Disease control is one of the priorities for aquaculture, affecting production, animal welfare, product quality and the environment. This project aimed to obtain definitive diagnosis and control tools to manage one of the main disease agents affecting the bluefin tuna (Thunnus spp.), the blood flukes (Trematoda, Aporocotylidae), also found in gilthead seabream (Sparus aurata) aquaculture. These parasites can cause both lethal and sublethal effects which provoke significant material and economic losses. Once the species are diagnosed, the success on infection management depends on knowing transmission dynamics of parasites, according to their life-cycles, seasonal patterns and particular environmental conditions. Moreover, this project will also provide new tools for easy nonlethal detection of these parasites. Results on this project can be significant both for the Mediterranean aquaculture and the scientific community overall. This project will be developed with the support of the Ministry for Science, Innovation and Universities.

Aquaculture is considered an anisakis-free sector and this is a quality seal to maintain. Anisakis species (Anisakis spp.) are, however, ubiquitous in the sea and can reach fish whether fed with fresh fish instead of feed. It is therefore advisable to maintain constant vigilance to avoid infections associated with risk practices and routines that still exist in aquaculture. The objectives of this project are to identify the main reasons explaining remaining risks in aquaculture, analyze them, provide tools for risk assessment and guidelines to avoid them and explore the real risk of anisakis infection in practices of fresh fish feeding. The achievement of these objectives will allow providing guidelines and prevention tools, useful for the sectors involved and the consumers. This project (2020-21) will be developed during 2020-2021 with the collaboration of the Biodiversity Foundation, of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, through the Pleamar call, co-financed by FEMP.

53% of the elasmobranchs (sharks and rays) of the Mediterranean are at risk of extinction, while for 18% there is not enough information to assess their status. Fishing overexploitation and degradation of their habitats are the main causes of the decline in elasmobranch populations. In many areas, the deficiency in the catch and landing data represents an impediment to knowing the real state of these populations. This project aims to evaluate, during 2020-2022, the abundance and distribution of the elasmobranchs of the Spanish Mediterranean through fishing data obtained from fishing observation and landing programs, as well as to identify which species are most vulnerable to the fishing impact. This information is essential to improve knowledge about elasmobranchs and the establishment of effective measures for their management and conservation in Spanish Mediterranean waters. With the support of the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, through the Biodiversity Foundation.

https://eceme.blogs.uv.es/

In the Mediterranean, 22 species of cetaceans have been cited, of which 8 have regular populations: the common whale, the sperm whale, , the pilot wahale, the Risso´s dolphin, the Cuvier’s whale, the killer whale, the bottlenose dolphin, the common dolphin and the striped dolphin. These species are usually present in the waters included in the Marine Protected Area “Mediterranean Cetacean Migration Corridor”. In addition, all these species enjoy various protection figures. This project will investigate, during 2020-2021, the distribution and abundance of cetacean populations in the southern zone of said protected area and evaluate the main anthropogenic threats, such as maritime traffic and interaction with fisheries, in order to provide baseline information to establish future measures of management and dynamic management. With the support of the Spanish Ministry for Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, through the Biodiversity Foundation.

https://comicetsur.blogs.uv.es/

The project targets the EU populations of two sea turtle species, Caretta caretta and Chelonia mydas, which are listed as a priority for conservation in both Annex II and IV of the Habitats Directive. The EU population of Caretta caretta breeds mainly in Greece and Cyprus, with minor nesting sites in Italy and Spain, while its foraging areas occur in the wide continental shelves of the Adriatic and off Tunisia, as well as in the Aegean and along the north Africa coast. The EU population of Chelonia mydas breeds in Cyprus and its foraging areas occur in Turkey, Greece, Albania and north Africa up to Tunisia. Nesting sites are threatened by habitat loss caused by the development of tourism, intensive beach use, and by predation from animals favoured by human presence. At foraging grounds, sea turtles are incidentally caught and killed in high numbers by fishing gear, especially trawl nets, longlines and set nets.

http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/project/Projects/index.cfm?fuseaction=search.dspPage&n_proj_id=7299

INDICIT II is a two year project (February 2019 – February 2021 funded by the European Union, and continues from the INDICIT I project which ran from 2017 – 2019. The consortium, composed of researchers from 12 partners in 8 different countries (France, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Tunisia, Turkey and the United Kingdom), is committed to support the implementation of EU’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and other international environmental policies aiming at protecting the marine environment (especially the Barcelona convention, the OSPAR convention, the HELCOM  etc).

INDICIT is a project funded by the European Union. The consortium, composed of researchers from 7 different countries, is committed to support the implementation of EU’s Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD) and other international environmental policies aiming at protecting the marine environment (especially the Barcelona convention, the OSPAR convention, the HELCOM etc). INDICIT focuses on the Descriptor 10 of the MSFD (“Marine Litter”), which aims to maintain or achieve the Good Environmental Status (GES) of the marine environment by 2020 with respect to marine litter. The overarching aim is to develop a set of standardized tools for monitoring the impacts of litter on marine fauna as bio-indicators: Indicator 1 “macro-litter ingested by sea turtle (debris items >5 mm)”, Indicator 2 “Marine wildlife entanglement in debris (all taxa)” and Indicator 3 “micro-litter ingested by fish/ sea turtle (debris items <1mm)”.

https://indicit-europa.eu/

The EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive considers marine litter as one of the most concerning causes of pollution of the sea and states that the Good Environmental State is reached when “properties and quantities of marine litter do not cause harm to the coastal and marine environment”. Similar consideration has been done by the Mediterranean Countries that adopted the Barcelona Convention in which ensuring that marine litter does not affect biodiversity and ecosystem services has been incorporated as a main ecological objective. Although many Mediterranean organisations are working on this issue, there is not any widely-accepted protocols to assess pollution by marine litter. For this reasons, MEDSEALITTER proposes to network representative MPAs, scientific organizations and environmental NGOs for developing, testing and delivering efficient, easy to apply and cost-effective protocols to monitor and manage litter impact on biodiversity.

https://es-la.facebook.com/medsealitter/

More info…http://zoomar.blogs.uv.es/medsealitter/ 

The TREPAQUAMED project is focused on the study of the trasnsmission and life cycles of those trematodes (Platyhelminthes) related with pathologies in Mediterranean fish cultures. We also will study how their life cycles are modified by the seasonality and environmental changes. The cycle of these parasites is very sensitive to external variables, which, joined to the high Mediterranean environmental variability, makes them ideal models for studying the possible impact of global change on the transmission of parasites. 

The Marine Biology Unit of the Cavanilles Institute of Biodiversity and Evolutionary Biology receives the Biodiversity and Society award in the form of Research Applied to the Conservation of Biodiversity by the Generalitat Valenciana. The jury praised the contribution of the Unit of the University of Valencia to scientific knowledge of the populations of cetaceans and sea turtles in the Valencian coast, as well as the maintenance for 25 years of the Cetacean and Sea Turtles stranding network.

http://www.pcuv.es/en/news-room/noticias-destacadas/2015/premi-zoomar