Allison Perry

Oceana · Science and Strategy (Europe)

3rd MEDITERRANEAN SYMPOSIUM ON THE CONSERVATION OF THE DARK HABITATS

Marine protected areas (MPAs) are critical for halting marine biodiversity loss and safeguarding ecosystems. However, efforts to designate additional areas as MPAs have generally taken precedence over ensuring that designated sites are effectively protected. Serious concerns exist about marine “paper parks” in Europe, particularly in relation to th...

This document provides an overview of key sites of ecological importance which Oceana has proposed for protection based on its expedition data, but which remain unprotected. Oceana has developed MPA proposals for each of these biodiversity hotspots that range from the Baltic to the Mediterranean Sea.

To help fill gaps in knowledge about marine biodiversity in the North Sea, Oceana carried out two eight week research expeditions, in 2016 and 2017. Oceana’s surveys documented a wide range of habitats and species that are considered priorities for conservation, under national, EU, and international frameworks that recognise them as threatened and/...

On the basis of its biodiversity importance andthe range of threats facing marine life in thearea, Oceana proposes that Finland and Swedenestablish a transboundary MPA in the Quark subbasin.Critically, this MPA should be underpinnedby a joint management plan addressing the keyhabitats and species and the threats they face –which are very similar on...

Cleaver Bank represents the largest area of hard substrate in the Dutch North Sea, and its biodiversity importance has been repeatedly recognised. The combination of oceanographic and geological patterns found in the area (e.g., depth, low currents and light penetration) makes Cleaver Bank a unique enclave of marine life in the Dutch EEZ. Thus, it...

The waters off Holderness, north of the Humber Estuary on the Yorkshire coast, represent a very rich area in terms of marine biodiversity. This is partly due to the mosaic of substrate types found in the area, which range from rocky bottoms and coarse sediment through to mixed sediment, sand, and mud. This array of substrates supports, in turn, a w...

The northern waters of the Danish North Sea encompass a wide range of depths, reaching down to 480 m in the region of the Skagerrak. The area is home to a rich diversity of seabed habitats and associated species, including those that are priorities for marine conservation at EU and international levels. As a result, eight marine protected areas (MP...

The football ascidian Diazona violacea was observed in three different sites in the Aeolian Archipelago (Southern Tyrrhenian Sea), from 53 to 116 m depth. A large population of this ascidian was found on rocky habitat, enhancing its three-dimensionality and constituting a peculiar facies. Colonies of D. violacea showed a mean density of 0.87 ± 0.09...

Located at the centre of the southern North Sea, Brown Bankridge formed by a series of large-scale sandbanks in Dutch and UK waters. It is a recognised area of ecological interest, due main-ly to the high abundance of cetaceans and seabirds in the area. To date, however, Brown Bank has been granted very limited protec-tion. The UK side is protected...

The Aeolian archipelago, off the northern coast of Sicily, has long been recognised as a major area of importance for marine biodiversity. The waters surrounding these volcanic islands are characterised by steeply sloped bottoms that host a wide array of habitats – including seagrass meadows, seamounts, and hydrothermal vents – over a large depth r...

During May-June 2018, Oceana carried out a research expedition in the volcanic archipelago of the Aeolian Islands, to the north of Sicily, to document benthic communities and species down to a depth of 1000 metres. A total of 51 ROV dives were carried out, across six survey areas with differing geological and bathymetric characteristics, including...

This study reports the in situ observations of a deep-sea ascidian, Dicopia antirrhinum (family Octacnemidae), on the deep seabed off the Aeolian Islands (Tyrrhenian Sea), between 569 and 813 m depth. These observations represent the first record of the species in Italian waters and the second observation in vivo to date. Peculiar macroscopic featu...

The data obtained from the 2016 Deep-Sea Lebanon Expedition provided a wealth of information about deep-sea benthic communities along the Lebanese coast. This information provides a scientific foundation for the development of a plan to manage and protect vulnerable ecosystems, habitats, and species in Lebanese waters, in the face of current and fu...

The North Sea is one of the best-studied marine areas in the world, yet serious gaps remain in the knowledge – and therefore also the protection – of its benthic biodiversity. Although the current network of marine protected areas (MPAs) covers roughly 22% of the North Sea, most of these MPAs are designed to target only pelagic species and birds, a...

Apart from natural factors such as climatic variation, which can drive species and habitats to extinction over the long term, and devastating sporadic episodes, like volcanic eruptions, animal forests (e.g., coral reefs, gorgonian gardens, and sponge fields, among others) are mainly threatened by human activities. Coastal destruction, dredging, min...

Management of fisheries in the Mediterranean basin has often been described as a unique and complex challenge, due to their multi-specificity, the diversity of gear-types, and the number of nations involved. This perspective has gone hand-in-hand for decades with a lack of strong political will from decision-makers, who have been unwilling to put M...

Apart from natural factors such as climatic variation, which can drive species and habitats to extinction over the long term, and devastating sporadic episodes, like volcanic eruptions, animal forests (e.g., coral reefs, gorgonian gardens, and sponge fields, among others) are mainly threatened by human activities. Coastal destruction, dredging, min...

Adaptation, as a strategy to respond to climate change, has limits: there are conditions under which adaptation strategies fail to alleviate impacts from climate change. Research has primarily focused on identifying absolute bio-physical limits. This paper contributes empirical insight to an emerging literature on the social limits to adaptation. S...

List of organisations invited to participate in this research. Respondents either attended a workshop in Townsville on 25th March 2011 or Cairns on 01 April 2011, or were interviewed before the end of April 2011. (DOCX)

Seamounts are considered biodiversity hot spots and the Macaronesian region host over a hundred of them. Nonetheless, the existing biological information on these underwater elevations remains scarce. In 2014, Oceana launched an at-sea campaign aiming the identification and description of deep-sea benthic communities inhabiting in El Hierro slopes...

The East Atlantic and Western Mediterranean seabeds hold a large number of underwater features such as seamounts. Although the knowledge on their inhabiting communities is scarce, it is generally accepted to refer to them as biological hotspots. As a result of their special morphology, singular oceanographic conditions are originated presenting a h...

Climate change is a significant future driver of change in coastal social-ecological systems. Our knowledge of impacts, adaptation options, and possible outcomes for marine environments and coastal industries is expanding, but remains limited and uncertain. Alternative scenarios are a way to explore potential futures under a range of conditions. We...

Severe declines in the cover of live hard coral on reefs have been reported worldwide, and in the Caribbean region, the architectural complexity of coral reefs has also declined markedly. While the drivers of coral cover loss are relatively well understood, little is known about the drivers of regional-scale declines in architectural complexity. We...

All seahorse species (genus Hippocampus ) are listed under CITES Appendix II, requiring that exports of these fishes must be regulated for sustainability. Preliminary trade surveys and anecdotal reports suggested Malaysia and Thailand represented an important source for seahorses used globally in traditional medicine, curios, and aquarium display,...

Introduction 2 Methods 3 Spatial scale of climate vulnerability assessment 3 The three components of vulnerability 3 Exposure 4 Abstract Anthropogenic global warming has significantly influenced physical and biological processes at global and regional scales. The observed and anticipated changes in global climate present significant opportunities a...

Anthropogenic global warming has significantly influenced physical and biological processes at global and regional scales. The observed and anticipated changes in global climate present significant opportunities and challenges for societies and economies. We compare the vulnerability of 132 national economies to potential climate change impacts on...

Understanding the relationships among life history traits, density dependence, and population dynamics is a central goal in ecology. It is also vital if we are to predict how populations respond to and recover from exploitation. We used data for 54 stocks of commercially exploited fish species to examine relationships between maximum annual recruit...

We show that the distributions of both exploited and nonexploited North Sea fishes have responded markedly to recent increases in sea temperature, with nearly two-thirds of species shifting in mean latitude or depth or both over 25 years. For species with northerly or southerly range margins in the North Sea, half have shown boundary shifts with wa...