About this Research Topic

Background

It is estimated that almost 10% of the worldwide marine biodiversity is encountered in the Mediterranean Sea which only represents 1% of oceans & seas. Whales, dolphins and other marine megafauna (seabirds, turtles, large fish) play a key role in maintaining the equilibrium of marine ecosystems and are an essential component of the natural heritage of Mediterranean and Black Sea countries. However, these species face a variety of significant threats: risk of collisions with maritime traffic, bycatch in fishing gears, habitat degradation, acoustic disturbance, chemical pollution and marine litter, climate change. The “ACCOBAMS Survey Initiative” (ASI) is a pilot program aimed at establishing an integrated and coordinated monitoring system for cetaceans throughout the entire ACCOBAMS area (Mediterranean and Black Seas). Conducted in coordination with riparian countries, it supports the implementation of European and regional policies, in particular the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD-EU) and the Ecosystem Approach process (Barcelona Convention UNEP/MAP). In summer 2018-2019, a synoptic line-transect sampling survey was carried out across the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic area, combining visual methods (aerial surveys) and visual and passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) from vessels (focused primarily on deep diving species and areas where aerial surveys were not possible).

The 2018-2019 effort has provided an overall picture of the distribution and abundance of cetaceans, marine megafauna, and floating marine litter throughout the ACCOBAMS area, providing robust estimates to be considered as a baseline for further regional systematic monitoring programs, coordinated and comparable amongst all areas.
These data will improve the current knowledge on the status of these species and our understanding of underlying ecological processes, facilitate the development of targeted conservation and mitigation measures and allow for the follow-up to international obligations (EU, UNEP-MAP). Moreover, they will be used to support both place- and threat-based conservation efforts in the Agreement area, with the identification of Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) and Cetacean Critical Habitats (CCHs), respectively, or comparable instruments for other taxa.
Many data requests have been submitted to the ACCOBAMS Secretariat, aiming to analyze different parts of the multi-species dataset collected during the campaigns. The goal of this Research Topic is to invite scientists to submit research articles stemming out of the data, ranging from methodological to conservation and management papers. We aim at having articles of different taxa as well, from cetaceans to marine turtles, birds and large fish and elasmobranchs, including the interactions between marine megafauna species and marine litter.

We envisage article topics to address the use of the ASI data on marine megafauna notably to:

• estimate density and abundance through both visual and acoustic
• explore ecological mechanisms related to the distribution of marine megafauna
• examine potential interactions with human activities and human-induced threats such as marine litter
• provide conservation indication
• suggest mitigation measures
• enhance place-based conservation
• discuss methodological issues and implications

Keywords: Aerial and visual surveys, density and abundance, multi-target, large-scale monitoring, cetaceans, conservation

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