuova Sardegna, a local newspaper.

The seal, a young specimen only about 1.5 m long, was reportedly seen cavorting underwater around two skin divers without any trace of fear. One of them, Fannino Curreli - an experienced local diver - expressed no doubts about the identification of the species.

Monk seals, frequent in Sardinia until about 50 years ago, today have almost completely disappeared from the entire western Mediterranean, and sightings in Sardinia are now an extremely rare occurrence. If confirmed, the appearance of a monk seal off La Maddalena is encouraging because it indicates that these rare mammals could one day make a comeback if undisturbed.

Mediterranean monk seals were exterminated by direct killings, excessive fishing and pervasive human disturbance, and have now become one of the most endangered of the planet's mammals. It is thought that only 350-400 specimens of the species still exist in the entire Mediterranean Sea, mostly in Greek and Turkish waters.

Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara

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

Individual recognition of dolphins reported by Pliny the Elder 1931 years ago

Cetacean research pioneers David and Melba Caldwell wrote in their 1972 book “The world of the bottlenosed dolphin” that the earliest example of the practice of prolonged observation of cetaceans based on the recognition of individuals over extended time was that of Pelorus Jack - a Risso’s dolphin observed between 1888 and 1912 swimming near ships crossing Cook Strait, between the northern and southern portions of New Zealand.

Recently my attention was pointed to a writing by Pliny the Elder which moves back the clock of such scientific method by 1,811 years!

In the 9th book of his Naturalis Historia, published in 77 A.D., the ancient naturalist wrote about dolphins: “They grow fast, and it is believed that they reach their maximum size at 10 years of age. They can reach the age of 30, as discovered through the experimental cutting of nicks on their tails” (Adolescunt celeriter, X annis putantur ad summam magnitudinem pervenire. Vivunt et tricenis, quod cognitum praecisa cauda in experimentum).

Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara

Using satellite images to protect the Ocean

Not everyone knows that satellite images can be used to support marine conservation.

The concept is simple. Satellites have global reach and can repeatedly capture images of any area, they can reveal the land/seascape disruption and habitat degradation caused by anthropogenic activities. They can be used to monitor industrial sites, logging operations, environmentally sensitive areas, urban sprawl, shipping traffic, fisheries, and resource-management practices, no matter where in the world they occur.

Also, they can be used to monitor fishing activities. Daniel Pauly, a world-renowned fisheries scientist, is the pioneer of this innovative idea. Pauly was inspired by a satellite image of a fleet of trawlers at work in the ocean. Looking at the image, he realized that trawlers could be seen so clearly that it would in theory be possible to monitor fishing from satellites and assess their impact. With historical and global archives, it is also possible to compare images to show changes over time. This kind of data could lead to restrictions on industrial fishing methods.

In addition to being a source of scientific data to document environmental change, satellite images may also represent a powerful communication tool. Using satellite photographs, we can document and communicate the impact of anthropogenic activities and promote a sustainable use of resources.

Silvia Bonizzoni

(The satellite photo shows mud trails made by shrimp trawlers off the mouth of the Yangtze River www.digitalglobe.com)
---
For more information:
www.theglobeandmail.com
www.eurekalert.org
www.iht.com

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)

---
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.