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The species
Halimeda incrassata
is an algae that, according to the organization, has been newly detected in the Mediterranean and has colonized the coasts of Mallorca. The University of the Balearic Islands indicates that this species could have strong ecological impacts on native ecosystems. In addition, because of its novelty, its strong invasive potential and the impacts it could have on native species, understanding the factors limiting its expansion, applying new technologies for detection and mappingand identify appropriate eradication techniques are decisive actions for a more efficient adequate managementThese would have a key impact on the successful management of this algae and the conservation of native habitats, both in the Balearic Islands and in other areas of the Mediterranean basin and the rest of Spain.

The main objective of the project has been to study, detect and eradicate the invasive species Halimeda incrassata using a remotely operated submarine and catamaran.

• Identification of potential consumers of Halimeda incrassata by preference experiments.
• Underwater imaging using autonomous marine vehicles.
• Image preprocessing and labeling.
• Design and training of a deep neural network that performs semantic image segmentation automatically.
• Evaluation of the results obtained by the deep neural network.
• Generation of coverage maps of Halimeda incrassata.
• Study of eradication techniques.
• Eradication of the species Halimeda incrassata in the National Maritime-Terrestrial Park of the Cabrera Archipelago (PNMTAC) through citizen involvement.
• Monitoring of eradicated areas.
• Dissemination and communication of the project.

The project has carried out a study on Halimeda incrassata, a tropical algae newly detected for the Mediterranean, which, according to the organization, has recently colonized the coasts of the Balearic Islands and could have strong ecological impacts on native ecosystems.

In this project it has been observed that, unfortunately, native species of herbivores (fish, sea urchins) are not able to contribute substantially to limiting this species. Among the actions carried out, different eradication techniques have been tested, such as hypersaline shock (salt concentration higher than that of seawater), loss of light or manual removal, proving that a combination of the first two could be useful, as long as there is early detection of this species in a new area.

Likewise, using autonomous marine vehicles, geolocalized images of areas invaded by Halimeda incrassata have been obtained, and by means of artificial intelligence, precise, geolocalized and high spatial resolution maps of the algae present in the Cabrera National Park have been generated in an automated manner.

In addition, with the help of citizen science, new areas of invasion of this species and other invasive algae species have been detected in various parts of the Western Mediterranean, both in Spain and in other countries.