On the occasion of the Day of the Seafarer, celebrated annually every June 25, the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO) organized on June 23 at the Institut de Ciències del Mar (ICM-CSIC) in Barcelona a day of transfer of results of the projects executed in the Protected Areas axis of the Pleamar Program. With the attendance, in person and remotely, of nearly a hundred people, 22 initiatives have been presented that have been promoted to preserve the marine spaces, and their associated biodiversity, of our country. A meeting that has brought together researchers and experts for the exchange of knowledge and that has served to highlight the commitment and effort dedicated to the protection of marine protected areas.

Josep-Lluís Pelegrí, director of the ICM-CSIC, was in charge of opening the conference, highlighting that the Pleamar Programme and its projects are aligned with the work philosophy promoted by the ICM. For his part, Javier Remiro, coordinator of the Blue Economy and Employment area of the Biodiversity Foundation, stressed the important role of the conference “to share ideas that can become projects for the next FEMPA“.

Stefano Ambroso, ICM researcher, presented the results of the RESCAP project, which is currently developing its fifth phase within the framework of the Pleamar Programme. Aimed at the preservation of benthic habitats through ecological restoration measures, Ambroso has pointed out the recovery of more than 3,000 gorgonians and soft corals thanks, in part, to the collaboration of fishermen’s guilds, whose involvement has been growing since the start of the project in 2017. He also highlighted the success of the shallow restoration of gorgonians by diving and the reproduction of those deep specimens that were restored.

José Ángel Sanz Wollstein, from Océano Alfa, presented the results of PESCARES V, in which he has worked together with the fishing and recreational diving sectors. Sanz has indicated that the main objective is “to promote and protect fishing resources in marine reserves and facilitate the task of managers through the alliance between stakeholders“. In the fifth edition, the Cabo Tiñoso marine reserve of fishing interest was included, applying the methodology of dialogue and synergies between sectors involved (fishing and diving) previously designed for other areas. The project has included various agreements between both sectors, key to better management, as well as multiple training and awareness-raising actions.

For his part, Sebastián Villasante, professor at the University of Santiago de Compostela, presented ECOSER, focused on the study of ecosystem services in three marine protected areas. In ECOSER I, a participatory mapping of the main ecosystem services for human well-being in each protected area, by category and spaces, was carried out, and several scenarios and visions for the future were designed to achieve compliance with the European marine strategy and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), focusing on fisheries and tourism sustainability. the preservation of biodiversity and in governance and management. In relation to ECOSER II, Villasante explained that new agreements are being sought with agents outside the consortium formed in the first edition, and highlighted “the role of meta-networks (ecology, economy, society, institution) for connected work in these protected areas”. The current edition also includes the analysis of new endogenous and exogenous aspects that may affect these ecosystem services.

The MAREBI project, focused on the island Biosphere Reserve of Menorca, has studied the compatibility of socio-economic activity with the preservation of biodiversity, through the combination of research and dissemination. To this end, a study of marine habitats and communities has been carried out with bionomic cartography, as well as the monitoring of birds or seagrass meadows or the use of beaches. This has been indicated by Félix de Pablo, from the Island Council of Menorca, who has also stressed the development of awareness actions through film seminars or workshops in educational centers.

In addition, the MESO_ALBORÁN project, of the Ceuta Sea Museum Foundation, works on the analysis of escarpments, canyons and rocky reefs of interest for marine protected areas and for the sustainability of commercial exploitation in the Alboran Sea. Alfredo Rosales, director of the project, pointed out that the cartographic analysis has already been carried out, in addition to the actions of satellite remote sensing or ROV dives to analyze the current state of the community and the impacts on its habitat, in addition to a characterization of species, many of them unknown. Among the preliminary results, he indicated the detection of laying and nursery areas, possible new taxa, oceanographic phenomena that condition the state of the habitats or outstanding anthropic impacts. These first results already indicate areas that are likely to generate protected areas or expand existing ones, as well as the need to implement integrated management plans.

The day also included the presentation of four projects promoted by the IEO-CSIC. On the one hand, Marina Albentosa, researcher at the IEO of Murcia, presented the plan of the RemediOS project, whose objective is the application of the flat oyster as a bioremediation tool. The initiative, which also has the collaboration of ANSE, seeks the production of flat oyster seed in the IEO hatchery and its pre-fattening in the salt flats of Marchamalo (Guadalajara). In the first stage of the project, 400,000 seeds have been obtained and 57 million larvae have been emitted, with a larval survival rate of 37.5%. In addition, meetings have been held with the fishing sector and the administration and, thanks to the link with the European NORA network, it has been possible to create an international network of breeders.

For his part, Antonio Punzón, researcher at the IEO of Santander, presented IMPALHA, of which he highlighted the spatio-temporal characterization that is being carried out of longline fishing and its interaction with benthic habitats in the Site of Community Importance (SCI) of the Avilés Canyon in a first phase. The role of the BACI campaign was also noteworthy, which will contribute to generating a controlled impact for the evaluation of status and impacts. In addition, Punzón stressed that, in addition to collecting the information for the characterization, the entire structure of the geodatabase has already been designed and created, which will be kept updated for the creation of participatory management plans.

Meanwhile, Francisco Sánchez, from the IEO of Santander, shared the progress of the three editions of the LANDERPICK project, focused on the design of a lander system for continuous monitoring of environmental conditions in marine protected areas. With a total of six campaigns already executed, three lander prototypes have been designed that have obtained almost 10 million temperature records and more than 400,000 current records. Sánchez stressed that, currently, there are 11 landers working at different points of the underwater canyons of Avilés, and that the design has achieved an effective system without the need for large infrastructures.

For her part, Arancha Lana, from IMEDEA (UIC-CSIC) of the Balearic Islands, presented the Autonatura2000tres project, highlighting the role of artificial intelligence or deep-learning for research and the promotion of more sustainable fishing. During the implementation of the project, an autonomous underwater recording system has been installed to assess the state of fishery resources and an algorithm has been developed for the automatic detection of fish species. The system has automatically detected 92% of recreational boats, classifying the type of boat in 95% of cases. The fish detection rate was between 80-100%.

Likewise, Lucía López, director of the ECOFUN project, highlighted the analysis of biochemical tracers to know the mobility of target species of this initiative, whose objective is to characterize the ecological processes associated with the use of space in two Natura 2000 Network areas. He also detailed part of the proposal for the monitoring and monitoring of ecological properties linked to the use of space.

Likewise, Alexandre Alonso, researcher at the Institute of Marine Research (IIM-CSIC), presented the results of the iGENTAC project, highlighting the role of the project in terms of identifying new technologies for monitoring and surveillance within the LIFE Intemares project. This initiative has made progress in the monitoring of populations in the environment of a Marine Protected Area, combining three techniques: acoustic telemetry to monitor behaviors and track specimens of coastal elasmobranchs, in this case, Raja undulata, vulnerable but exploited by the Galician fishing fleet; artificial intelligence for photo-identification and molecular markers for individual identification.

PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION OF SPECIES

Birds and cetaceans have been the protagonists of the seven projects dedicated to the protection and conservation of species. The first of them, ZEPAMAR, was presented by José Manuel Arcos, from the Spanish Ornithological Society SEO/BirdLife. With three editions, this initiative studied accidental captures in Special Protection Areas for Birds (SPAs) and SCIs on the Spanish coast, analysing the frequency of catches by type of gear, with bottom longlining and billet being the most pronounced. Likewise, a proposal and testing of mitigation measures was developed, and the marking of live capture birds has allowed us to know more about their behavior.

From the University of Granada, Ana Esther Ortiz, explained the strategy developed in ORTIMAR to reproduce sea nettle (Anemonia sulcata) in captivity with the aim of optimizing its reintroduction into the natural environment, especially in the most vulnerable areas due to fishing exploitation.

The Coordinator for the Study of Marine Mammals (CEMMA) developed the VIRADA project to study the interaction of harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) and bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) with fishing vessels, with the aim of reducing the mortality of these cetaceans due to accidental capture in Natura 2000 Network areas of Galicia. Uxía Vázquez, oceanographer at CEMMA, highlighted the worrying decline of the harbour porpoise and its unsustainable mortality due to accidental capture. Monitoring and marking showed that in 46% of stranding cases there were signs of accidental capture. The CEMMA team also developed a guide of good practices to act in case of bycatch of a specimen of these species.

Also focused on the bottlenose dolphin, the INDELPESUR project has evaluated the interaction in artisanal fisheries in the south and southeast in marine protected areas. Aixa Morata, from the Association of Naturalists of the Southeast (ANSE), highlighted the fieldwork carried out to study this protected species and its behaviour with oceanographic campaigns and accompanying fishermen with the aim of proposing mitigation measures. The work has allowed, among other results, to generate the first estimates of bottlenose dolphin abundance in the southeast, which has increased in recent years, as well as a proposal for 10 management and mitigation measures.

Pedro García, director of the Association of Naturalists of the Southeast (ANSE), presented the results of two projects focused on the preservation of the European eel (Anguilla anguila). On the one hand, and in relation to GePesAng, García highlighted among the results of the analysis of the tagging of specimens: 55% of the tagged eels came out of the Mar Menor and 27% without being caught by a fishing vessel. The director of ANSE, in this regard, stressed that the high rate of recaptures is an indication of a fishing pressure of a certain magnitude that requires management measures to favor this species in coastal wetlands and to guarantee its escape. He also pointed out some of the results they hope to obtain with GePescArt, which is being carried out this year, such as the sampling and marking of new specimens or the detection of barriers or threats to the species in wetlands.

For its part, CORY’S – Research and Conservation of Biodiversity, has presented the results of ZEPAPESCA and Stelar DELTA, both focused on the study of birds in the Mediterranean SPA. Juan Bécares, co-founding partner of the entity, highlighted the theoretical nature of ZEPAPESCA to integrate all the information on fishing activity to evaluate the food available for the different species of seabirds studied. For his part, from Stelar DELTA (project in execution) he explained that specimens of five species of birds (terns and seagulls) have been marked, with 4 million GPS positions already collected to know their feeding area, in addition to studying their reproduction and diet.

Remedios Cabrera, a researcher at the University of Cadiz, presented the results of ECOFISH, with a brief review of the objectives of its latest edition, focused on waste and discard management in the Gulf of Cadiz SPA. Among the results presented, and after the characterization of discard, ECOFISH has proposed a proposal to revalue the discard for food, through the development of new feed formulas, or for other uses. With ECOFISH PLUS , a greater involvement and commitment of the fishing sector has been stressed, also improving the social vision of the sustainability of fishing activity. ECOFISH 4.0, which is being developed this year, will include the identification of points for waste management in ports, reinforcing the circular economy philosophy of the project, with several workshops linked to food and hospitality. In relation to discards, trawlers are being analysed to assess their capacity to transfer discards on board and their subsequent disembarkation in port.

The DESMARES project, carried out in three editions by the University of Girona, has worked on the compatibility of artisanal fishing (specifically, fixed gillnets) with the European shag. Josep María Bas, director of the project, highlighted the work focused on the study of coastal fish species and their fluctuation, as well as their spatio-temporal dynamics and the evaluation of the parasite load, heavy metals or microplastics of cormorant specimens, also analyzing how it affects their physical condition and the relationship with their diet. Likewise, work has been done to minimize the fishing impact with campaigns to use scarecrows to avoid accidental captures and actions to reduce ghost fishing.

Leia Navarro, from the University of Barcelona, presented another project focused on seabirds, AMARYPESCA. Navarro explained the work carried out in instrumentation with GPS devices of up to nine species of birds to study their behavior and interaction with boats, also depending on the type of gear or taking into account the time factor.

Finally, the MOIRA project has focused its efforts on modelling the recreational and artisanal fishery in Gran Canaria, analysing the distribution of fishing effort on the island’s coast. José Juan Castro Hernández, from the University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, explained the scenarios developed from this first study, taking into account climate change factors and the impact on resources, species and habitats. To elaborate these scenarios, coastal fishing has been characterized and a prototype has been developed to study the biomass. Castro Hernández pointed out that up to 90% of biomass has been lost in the last 50 years, and that, in addition, the models developed for 2050 reflect the collapse of some species due to the overexploitation of a multitude of fisheries.

To conclude the day, Javier Remiro wanted to emphasize that the greatest success of the Pleamar Program is to promote collaboration between the fishing sector, environmental organizations and the scientific community, providing solutions to the environmental challenges of fishing activities, the management of the Natura 2000 Network and the protection and conservation of species and spaces.