Spain, France and Portugal have launched the European project “Coordinated strategy for the assessment, monitoring and management of cetaceans in the subregion of the Bay of Biscay and Iberian coast” (CetAMBICion), in which the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge (MITECO), through the Directorate General of the Coast and the Sea; the Directorate of Biodiversity, Forests and Desertification and the Biodiversity Foundation, as well as the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPA), through the General Secretariat of Fisheries.
This initiative, coordinated by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), aims to strengthen collaboration and scientific work between the three countries to estimate and reduce cetacean bycatches. Among the actions that will be developed until 2023, technical measures will be identified and agreed upon to limit these interactions.
In addition to MITECO and MAPA, the project has among its partners the Spanish Institute of Oceanography and AZTI. On the French side, the University of La Rochelle is represented as partners; the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the French Office for Biodiversity. Portugal participates through the Directorate-General for Natural Resources, Security and Maritime Services; the Portuguese Institute of the Sea and the Atmosphere; the Portuguese Institute for Natural Conservation and Forests; the Interdisciplinary Centre for Marine and Environmental Research and the University of the Algarve. The project is part of the European Commission’s DG ENV/MSFD 2020 (Marine Strategy Framework Directive) call and is also developed in line with the requirements of the Habitats Directive and the Common Fisheries Policy.
SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE ABOUT CETACEANS
Among the priority species that the project will focus on are the common dolphin (Delphinus delphis), the porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) and the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus).
CetAMBICion will deepen scientific knowledge about the abundance, demographic characteristics, pattern distribution, mortality and habitat of cetaceans in the study area.
In addition, it will contribute to improving its monitoring and follow-up, especially in relation to the impact of bycatch, and will investigate the effectiveness of the different mitigation measures in the subregion of the Bay of Biscay and the Iberian coasts, which help to achieve good environmental status. All this will be carried out in close collaboration with the fishing sector.
The participation of MITECO, through the Sub-Directorate for the Protection of the Sea and the Sub-Directorate General for Terrestrial and Marine Biodiversity, will focus its efforts on the proposal of coordinated management measures at the subregional level, the determination of good environmental status and the definition of a monitoring strategy for good environmental status for cetaceans.
The Biodiversity Foundation will carry out communication actions, dissemination of the results of the actions contemplated by the project, sectoral participation and development and implementation of the training strategy.
For its part, the General Secretariat for Fisheries will actively participate, in particular, around the objectives related to monitoring and data collection actions through observer projects or research campaigns, as well as in the proposal of possible mitigation measures that include innovation. It will also carry out dissemination of the work and results obtained.
