Healthy oceans and seas are essential to our existence.They cover 70 percent of our planet and we rely on them for food, energy and water. Yet, we have managed to do tremendous damage to these precious resources. We must protect them by eliminating pollution and overfishing and immediately start to responsibly manage and protect all marine life around the world (from The Global Goals to Sustainable Development).
Today we want to let you know about Portuguese research teams from CCMAR-Algarve working towards supporting the objectives and different targets of SDG14.
A common language to group different types of marine protected areas
With 40% of the world population living in coastal areas, marine ecosystems play a crucial role in the economic, social and political development of many countries. Recognizing their importance, several international mechanisms, including the UN Sustainable Development Goal 14 “Life Below Water”, have pushed to increase the number, size and quality of marine protected areas worldwide. But are marine protected areas all the same?
The need to define a common language to distinguish the different types of marine protected areas has led researchers from the CCMAR-Algarve to develop a new global classification under the BUFFER project. With this new regulation-based classification system, we can distinguish the various protection levels or zones of marine protected areas, based on the activities that are allowed and their potential impacts on species and ecosystems.
Learn more about the BUFFER project
Is the marine park protecting commercial fish species?
If well designed, marine protected areas can both protect marine resources and benefit local fisheries. By allowing individuals to grow bigger within their limits, marine protected areas can increase the reproductive capacity of fish populations, this way ensuring that there are more and bigger fish to catch. But how do we know if they are well designed and delivering the benefits they aim to?
One way to shed light on this question is to monitor fish communities through experimental fishing. Researchers from CCMAR-Algarve have been monitoring the fish communities of sandy and muddy bottoms of the Professor Luiz Saldanha Marine Park for over a decade. In collaboration with commercial fishermen, they fish with trammel nets in the different areas of the Park. All individuals they catch are identified, measured, and whenever possible, released alive after capture. With the information collected, researchers estimate the relative abundance, length and biomass of fish and evaluate the protection provided by the Marine Park.
Monitoring of fish communities
Recovering lost habitats
Once covered by a lush seagrass meadow that offered refuge and feeding for many marine species, the sheltered bays of Portinho da Arrábida and Galápos are today mostly covered by sand. Over decades of intense human pressure from boating and fishing, these bays have lost at least ten hectares of seagrass meadows and all the benefits that these habitats provided. With the creation of the Professor Luiz Saldanha Marine Park, efforts have been made to recover these seagrass meadows.
Researchers from CCMAR-Algarve tested multiple transplant methods, species and donor populations from 2007 until 2011. The successful transplant formula was discovered in 2011, turning small seagrass patches into a 180 m2 meadow in 2017. Researchers continue to monitor and conduct new transplants of these marine plants to recover these lost habitats.
Telemetry studies to support marine protected area management
Where do marine animals travel? And why do they do it? What are their favourite areas and habitats? To answer these questions, biologists tag animals with small acoustic transmitters and detect their movements through a network of receivers that capture the transmitter's signal. These telemetry studies provide critical information for the correct management and conservation of species and habitats.
Researchers from CCMAR-Algarve have been carrying telemetry studies in marine protected areas to analyse the possible impacts of protection measures and fisheries patterns. In the Professor Luiz Saldanha Marine Park, these researchers have studied the movement patterns of several commercial fish and octopus since 2009.
Our efforts to recover the delicate gorgonian populations
They may look like plants, but gorgonians are in fact marine animals that feed on the organic particles found in seawater. Gorgonians are a type of corals very important for the richness of marine ecosystems, as they provide habitat for many species. They are also slow growing animals, which makes them extremely vulnerable to impacts.
In the South West coast of Portugal, researchers from CCMAR Algarve identified and characterized populations of gorgonians, which were found to be suffering human impacts. To recover these populations, these researchers are developing and testing new gorgonian transplant techniques. They have found that one way to do it is to cut small fragments of donor gorgonians and transplant them into impacted areas.