The project “Tecnologías para la reducción del impacto de las capturas accidentales de especies marinas amenazadas en las pesquerías” (Development of Technologies to reduce the impact of bycatch of turtles and cetaceans in fisheries) started in mid 2006 to ensure the continuity of the important advances achieved by the European projects "Conservation of cetaceans and turtles in Andalucia and Murcia" (LIFE02NAT/E/8610) and NECESSITY with respect to the management of several problems of bycatch and depredation affecting the fisheries and several threatened marine species. The project focusses on two problems which constitute at present a priority at international level in the fields of sustainable management of fisheries and conservation of the marine biodiversity:

1. Bycatch of sea turtles on surface longline
2. The use of acoustic deterrent devices to prevent negative interactions (bycatch / depredation) between cetaceans and several fishing gears

Alnitak has run this project, in collaboration with the Earthwatch Institute, from 1999 to July 2008, with teams of volunteers (more than 600) from 52 countries.

The five main objectives of the last phase of the project were:

1. To use the results of the previous phase, carried out in the context of the EC LIFE Nature project, to initiate the development of the conservation and management plans in order to make Alborán a model to be exported to other regions of Europe and the Mediterranean basin. This will be carried out following the recommendation of the ACCOBAMS Scientific Committee meeting of November 2006
2. To continue collaborative efforts with fishermen, whale-watching operators, merchant navy, military navy and coastal community schools in cooperation with the Spanish Directorate General for Biodiversity, acting as leaders of the stakeholder implication working group of OSPAR (Oslo-Paris Convention for the Conservation of the North East Atlantic), in response to the resolutions of the OSPAR meeting of October 2006.
3. To continue developing and improving the statistical modeling tools, focusing on the priorities of the European Union’s 7th Framework priorities and the European Marine Strategy. In this sense, Spanish Dolphins will continue working on making Alborán a testing ground for finding solutions to the logistic and economic challenges of management and monitoring in the open seas.
4. To do a more in-depth investigation and monitoring of the ecology of the cetacean and turtle species inhabiting the Alborán Sea, and especially their abundance and trends over time, habitat use, movement and migration patterns and life cycles, to be able to develop more efficient conservation measures, adapted to the specific ecology of the populations and their habitats.
5. To carry out controlled experiments to test sea turtle bycatch mitigation measures and to test the efficiency of acoustic deterrent devices for cetaceans.

The SCANS-II project aimed to estiamte small cetacean abundance in European Atlantic waters, allowing the assessment and management of bycatch through the development of improved methods for monitoring, and a robust management framework.

European LIFE-Nature funding was awarded to the SCANS-II project in August 2004. Twelve countries further supported the SCANS-II project either through direct cofinancing or as porject partners. The University of St Andrews´ Sea Mammal Resarch Unit (Scotland) coordinated the project, which ended on 31st December 2006.

In 1994 another cetaceans survey was done (SCANS), constituting SCANS-II a spatial extension and anupdate of the estimates 11 years after. In the Figure below a comparison is shown between the areas covered during SCANS in 1994 (in blue) and by SCANS-II in 2005 (blue areas plus the brown areas).

Dr. Ana Cañadas from Alnitak participated as "Cruise Leader" onboard the vessel "Investigador", which covered the waters around the Iberian Peninsula. She was also co-coordinator for the Spanish participation in the project, funded by the Spanish Ministry for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.

For more information on the SCANS-II project visit http://biology.st-andrews.ac.uk/scans2/

The Alboran Sea and its adjacent Mediterranean and Atlantic waters is the only natural “gate” of the Mediterranean biogeographic region. The unique oceanography and the geography of this region make it a region of extraordinary productivity and biological diversity. As one of the European Union’s most valuable marine sites, Alboran is to play a role of special relevance in Europe’s contribution to the Rio Summit for the conservation of biodiversity.

A reflection of this natural richness is the relevance of the region in the framework of the strategies for the conservation of sea turtles and cetaceans, and especially the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus), the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) and the loggerhead (Caretta caretta).

It is with regards to these three species included in the Annex II of the Habitat Directive that the Spanish Cetacean Society initiated the four year LIFE Nature “Conservation of cetaceans and sea turtles in Murcia and Andalusia”, with the partnership of the Spanish Environment and Fisheries Ministries, the Nature Conservation and Fishery Agencies of the regional governments of Andalusia and Murcia, and the University of Cadiz.

The central objective and action of this project has been the development of the Conservation Plans for these species and the Management Plans for their proposed SACs. With the conviction that management in the open seas has to be based on:

• A solid scientific foundation
• The implication of stakeholders

All the other actions of the project have evolved around the development of these conservation plans, contributing at the levels of research to establish the management baseline and develop the monitoring plan, management actions to mitigate the impacts identified threats, capacity building actions to actively implicate stakeholders in the management process and public awareness actions to create the link between the project and the public.

For more information visit http://www.cetaceos.com/life/

This project was developed within the framework of a Collaboration Agreement signed between the General Directorate for the Conservation of Nature of the Spanish Ministry of the Environment, and the Univeristy of Valencia, which involved in its development, apart from that University, also the Universities of Barcelona and Autónoma de Madrid and the ngo ALNITAK. The proyect counted as well with the consultancy of staff from the Spanish Cetacean Society and from the University of Alicante.

The proyect was developed in two phases. The first one aiming at establishing the conservation status of the variosu species and populationsof cetaceans in the SPanish Mediterranean; and the second one identifying the areas of special interest for the conservation of cetaceans in the Spanish Mediterranean. The first phase had four main objectives:

1. Review of all available information
2. Study of the distribution and relative density of the cetacean populations and their habitat use
3. Study of the identity of the cetacean populations
4. Socio-economic analisys of the study areas

Based on all the collected information, the second phase focussed on the identification of the areas of special interest for the conservation of cetaceans in the Spanish Mediterranean and the selection of those areas that should be protected in one way or another to guarantee the favourable conservation status of the different cetacean populations, and especially of those considered as threatened, and in this way fulfill the several recomendations and requirements established under different internationals agreements and commitments subscribed by Spain.

Sperm whales are seen regularly around the Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea but are considered Vulnerable by the Spanish authorities. Information on this population is critically needed for effective conservation.

Research was conducted from a chartered 11m sailing yacht over five field seasons (2003 - 2007). More than 4,000 nautical miles were sailed on effort searching for sperm whales. Sperm whales were encountered 24 times and the survey recorded 120 sightings of other cetaceans and turtles. 42 individual sperm whales were identified during the encounters. Both solitary mature males and female/immature social groups were encountered, and calves were present in some 3 of the social groups. This suggests Balearics waters are an important breeding habitat. High foraging success was recorded relative to other studies, suggesting that these waters are also important foraging habitat.

Sperm whales were only encountered in waters from south of Ibiza to north of Menorca, not north of Mallorca or Ibiza. It appears that certain areas represent preferred habitat around the archipelago. Current data do not allow calculation of confidence intervals for the population size and trends. Therefore, continued monitoring effort is critical for the effective conservation of this population.

See also "Protecting whales in the Mediterranean".

This project was carried out thanks to the support of One World Wildlife. For more information, contact with Dr. Luke Rendell.