General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean - GFCM

Virtual training course on the identification and handling of vulnerable species incidentally caught during fishing operations


17/01/2022

 

Co-organized by the GFCM and the Regional Coordination Group for the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, in the context of the Medbycatch Project and the EU Data Collection Framework.

Background: The incidental catch of vulnerable species in fisheries (or bycatch) represents an important conservation issue in the Mediterranean and Black Sea for a number of vulnerable species, including marine mammals, sea turtles, sea birds, sharks and rays, and macrobenthic invertebrates. Understanding bycatch and adopting effective measures to reduce it are essential steps towards minimizing the incidental catch of vulnerable species and, more generally, conserving the marine ecosystems, as well as ensuring a sustainable fishery sector. Virtual training courses on the identification and handling of vulnerable species incidentally caught in Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries – marine mammals, sea turtles, seabirds, sharks and rays, macrobenthic invertebrates – are organized for scientific observers to promote standardized monitoring and data collection schemes at the GFCM level. Download the information note. 

1 February 2022, 09.30 - 12.30 / 14.00 - 17.00 CET | Marine mammals

In the Mediterranean and in the Black Sea, marine mammals have always had a conflictual relationship with fishing activities/fishers, to a greater or lesser degree depending on the historical period, the type of fishing gear and species involved and socio-economic factors. Correct identification of species and standardized monitoring programmes would facilitate the application of management measures in areas where those negative interactions continue to occur. 

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Joan GONZALVO is a marine biologist whose main research interest is the conservation of the marine environment and, more specifically, the study and conservation of marine mammals. He holds a doctorate in Biodiversity from the University of Barcelona. In 1999 he started his collaboration with the Tethys Research Institute. Since 2007, he is member of Tethys’ Board of Directors. Between 2000 and 2005, Joan was a member of the Group for the Study and Conservation of Marine Mammals at the University of Barcelona. He has participated in a number of diverse projects involving work on dolphin-fisheries interactions, dolphin population estimates and behavioural studies with the aim of producing sound information to promote conservation action. For over two decades he has spent 1 000+ hours observing dolphin groups in their natural environment in different Mediterranean locations and has designed and executed numerous public awareness campaigns. Joan is experienced in research methods including ship-based, land-based and aerial surveys on cetaceans, individual photo-identification, behavioural sampling, remote biopsy sampling, cetacean dissection techniques and tissue sampling on stranded animals. He is regularly engaged in training and teaching young scientist wanting to gain experience in cetacean research. In addition, Joan has worked as consultant of the UNEP’s Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA) and for the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans in the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic area (ACCOBAMS) on the preparation, among others, of National Action Plans for the Conservation of Cetaceans in Syria and Lebanon, respectively. Between 2015-2019 he acted as Council member of the European Cetacean Society; since 2020 he is Chair of the ECS Council. He is member of the Scientific Committee of ACCOBAMS and in January 2020 became also member of the IUCN Species Survival Commission (SSC) Cetacean Specialist Group (CSG). Since 2006 his research is carried out mainly in western Greece, where he leads the Ionian Dolphin Project. He speaks Catalan, Spanish, English, Italian and Greek. 

Ayaka AMAHA ÖZTÜRK is a marine biologist who obtained her doctorate from the Tokyo University of Fisheries on the taxonomical study of common dolphins. She currently works at the Faculty of Aquatic Sciences, Istanbul University / Turkish Marine Research Foundation (TUDAV) where she has been conducting research on cetaceans and working on their conservation for over 25 years. Since 1996 she has worked at the Faculty of Aquatic Sciences as a lecturer. She is among the first to develop a stranding network on the Turkish coast to study migration of cetaceans in the Turkish Straits System, monitor bycatch in fishing operations, particularly in the turbot nets, make a species inventory based on the existing sighting and stranding data, and understand the contamination of pollutants in cetaceans. She works as an advisor on biodiversity for TUDAV, an accredited organization to ACCOBAMS. She was a member of the Council for the European Cetacean Society in 2010-2012. She has represented CIESM in the Scientific Committee of ACCOBAMS since 2011 and is also co-chairing the ACCOBAMS-ASCOBANS Joint Working Group on Cetacean Bycatch. 

Sandro MAZZARIOL is an Associated Professor of Veterinary Pathology at the Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Food Science of the University of Padova with a special interest in monitoring marine vertebrate strandings, including marine mammals and sea turtles, to assess the impact of anthropic related activities on their conservation. Since 2010 he coordinates the Cetaceans stranding Emergency Response Team within the Italian National Stranding Network being member of several working groups within the Ministry for the Environment and Health. He has been involved in several national and international projects dealing with marine vertebrates management and health as the Adriatic Interreg NETCET, TARTA-TUR a conservation project involving four FLAGs in the Northern Adriatic Coast, or LIFE DELFI to lower interaction between fisheries and dolphins main activities were related to capacity building programs on postmortem investigations and emergency response and to develop standardized procedures, among which the diagnostic framework to assess interaction with fisheries. In the last years, he has worked with ACCOBAMS to implement actions related to strandings and, currently, he's the chair of the International Whaling Commission Stranding Expert Panel supporting training and emergency response activities worldwide.  

3 February 2022, 10.00 - 12.30 / 14.00 - 16.30 CET | Sea turtles

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Robin SNAPE is a Research Fellow at University of Exeter (United Kingdom) and a board member at Society for Protection of Turtles (SPOT). He published research has focused on many aspects of sea turtle ecology including strandings, interactions with fisheries, habitat use, migration, diet, consumption of plastics, genetics, growth, climate change impacts and nesting ecology. He currently oversees an observation program in small-scale fisheries where he regularly deals with cases of sea turtle bycatch and is investigating and implementing mitigation measures for bycatch in small-scale fisheries. Robin also works as a consultant auditing sea turtle bycatch in the global supply chains of international retail chains. 

7 February 2022, 09.30 - 12.30 / 14.00 - 17.00 CET | Elasmobranchs

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Mohamed Nejmeddine BRADAI is a professor of higher education at the National Institute of Marine Science and Technology (INSTM) in Tunisia and the head of the Laboratory of Marine Biodiversity. He works on the biology, ecology and conservation of marine vertebrates (fish, turtles and cetaceans) with an emphasis on the inventory of species and habitats of special interest for endangered and alien species. He received an engineering degree in marine living resource exploitation from the Institution of Agricultural Research and Higher Education in Tunis. He also has three post-graduate degrees (master's, doctorate and state doctorate). He is member of the Shark Specialist Group of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and contributed as a scientific expert to various elasmobranch species assessments. He was also a member of the scientific committee of the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic area (ACCOBAMS). Mr Bradai was among the first to develop a stranding network on the Tunisian coasts to study marine turtles and cetaceans, now extended to other taxa including sharks. He has coordinated the network since its creation in 2004. Besides research, he has been teaching and supervising students at different levels: six masters and five theses dealing with sharks were achieved. In addition, Mr Bradai has worked as a consultant on sea turtles and elasmobranchs for the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (SPA/RAC) and elaborated, among others, the 2020 Action Plan for the Conservation of Cartilaginous Fishes (Chondrichthyans) in the Mediterranean Sea and the 2021 Action Plan for the Conservation of Cartilaginous Fishes (Chondrichthyans) in the Mediterranean Coast of Egypt. 

Samira ENAJJAR is a marine biologist in the Laboratory of Marine Biodiversity at the National Institute of Marine Science and Technology (INSTM), in Tunisia. Since 2000, she has conducted research on biodiversity, fisheries and taxonomy of elasmobranchs, mainly of batoids, in the Gulf of Gabès. Her doctorate focused on the taxonomy, eco-biology and fishery of the rhinobatids family. She is also part of the Medbycatch project. She is regularly engaged in training courses related to taxonomy of rays in many national and international projects. Ms Enajjar participated in the elaboration of the Mediterranean Angel Sharks Regional Action Plan and was a member of the FAO MedSudMed working groups on elasmobranchs in the south-central Mediterranean. 

Bechir SAIDI is a marine biologist who obtained his doctorate from the University of Sfax, Tunisia, on the taxonomy, biology and fishery of sharks. Since 2002, he has been a member of the Laboratory of Marine Biodiversity at the National Institute of Marine Sciences and Technologies (INSTM) where he conducts research on elasmobranchs to assess the impact of anthropic-related activities on their conservation. He has been involved in several national and international projects dealing with elasmobranchs biology, taxonomy and fisheries interactions with the aim of producing comprehensive data to promote conservation. For over two decades, he has examined several elasmobranch specimens (sharks and batoids) in harbours and has executed numerous public awareness campaigns. He is regularly engaged in training and teaching young researchers and non-governmental organizations wanting to gain experience in the identification of elasmobranchs and conservation procedures. 

9 February 2022, 09.30 - 12.30 / 14.00 - 17.00 CET | Seabirds

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Pep ARCOS is a biologist with a particular interest in Mediterranean marine conservation, focusing his work on seabirds. He devoted his PhD thesis (Universitat de Barcelona, 2001), and later his post-doctoral research (University of Glasgow, 2002-2005) to study the foraging ecology of Mediterranean seabirds from a marine perspective, paying particular attention to issues related to applied ecology and conservation (seabird-fishery interactions, pollutants, etc.). In 2005 he joined SEO BirdLife to work more directly on conservation issues, and is now the coordinator of SEO BirdLife’s marine programme. As such, he has gained  experience on several issues related to the conservation of seabirds and the marine environment, through applied research, conservation projects, policy and dissemination. The past few years have focused on the identification of marine Important Bird Areas and their effective protection, as well as the collaborative work with fishermen to address seabird bycatch.  He has also been an associated lecturer at the University of Barcelona since 2018, teaching several subjects related to marine ecology and conservation.

11 February 2022, 10.00 - 12.30 / 14.00 - 16.30 CET | Macrobenthic invertebrates (corals and sponges)

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Francesco ENRICHETTI is a postdoc at the University of Genoa in Italy, where he obtained a doctorate in marine science in 2019. His research mainly focuses on Mediterranean megabenthic communities from circalittoral to bathyal depths. He participated in several projects targeting the characterization of benthic biocoenoses (both in Mediterranean and Chilean areas) through scuba diving, remote operated vehicle exploration and as an on-board observer. He has experience in artisanal and trawl fisheries bycatch identification and monitoring. He has extensive knowledge in data management, GIS mapping, community analyses and multi-parametric ecological indicators. Francesco cooperates with the Italian Institute for the Environmental Protection (ISPRA) for the implementation of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive in the Italian waters. He also collaborates with CoNISMa and RAC/SPA for a study of deep-sea fauna and habitats.

Vasilis GEROVASILEIOU is an assistant professor of marine biodiversity in the Department of Environment of the Ionian University on Zakynthos Island, Greece, and visiting researcher in the Hellenic Centre for Marine Research (HCMR). He has 11 years of professional experience in marine science and has been involved in more than 45 research projects, oceanographic studies and environmental impact assessments), in collaboration with several research and academic institutions, MPAs, NGOs and the private sector. His research focuses on a) marine biodiversity, with an emphasis on benthic invertebrates, b) marine ecology, with an emphasis on dark habitats, c) impacts of biological invasions and climate change on marine ecosystems, d) marine conservation and e) biodiversity research infrastructures. He is the coordinator of the World Register of Marine Cave Species (WoRCS) and participates in the FAO Working Group on VMEs, the core group of the LifeWatchGreece Research Infrastructure and the Ellenic Network on Aquatic Invasive Species (ELNAIS). He has served as a scientific consultant for UNEP/MAP-RAC/SPA and IUCN, as well as a national expert on marine biodiversity for the Greek Ministry of Environment and Energy in the framework of the post-2020 SAP-BIO. Since 2020 he has been the co-editor-in-chief of the Mediterranean Marine Science journal. He is an author of 76 papers in peer review journals, 24 special editions and book chapters and over 150 contributions in conferences. He is also a member of the scientific committee for the Medbycatch project.