Mediterranean Regional Group
Co-Regional Vice Chairs:
Fabrizio Serena, ARPAT - Environmental Protection Agency - Tuscany Region (Italy)
Alen Soldo, Vice-Dean, Centre of Marine Studies, University of Split (Croatia)
Regional Members:
Alvaro Abella, ARPAT - Environment Protection Agency - Tuscany region (Italy)
Mohammed Abudaya - National Research Centre, Gaza, Palestine (Palestine)
Michel Bariche, American University of Beirut (Lebanon)
Monica Barone, FAO
Claudio Barria Oyarzo, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Instituto de Ciencias del Mar, (ICM) (Spain)
Massimiliano Bottaro, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (Italy)
Mohamed Nejmeddine Bradai, Institut National des Sciences et Technologie de la Mer (INSTM) (Tunisia)
Simona Clo, MedSharks (Italy)
Fulvio Garibaldi, University of Genoa (Italy)
Javier Guallart (Spain)
Farid Hemida, ENSSMAL (Algeria)
Luca Lanteri, University of Genoa (Italy)
Cecilia Mancusi, ARPAT - Environmetal Protection Agency - Tuscany Region (Italy)
Gabriel Morey, Ondine Association (Spain)
Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, Tethys Research Institute (Italy)
François Poisson, IFREMER (France)
Fabrizio Serena, ARPAT - Environmental Protection Agency - Tuscany Region (Italy)
Alen Soldo, Vice-Dean, Centre of Marine Studies, University of Split (Croatia)
Regional Members:
Alvaro Abella, ARPAT - Environment Protection Agency - Tuscany region (Italy)
Mohammed Abudaya - National Research Centre, Gaza, Palestine (Palestine)
Michel Bariche, American University of Beirut (Lebanon)
Monica Barone, FAO
Claudio Barria Oyarzo, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC), Instituto de Ciencias del Mar, (ICM) (Spain)
Massimiliano Bottaro, Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn (Italy)
Mohamed Nejmeddine Bradai, Institut National des Sciences et Technologie de la Mer (INSTM) (Tunisia)
Simona Clo, MedSharks (Italy)
Fulvio Garibaldi, University of Genoa (Italy)
Javier Guallart (Spain)
Farid Hemida, ENSSMAL (Algeria)
Luca Lanteri, University of Genoa (Italy)
Cecilia Mancusi, ARPAT - Environmetal Protection Agency - Tuscany Region (Italy)
Gabriel Morey, Ondine Association (Spain)
Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, Tethys Research Institute (Italy)
François Poisson, IFREMER (France)
Conservation and Management
International Plan of Action: Croatia and Malta are the only two CPs that have adopted specific legal measures for protecting 23 and 3 the species respectively (basking shark Cetorhinus maximus, white shark Carcharodon carcharias and giant devil ray Mobula mobular are included in Annex II). Montenegro included in its legislation as threatened species the white shark and the Porbeagle Lamna nasus (Annex III). Turkey protects the basking shark and the sandbar shark (Carcharhinus plumbeus). Since 2005 Israel has protected all elasmobranch species within their territorial waters. Slovenia protects basking sharks and white shark, but not Mobula. Italy activated in 2009 an assessment program. Even thought this is still in preparation and limited to pelagic sharks, it constitutes a first step towards the formulation of an Action Plan.
General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM): It is crucial that concerted effort be made at a regional level to manage and conserve cartilaginous species present in the Mediterranean basin. Such actions should be contained within the frameworks of those institutions whose mandate involves policy making. In order to suggest programs of evaluation to the conservation status of these organisms at Mediterranean level, GFCM brings together all Mediterranean countries in an international working group (SAC). Each year, one or two meetings of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the GFCM are held to argue the most critical aspects of marine organisms and their habitats. One of the main proposals discussed in the SAC-SCMEE (SAC Sub-Committee on Marine Environmental and Ecosystem) addressing this subject and adopted as recommendation by SAC-GFCM is the MEDLEM program for collection of data and information related to the large cartilaginous fishes living in the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
UNEP Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA): The aim is to assist and help Mediterranean countries in the implementation of the protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity. An Action Plan for the Conservation of Cartilaginous Fishes (Chondrichthyans) in the Mediterranean was approved at the XIII Conference of Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention at Catania, Sicily, in November 2003. Under such umbrella the RAC/SPA in 2003 has produced the Action Plan for the Mediterranean basin. RAC/SPA controls and assesses the activities performed at regional or national levels for the preparation of Action Plans. Such control activities allow the formulation of proposals to update the programs related to action plans, in particular for the threatened cartilaginous species. On this basis, RAC/SPA in 2009, in collaboration with IUCN-SSG, updated the Mediterranean Action Plan, adopting the program MEDLEM, also supported by GFCM, a fundamental tool to bring together other actions already in force. In the mean time, RAC/SPA launched concrete actions scheduled in its program by the activation of activities in different countries as Libya, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Reputed important is the production of the “Guidelines to design legislation and regulations for conservation and management of cartilaginous fish”,
European Community Action Plan: Considering that "sharks are fish species whose conservation falls within the domain of the Common Fishery Policy", aspects concerning shark fishing and management should be addressed by conservation measures dictated by the EC for implementation within EC countries. In this context the EC launched the Community Action Plan (CAP; February 2009) that involves the EU Mediterranean States. The goal of the CAP is to ensure the renewal of stocks that are in danger of collapse due to overfishing and to define, in the mean time, a serious and coherent policy for the management and conservation of sharks within and outside EU waters.
General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM): It is crucial that concerted effort be made at a regional level to manage and conserve cartilaginous species present in the Mediterranean basin. Such actions should be contained within the frameworks of those institutions whose mandate involves policy making. In order to suggest programs of evaluation to the conservation status of these organisms at Mediterranean level, GFCM brings together all Mediterranean countries in an international working group (SAC). Each year, one or two meetings of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the GFCM are held to argue the most critical aspects of marine organisms and their habitats. One of the main proposals discussed in the SAC-SCMEE (SAC Sub-Committee on Marine Environmental and Ecosystem) addressing this subject and adopted as recommendation by SAC-GFCM is the MEDLEM program for collection of data and information related to the large cartilaginous fishes living in the Mediterranean and Black Sea.
UNEP Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA): The aim is to assist and help Mediterranean countries in the implementation of the protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity. An Action Plan for the Conservation of Cartilaginous Fishes (Chondrichthyans) in the Mediterranean was approved at the XIII Conference of Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention at Catania, Sicily, in November 2003. Under such umbrella the RAC/SPA in 2003 has produced the Action Plan for the Mediterranean basin. RAC/SPA controls and assesses the activities performed at regional or national levels for the preparation of Action Plans. Such control activities allow the formulation of proposals to update the programs related to action plans, in particular for the threatened cartilaginous species. On this basis, RAC/SPA in 2009, in collaboration with IUCN-SSG, updated the Mediterranean Action Plan, adopting the program MEDLEM, also supported by GFCM, a fundamental tool to bring together other actions already in force. In the mean time, RAC/SPA launched concrete actions scheduled in its program by the activation of activities in different countries as Libya, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzegovina. Reputed important is the production of the “Guidelines to design legislation and regulations for conservation and management of cartilaginous fish”,
European Community Action Plan: Considering that "sharks are fish species whose conservation falls within the domain of the Common Fishery Policy", aspects concerning shark fishing and management should be addressed by conservation measures dictated by the EC for implementation within EC countries. In this context the EC launched the Community Action Plan (CAP; February 2009) that involves the EU Mediterranean States. The goal of the CAP is to ensure the renewal of stocks that are in danger of collapse due to overfishing and to define, in the mean time, a serious and coherent policy for the management and conservation of sharks within and outside EU waters.
News
- From 11-15 October 2010 in La Valetta, Malta, an ICES Workshop on Sexual Maturity Staging of Elasmobranches (WKMSEL) will be held and it is aimed at the standardization of the procedures of laboratory analysis and onboard during the scientific cruises, preparation of samples, macroscopic and microscopic interpretation and definition of scales.
- Following the decision at the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona 2008 to support the identification of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) a workshop was held in May 2010 at the 39th CIESM Congress in Venice on Critical Habitat of Mediterranean Predators (CHOMP). Chondrichthyans were included in the CHOMP workshop.
- The first field identification Guide to the Skates of the Mediterranean Sea published. It also includes guidelines for data collection and analysis.
- Published Sharks and Rays of the Mediterranean and Black Sea FAO Species Identification Cards. Rome, FAO. 2009.
- The partial sequence of the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome Oxidase subunit I (COI) has been adopted as species DNA barcoding in the framework of the global initiative Barcoding of Life. This programme includes initiatives called FishBOL and SharkBOL that address the barcoding for all bony and cartilaginous fishes.
- In 2016 we published The Conservation Status of Sharks, Rays, and Chimaeras in the Mediterranean Sea in collaboration with the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation, the IUCN Global Species Programme, and experts from the Mediterranean region.
Publications
Barone, M. and Serena, F. 2018. MEDLEM archive to evaluate the by-catch of elasmobranchs in the Mediterranean basin. Fish Forum; Forum on Fisheries Science in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
Cavanagh, R.D. and Gibson, C. 2007. Overview of the Conservation Status of Cartilaginous Fishes (Chondrichthyans) in the Mediterranean Sea. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Malaga, Spain.
Dulvy N.K., Allen D.J., Ralph G.M. and Walls R.H.L. 2016. The Conservation Status of Sharks, Rays, and Chimaeras in the Mediterranean Sea. IUCN, IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation. Campanillas (Málaga), Spain.
FAO. 2018. Species Photographic Plates. Mediterranean Sharks. Rome, Italy.
FAO. 2018. Species Photographic Plates. Mediterranean Skates, Rays, and Chimaeras. Rome, Italy.
Serena, F., Mancusi, C. and Barone, M. 2013. MEDiterranean large Elasmobranchs monitoring. Protocollo di acquisizione dati. SharkLife program,
Roma.
Serena, F. Abella, A.J., Baino, R., Cannas, R., Carbonara, P., Carlucci, R., Facchini, M.T., Ferrari, A., Follesa, M.C., Gancitano, V., Garibaldi, F., Garofalo, G., Giusto, G.B., Lanteri, L., Mancusi, C., Manfredi, C., Mannini, A., Sartor, P., Sbrana, M., Sinacori, G., Sion, L. and Tinti, F. 2018. Preliminary considerations of the status of elasmobranchs in the Italian waters. Fish Forum; Forum on Fisheries Science in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
Cavanagh, R.D. and Gibson, C. 2007. Overview of the Conservation Status of Cartilaginous Fishes (Chondrichthyans) in the Mediterranean Sea. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Malaga, Spain.
Dulvy N.K., Allen D.J., Ralph G.M. and Walls R.H.L. 2016. The Conservation Status of Sharks, Rays, and Chimaeras in the Mediterranean Sea. IUCN, IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation. Campanillas (Málaga), Spain.
FAO. 2018. Species Photographic Plates. Mediterranean Sharks. Rome, Italy.
FAO. 2018. Species Photographic Plates. Mediterranean Skates, Rays, and Chimaeras. Rome, Italy.
Serena, F., Mancusi, C. and Barone, M. 2013. MEDiterranean large Elasmobranchs monitoring. Protocollo di acquisizione dati. SharkLife program,
Roma.
Serena, F. Abella, A.J., Baino, R., Cannas, R., Carbonara, P., Carlucci, R., Facchini, M.T., Ferrari, A., Follesa, M.C., Gancitano, V., Garibaldi, F., Garofalo, G., Giusto, G.B., Lanteri, L., Mancusi, C., Manfredi, C., Mannini, A., Sartor, P., Sbrana, M., Sinacori, G., Sion, L. and Tinti, F. 2018. Preliminary considerations of the status of elasmobranchs in the Italian waters. Fish Forum; Forum on Fisheries Science in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.
