Spatial overlap of key conservation areas for marine predators and human pressures in southern european waters

Abstract

The European Union has adopted the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD, Directive 2008/56/EC) with the objective of achieving or maintaining Good Environmental Status (GES) of European waters by 2020. The MSFD constitutes the legislative instrument devised to protect the marine environment across European waters from the human-­‐related environmental changes that had already negatively affected marine ecosystem functioning and the dynamics of many populations of marine organisms. To achieve GES, Member States will need to address all human activities that have an impact on the marine environment, through an integrated ecosystem-­‐based approach that is spatially explicit. Multidisciplinay surveys are an ideal platform that can provide a synoptic view of the status of marine habitats. PELACUS surveys are conducted annually for acoustic assessment and mapping of the oceanographic and biological conditions of the northern and northwestern shelf of the Iberian Peninsula. The main objective is to monitor the pelagic ecosystem collecting concurrent information on several trophic levels. Since 2007, marine mammal and seabirds sightings have been recorded by dedicated observers, who also collect information on the type and abundance of different types of human pressures (e.g. fishing, marine debris). Using distance sampling methodology, we were able to estimate relative abundance of marine predator species in the region in addition to mapping the areas where they could be more at risk from anthropogenic pressures such as fishing and marine litter. Our objective is to highlight the importance of observer programmes not only in providing (1) baseline information on distribution and abundance of top predators, but (2) also additional information on human pressures. Both types of data are needed to inform any conservation and management plans such as the MSFD.