DEEP DIVING CETACEANS OF THE IONIAN SEA

The Ionian sea is characterized by a deep plane and is mostly included between the east coast of Sicily and the western coast of Greece. Our area of interest is the portion of sea included between the Italian regions of Calabria and Puglia.

These area has never been systematically surveyed and a few reports exist about the presence of sperm whales along the deep canyon that bring cold and rich of nutrients water close to shore. The small continental shelf allowed to reach dept over 1000m within 10 miles from the coast line, and reaching more than 1800m in the central area of the canyon.

All these characteristic designate the area as the perfect habitat for deep diving cetacean as sperm whale and beaked whales.

The survey will be conducted on board of  sailing vessels to allowed the team to spend several consecutive days on the water and maximise the effort and the cost/effectiveness of the study in relation to the vast area of the canyon.

The cetacean will be identified with photo-id techniques and acoustic recording of the click produced buy the sperm whale will be recoded with the use of specific hydrophone.

Data of interest collected during the encounters will include the number, age, sex , characteristic marks of the animals, time at the encounter and weather condition. GPS receiver will be use to record the position of the research vessel and a depth sounder to record the physical characteristics.

The best pictures will be catalogued and shared with other research catalogues of photographically identified animals to track movement of the animals along the Italian coasts and other possible Mediterranean areas.

The data collected will be useful for local government in developing conservation strategies for marine ecosystems, eco-tourism guidelines and development plans.

 

 

In addition to that, we are conducting workshops addressed to students, member of the community, fishermen, water operators and tourists to inform them about the beauty and the fragility of the surrounding marine ecosystem, what they can do and how important is to protect our resources.

 

If you sight a marine mammals in the Tyrrhenian or in the Ionian Sea, please share with us you information

using the “sighting from” in the dedicated page.