Cold-water coral communities in the Central Mediterranean: aspects on megafauna diversity, fishery resources and conservation perspectives

Abstract

In the last two decades, many new living cold-water coral (CWC) sites throughout the Mediterranean basin have been discovered and investigated. As part of oceanographic cruises, using ROVs and towed cameras, and trawl and longline surveys as well as records from fishermen, a belt of CWC communities has been identified along the Apulian continental margin (Central Mediterranean). The most investigated CWC communities are those of the Santa Maria di Leuca (SML) CWC province (northern Ionian Sea) and Bari Canyon (BC) (southern Adriatic Sea). These communities are mainly structured by the habitat-former species Madrepora oculata and, to a lesser extent, by Lophelia pertusa together with Dendrophyllia cornigera, solitary species, such as Desmophyllum dianthus, black coral, such as Leiopathes glaberrima, sponges (e.g., Pachastrella monilifera, Poecillastra compressa), serpulids, boring clams and colonies of bryozoans. CWC sites are biodiversity hot-spots, that act as "Essential Fish Habitats" for commercial species and through the spill-over effect might contribute to the renewal of stocks in neighbouring fishing grounds, providing ecosystems' goods and services. Despite their particular features, CWC areas along the Apulian slope are impacted by different anthropogenic activities. Fishermen operate close and around these areas with the aim of obtaining greater catches and sizes of commercial species. Although there are many conservation proposals for CWC habitats and a Fisheries Restricted Area established for Santa Maria di Leuca CWC province, human pressure is still very strong, due to the lack of adequate conservation measures. An effective system of monitoring, control and surveillance will be fundamental to meet the conservation objectives and to reach the Good Environmental Status as part of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive.

Revealing the coral habitat effect on benthopelagic fauna diversity in the Santa Maria di Leuca cold‐water coral province using different devices and Bayesian hierarchical modelling

“…A lack of monitoring, control, and surveillance could make the FRA ineffective. Therefore, management initiatives are urgently required to prevent further overexploitation and habitat loss (Capezzuto, Ancona, et al, ; D'Onghia et al, ; Grehan, Arnaud‐Haond, D'Onghia, Savini, & Yesson, ).…”

“…D'Onghia et al, , , , ). In particular, D'Onghia et al () and Capezzuto, Ancona, et al () observed a coral habitat effect on benthopelagic abundance. The analysis conducted on longline data showed greater abundances of the fish species Conger conger , Helicolenus dactylopterus , and Polyprion americanus in coral habitat, and the fish Pagellus bogaraveo was only observed to be associated with corals.…”

“…CWC communities are used by commercial and non‐commercial fishes and invertebrates for shelter, feeding, growing, spawning, and as nursery areas, providing essential fish habitat (EFH) (e.g. Baillon, Hamel, Wareham, & Mercier, ; Buhl‐Mortensen et al, ; Busby, Orr, & Blood, ; Capezzuto, Ancona, et al, ; Cau et al, ; D'Onghia, ; D'Onghia et al, , ; D'Onghia, Sion, & Capezzuto, ; Etnoyer & Warrenchuk, ; Freiwald, Fosså, Grehan, Koslow, & Roberts, ; Gomes‐Pereira et al, ; Henry et al, ; Roberts, Wheeler, Freiwald, & Cairns, ). For these reasons CWCs are impacted by commercial fishing (e.g.…”

Mesophotic and Deep-Sea Vulnerable Coral Habitats of the Mediterranean Sea: Overview and Conservation Perspectives

“…Despite still far from being fully understood, the current known distribution of CWCs reveals some dozens of coral sites all over the Mediterranean Sea, form single occurrences to large CWC provinces [39]. These habitats provide a suitable hard ground for sessile species and act as shelter, feeding, spawning and nursery area for a variety of vagile species, representing an Essential Fish Habitat (EFH) for several commercial and non-commercial fish and invertebrate species [22,[40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49] (Table 1). For instance, it DOI: http://dx.doi.org /10.5772/intechopen.90024 has been recognized that the presence of CWC habitats benefits adjacent fisheries in the central Mediterranean [50].…”

Introduction

“…The impact of breakwater structures on benthic biodiversity, associated with seagrass meadows of Northern Adriatic Sea, is studied by Carugati et al (2018). Two papers by Capezzuto et al (2018) and by Chimienti et al (2018), deal with cold-water coral communities and the impact of fishing activities. Micaroni et al (2018) report of an interesting and promising project of citizen science on coastal and marine biodiversity, initiated in 2016 at the marine station of Tricase (Lecce, Apulia).…”