AMARYPESCA - Seabirds as an instrument for improving fisheries and aquaculture management in the context of a sustainable RAMPE.
Pleamar program
There are still significant gaps in knowledge about the Network of Marine Protected Areas of Spain (RAMPE) that prevent planning its management. The effects of fishing on marine megafauna are mainly overfishing, discard production and in particular bycatch, with seabirds being one of the most affected groups. In fact, 30% of seabird species are threatened and their conservation depends to a large extent on the proper management of human activities in the marine environment. In the case of pelagic birds, accidental death on longlines is undoubtedly their greatest threat.
Determining the distribution of the species most vulnerable to such catches and understanding the environmental factors that promote them on a small spatial scale may be the key to proper management of the marine environment. This can help to develop a dynamic management of fisheries, based on the protection of smaller areas and for short periods of time, more efficient and less costly than protecting vast marine spaces in perpetuity. Shorebirds also suffer the impacts of human activities, but in general the interactions and causes of bycatch occur in relation to coastal activities, such as aquaculture, recreational fishing and fishing with small gear (trammel nets, pots, palangrillo, etc.). The high concentration of fish in aquaculture culture cages attracts gulls, terns and cormorants, and some birds are sometimes trapped in nets and other systems used to prevent predation.
The project will first collect data on the movements of birds, both its own and those of external entities, collected in previous years in the Canary Islands region (Atlantic Cory’s shearwater and Bulwer’s petrel) and in the Spanish Levante (Audouin’s and yellow-legged gull, shag and Mediterranean shearwater, Balearic and Mediterranean Cinderella). To avoid recapture, seagulls and cormorants will be instrumented with GPS combined with mobile telephony. To understand the differential sensitivity to interactions and accidental captures with age, adult and immature shearwaters will be instrumented. For the cormorant it will be carried out in two locations (Murcia and the Balearic Islands) and for the yellow-legged gull in three (Catalonia, Valencian Community and Murcia). In addition, the Bulwer’s petrel and the Atlantic Cory’s shearwater in the Canary Islands, as well as the Mediterranean Cory’s shearwater in the Valencian Community, Murcia, Almeria and the Balearic Islands, will be instrumented with GPS and GLS. Finally, the Atlantic and Mediterranean Cory’s shearwater will also be instrumented with new GPS devices equipped with radar detectors.
With this information, the distribution, activity and habitat exploited by the different populations studied in different periods will be modelled. Secondly, GPS data from the fishing fleet operating in the Spanish Levante and the Canary Islands over these same years will be compiled (VMS data, based on GPS positioning every two hours and GPS delivered by hand to vessels without the obligation to carry VMS, based on GPS positioning every minute). This will allow the study of the spatio-temporal dynamics of fisheries, their overlap with birds inside and outside the RAMPE and the factors that modulate interactions. Finally, the intensity of interactions and mortality of birds in fish farms located in the open sea on the coast of Almeria, Murcia and Alicante will be estimated, through the regular census of birds in these fish farms and through surveys of fish farmers in facilities inside and outside the RAMPE.
With all this data, it will be possible to superimpose the distribution of seabirds (in space-time), feeding areas, the spatio-temporal overlap between birds and fisheries/fish farms, the location of direct interactions between birds and fisheries/fish farms, and, finally, the overlap of all of them with the current RAMPE. All this should make it possible to assess the suitability of a dynamic approach in the management of protected areas and to propose management measures with the ultimate aim of making fishing and aquaculture activities compatible with the conservation of seabirds.
Line of action:
Marine ecosystemsStatus:
FinalizadoExecution date:
2019General:
To assess the suitability of the current RAMPE and to propose measures to improve fisheries and aquaculture management and the conservation of pelagic and coastal birds in the Canary Islands and the Levant.
Specific:
- To identify the main feeding areas for pelagic and coastal birds in the Canary Islands and the Levant.
- To analyse spatial consistency over the years and assess the possible suitability of a dynamic approach in the definition of RAMPE.
- To determine the type and degree of interaction of seabirds with fish farms and the fishing fleet in the Canary Islands and the Levant.
- To value the RAMPE among fishermen and aquaculturists.
- To propose improvements in the management of the RAMPE as a tool for the conservation of pelagic and coastal birds in the Canary Islands and the Levant.
A1. Request for Permits from 6 Autonomous Communities
A2. Compilation of existing GPS data of seabirds in the Canary Islands and the Levant
A3. Fieldwork and Remote Seabird Monitoring I (Cory’s Shearwater and Bulwer’s Petrel)
A4. Fieldwork and remote monitoring of seabirds II (yellow-legged gull)
A5. Fieldwork and Remote Seabird Tracking III (Shag)
A6. Distribution and Activity of Birds I (spatial analysis)
A7. Distribution and Activity of Birds II (temporal analysis, Cory’s shearwater)
A8. Compilation of GPS data of the fishing fleet in the Canary Islands and Levante
A9. Provide GPS to ships without the obligation to carry VMS
A10. Interactions between Birds and Fisheries I (based on previous data compiled in A2 and A8)
A11. Fieldwork and interactions between seabirds and fisheries II
A12. Interactions between birds and fisheries III (Shearwaters and Seagulls)
A13. Interaction between birds and fish farms, recreational fishing and small gear
A14. Overlap Birds-Fisheries/Fish Farms-RAMPE
A15. Awareness and enhancement of the current RAMPE
In the 2020 field campaigns with Cory’s shearwater, Bulwer’s petrel and European storm petrel, 310 individuals from Terreros, Palomas, Columbretes (Levante), Cala Morell (Menorca), Veneguera (Gran Canaria) and Montaña Clara have been followed. As for seagulls, 23 individuals, 21 adults and two chicks, were monitored in the Salinas de San Pedro (Region of Murcia). In relation to cormorants, five individuals from Isla Grosa (Region of Murcia) and four from Illa de l’Aire (Balearic Islands) were followed. In addition, VMS monitoring data were obtained from the entire Spanish fishing fleet between 2011 and 2020, in collaboration with the Spanish Institute of Oceanography, with trawling and purse seine being the most relevant fishing gear. In addition, GPS data from small fishing vessels were collected between 2018 and 2020, with bottom longline, trawling and trammel being the most relevant fishing gear in this case.
After analysing the overlap between the RAMPE and the distribution of seabirds over ten years, we observed that most of the feeding areas of these birds are located within one of the RAMPE spaces, at least partially. In other cases, we have detected much larger distribution areas, and also areas that are not under any protection, but that were very important for the feeding of the birds studied, such as the Gulf of Mazarrón and the coasts of the province of Barcelona. For the colonies of the Canary Islands, most of the distribution area falls outside the waters of Spanish jurisdiction, so the comprehensive protection of these individuals will require international efforts and cooperation.
In terms of interactions with fisheries, interactions have been detected mainly with trawl and purse seine fleets, which are the most numerous and provide food for seabirds through discards at fixed and predictable times of the day and night. For the Mediterranean and Atlantic Cory’s shearwater, and for the shag, a considerable proportion of interactions with fishing vessels occur within the RAMPE, especially trawlers, purse seines, and artisanal vessels, which operate closer to shore. In the case of other species, such as the Balearic shearwater (critically endangered, according to the IUCN), only a small part of their interactions occur within the RAMPE. As for interactions with fish farms, both the data obtained from the GPS devices placed on monitored birds, and those collected in the surveys of fish farm workers, indicate the regular presence of at least two species of seabirds, the yellow-legged gull and the shag.
In light of our results, the RAMPE spaces cover a large part of the waters surrounding the breeding colonies of the populations studied. However, most of these areas currently lack management measures aimed at protecting birds in the marine environment, so it is necessary to regulate the activities carried out in them. For seabirds that make long foraging movements and have wide and dispersed distributions in pelagic zones, the areas under the protection of RAMPE cover only a small proportion of their distribution, as they mainly cover coastal areas.
On the other hand, mitigation measures in relation to fish farms should be aimed at avoiding any type of interaction with farms, to avoid their dependence and entanglement. Finally, we detected two areas that are widely used by seabirds, with a high risk of interaction with fisheries, but without any form of protection: the Canary current, close to the African coast, and the coast of the province of Barcelona. In this sense, a new effort would be necessary to identify important areas for the conservation of seabirds in Spain, based on all the data to monitor the movement of seabirds generated since the declaration of the network of marine SPAs.
To publicize the project and promote awareness of this problem, several scientific-informative talks were scheduled in local organizations and fishermen’s guilds of the main ports, in collaboration with the National Federation of Fishermen’s Guilds and personnel from the aquaculture sector. They also served to promote external collaborations with the fishing fleet (use of GPS on vessels) and fish farms (recording of interactions with birds and storage of carcasses). Likewise, several informative materials were prepared and the entity’s communication channels were used to disseminate the project and its results, registering several news items in the media, and participated in congresses and workshops with three oral communications:
- Workshopon the accidental capture of the Balearic shearwater Puffinus mauretanicus carried out in Madrid: Approximation of different methods to determine the overlap between the Balearic shearwater and the fishing fleet
- Workshop on Marine Reserves (REMAR, Barcelona, 2020): Spatial mismatch between seabird-fishery interactions and marine protected areas: Where do we go from here?
- 2nd Ornithological Congress of the Terres de Parla Catalana (2nd COTPC, Menorca, 2020): Is RAMPE a solution for the conservation of coastal seabirds?
AMARYPESCA - Seabirds as an instrument for improving fisheries and aquaculture management in the context of a sustainable RAMPE.
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