Line of action:

Marine ecosystems

Status:

En ejecución

Location:

Basque Country

Execution date:

2022

Duration:

01/01/2022 - 31/12/2025

Total budget:

374.000€

Amount of aid from the Biodiversity Foundation:

€354,502.37 (94.79%)

The official stranding network of the Basque Country has been in operation for 8 years with good results thanks to the involvement of the NGO AMBAR. However, this network has been limited to the management of strandings in the field. In the last 7 years, thanks to a collaboration agreement between the UPV/EHU and AMBAR (renewed on 6/3/2020), samples of cetaceans, pinnipeds, sharks and sea turtles have been collected on a pilot basis for archiving and analysis in the Biobank of the Plentzia Marine Station (PiE-UPV/EHU).

The project will systematize the incorporation of samples into the Biobank of the Plentzia Marine Station (PiE-UPV/EHU). Scientific and technical knowledge about the state of the populations of the different species will also be expanded.

Some of the actions that this project will carry out are:

• To obtain a significant number of entities committed to complying with the protocol of the stranding network.
• Assistance to all registered strandings.
• Carrying out training courses for volunteers who can participate in network assistance work or participate in research work associated with the stranding network.
• To generate and apply an action protocol in collaboration with agents involved in the recovery of species of fauna in poor condition adapted to the peculiarities of the Basque Coast (accessibility, orography, meteorology, competition between institutions).
• Fast and efficient collection, storage and archiving of samples from necropsied animals.
• To determine the areas of the Basque coast with the highest historical number of strandings in order to give informative talks to schoolchildren, society in general, and to establish contact with the competent authorities in the collection and management of stranded remains.