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The following proposal is conceptually and methodologically framed with the projects “The assessment of ecosystem services applied to fisheries management” (EME) and “Evaluation and valuation of marine ecosystem services of the Natura 2000 Network within the framework of the LIFE-IP INTEMARES (EME-RED2000) project.

According to the entity, the results obtained in these investigations reflect a constant loss of biodiversity, an increase in the supply service of technified fishing, a loss in regulation services and an increase in cultural services. The evolution of fishing, carbon sequestration by posidonia meadows and recreation in Natura 2000 Network areas estimated through different management scenarios, emphasize the importance of these areas and the need to expand their limits to guarantee the supply of services over time.

In this context, there is a need to analyse the dynamics of marine food webs in Natura 2000 Network areas, as well as to assess the impact of the different fisheries policies at regional, state and European level on biodiversity and its food webs. According to the entity, the results obtained will help decision-making to manage fisheries and the conservation of biodiversity in the long term in the Natura 2000 Network and will be very useful for later phases of the LIFE INTEMARES project, and for the development of the different Marine Strategies.

The general objective of the project has been to analyse the state and dynamics of marine biodiversity in the Natura 2000 Network in Spain, and to assess the impact of the different fisheries policies at European, state and regional level.

The specific objectives were as follows:

• Review and update the existing information related to marine biodiversity in the study area to select the marine demarcations to be analysed.
• To model the marine food webs of three marine demarcations: the Strait of Gibraltar and Alboran marine demarcation, the South Atlantic marine demarcation and the North Atlantic marine demarcation.
• To evaluate the fisheries supply service and its trend in the Natura 2000 Network areas from 1985 to the present.
• To assess the trend of fisheries policies on biodiversity and its food webs in Natura 2000 Network areas.
• Dissemination and communication of results.

• Bibliographic review of the 110 scientific articles published on the subject worked on in the last 5 years. The articles collected have dealt with the relationships and interconnections between biodiversity, fisheries, integrity of the marine ecosystem, protected areas and provision of ecosystem services in the project study area (marine demarcation of the Strait and Alboran, South Atlantic marine demarcation and North Atlantic marine demarcation).
• Review of reports and international publications related to the subject and selection of indicators that have subsequently been used to assess the impact of fishing on the state of biodiversity and the effectiveness of conservation and management regulations. To this end, the databases of different institutions and public administrations (Ministries of Agriculture and Fisheries of the competent regional governments, MITECO, MAPAMA, IEO, INE, UE, IUCN and The International Council for the Exploration of the Sea-ICES) have been consulted, finally bringing together 24 technical reports of interest.
• Review and updating of fisheries statistics, designing 4 databases of the areas studied (Gulf of Cadiz, Alboran Sea, Galicia and Asturias) that collect the amount of biomass landed annually by species and another database of the characteristics of the fishing fleet of each region for the historical series in which data are available in the European Register of the Fishing Fleet.
• Review of the current state of fisheries conservation and management regulations , generating databases at European, national and regional level in order to obtain indicators that evaluate the evolution of regulations.
• Identification of the 16 most relevant Natura 2000 Network areas for the study, 8 of them located in Andalusia, 6 in Galicia and 2 in Asturias.
• Acquire the necessary skills to use the ECOPATH and ECOSIM programs for modeling the dynamics of food webs.
• Identification of the food webs of the Natura 2000 Network areas chosen as the object of study.
• Analysis of the past trend of the fisheries supply service through indicators, studying for each of the study areas the evolution of the biomass extracted in the period of time from 1985-2019 and its relationship with other variables, such as the type of fishing or the number of fishable species. The results obtained have made it possible to highlight the different behaviours of the analysed areas, since while in the studies carried out in Asturias and Galicia the biomass caught maintains a stable trend, the results of the analysis of the Alboran Sea and the Gulf of Cadiz show evidence of overfishing.
• Analysis of the relationships and interconnections between biodiversity loss, fisheries, marine ecosystem integrity and the delivery of ecosystem services in the Natura 2000 Network areas chosen as the object of study.
• Writing of the final report with everything developed throughout the project. In addition, it contains 4 annexes that allow the review of the results and large complementary information of the different analyses.
• Synthesis of results to emphasize the most relevant data and facilitate their dissemination. To this end, a brief summary of the project has been added to the final report and the main ideas on the past trend of the fisheries supply service, the fisheries policies on biodiversity and the characteristics of the food webs for each study area have been collected.
• Dissemination and communication of the project, through the holding of two seminars in order to publicize the objectives and results of the project, publications in the Project Twitter account, the preparation of a scientific article, the participation of collaborators in the V Congress of Biodiversity and Nature Conservation presenting the evaluation of the impact of fishing pressure and the evolution of the state of marine biodiversity in the Natura 2000 Network areas of Galicia and Asturias, and the giving of a talk on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science at the Faculty of Biology of the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, entitled “Extractivist vision of fisheries management, is fish just food?” where some results of the project were presented.

The general objective of the EME-MAR project has been to analyse the state of marine biodiversity and its relationship with the dynamics of food webs in different marine Natura 2000 Network spaces in Galicia, Asturias and Andalusia, as well as to assess the impact of the different fisheries policies on marine biodiversity. To this end, the existing information related to the scope of study has been reviewed and updated to evaluate the fisheries supply service from 1985 to the present, the trend of fisheries policies on biodiversity and the food webs of two Natura 2000 Network sites in the Gulf of Cadiz and 2 in the Bank of Galicia have been modelled.

The main results show a high loss of biodiversity since 1985 in the four marine areas studied. The main drivers of change are related to the increase in the population and consumption of fish and seafood. In the case of the Gulf of Cadiz and the Alboran Sea, this trend of biodiversity loss is more pronounced, presenting indicators of overfishing. In these areas, according to the Autonomous University of Madrid, although there are numerous regulations implemented, they are not enough or are not efficient enough to stop the continuous loss of marine biodiversity. On the other hand, both in Galicia and in Asturias these measures are capable of maintaining over time the supply service and the amount of biomass extracted from marine ecosystems thanks to fisheries stock management measures, although there is also a decreasing trend in biodiversity.

According to the entity, in the four areas studied there is a sharp decrease in the industrial fishing fleet , especially since the 2000s, when the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF) began to support different financial lines to help fishermen adapt their boats and industrial fishing gear towards sustainable fishing methods. which has indirectly led to a slight improvement in the artisanal fishing fleet, highlighting the Gulf of Cadiz in the care and maintenance of artisanal fisheries in the area.

On the other hand, the analyses of the fisheries supply service and the relationships of this service with the state of conservation of biodiversity have been carried out in 16 Natura 2000 Network sites in Andalusia (8), Galicia (6) and Asturias (2). On the other hand, the analysis of the identification of food webs using ECOPATH models has been developed focusing on 4 spaces: the Gulf of Cadiz marine space due to its relevance in the protection of waterbirds; the mud volcanoes of the Gulf of Cadiz due to the wide variety of habitats it presents; and the SCI and the Banco de Galicia SPA since the characteristics of this area allow the establishment of complex and very diverse communities.

Finally, it should be noted that the results of the project suggest that the best response to the loss of marine biodiversity is the combination of two factors: on the one hand, a solid administrative response in the form of a network of marine protected areas and, on the other, fisheries management regulations and the maintenance and care of the cultural services provided by the ecosystem.