07.04.2021 | 3. Investigating an apparent decline of Bottl

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Play, download and edit the free video 07.04.2021 | 3. Investigating an apparent decline of Bottlenose Dolphins in Montenegro.

Investigating an apparent decline of Bottlenose Dolphins in Montenegro & how Citizen Science has helped to fill data gaps during the current pandemic

Laura Rudd, Tim Awbery, Selina Brouwer, Sian McGuinness, Enorha Guimard, Liam van Walsum, Aylin Akkaya

The alarming state of sharks and ray in the world and specifically in the Mediterranean Sea has been described again and again. In order to create effective management plans for species conservation of the species, we need basic ecological data as abundance, seasonality and population trends. Regional species composition is a crucial step in identifying important areas for their high diversity, keystone and endangered species. Within the elasmobranch group the gap between the risk assessments and the basic ecological knowledge is extremely vast.

Large scale datasets are being built all over the world for both terrestrial and marine species. Given the relative rarity of sharks and rays, methods that are used for scientific surveys or citizen science projects, do not succeed in their case. A more direct and intentional search method is needed for searching elasmobranchs records. Since the Mediterranean coast is divided into many nationalities and many languages, such effort will be best accomplished in small research groups, familiar with the language and local customs. The MECO project is also unique in the use of popular platforms, widely used by people around the world, thus requiring very little effort or commitment from the observers. Such commitment is usually very difficult to maintain through time.

The MECO project aims to bridge the knowledge gap, utilizing public knowledge and social media. Local scientists are searching the media, contacting the public and creating a large, verified database of elasmobranchs observations. The project began in 2014 as a Facebook group named “sharks in Israel” followed by the Greek NGO “iSea” which joined in two years later and establish its own Facebook group collecting data from Greece and Cyprus. Requesting observations from the public on an open media also exposes the public to scientific research, species variation and result in public education as an additional outcome of data collection.

Other groups around the Mediterranean have joined the MECO project from Turkey, Spain, France, Libya, Italy, Malta, Montenegro and Albania. Our groups have nearly 30,000 members who report, share information, ask questions and learn about shark and rays. All together we have so far collected over 6000 observations of 65 species of sharks and rays, from 19 countries.

In some regions we were able to describe Seasonal changes for the most observed species, distribution along the coast and differences in species composition and seasonality among regions. The data allows us to analyze the changes through time, and to pinpoint key locations and seasons for specific species.

The MECO project is based on collaboration and education and is planned as a long-term venture. We aspire that the data collected will contribute much needed information on the status of Mediterranean elasmobranchs and will be used to improve conservation efforts in this data deficient region.

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