Giulia Prato

• PhD
• Marine Officer at WWF Italia

Effects of Best Practices in small-scale fisheries management.

Theory on access suggests there is a beneficial relationship between access to resources and well-being outcomes. Yet, the intricacies of the relationship between access and well-being have received limited empirical attention - especially in the context of fisheries. To examine this topic, we use a quantitative survey of 444 small-scale fishers in...

• The overexploitation of many marine resources and ecosystems calls for the development and implementation of measures to support their recovery and conservation. • The potential contributions to support fisheries and ecosystem recovery were assessed at the local level of the three multiple‐use marine protected areas (MPAs) of Cerbère‐Banyuls, Med...

Monitoring fish assemblages is needed to assess whether Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) are meeting their conservation and fisheries management goals, as it allows one to track the progress of recovery of exploited species and associated communities. Underwater Visual Census techniques (UVC) are used to monitor fish assemblages in MPAs. UVCs should b...

Average effect size ± CI 95% calculated on mean biomass for each taxon (PNG)

Database of transect data. (XLSX)

List of surveyed fish species according to transect length and width used and species-specific size thresholds of large shy fish. (DOCX)

Comparison of the density estimated by large and medium transects for each 5 cm- size class of each species. Tukey boxplots. Numbers inside diamonds are the number of sites considered for the comparison (see text for details). The color of the box indicates the significance of the differences in mean density estimates based upon Wilcoxon signed ran...

Average effect size ± CI 95% calculated on mean density for each taxon. (PNG)

Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) have spread across the Mediterranean to protect its rich biodiversity and manage human activities for a more sustainable coastal development. Within MPAs, traditional artisanal fishing is competing for space and resources with increasing recreational fishing, likely leading to interacting ecological effects. Such effec...

With the aim to address some of the complex needs of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) management, the results of the “Monitoring Mediterranean Marine Protected Area” project (MMMPA) are here synthesized in a series of timely and original guidelines.

Mass-balance trophic models (Ecopath and EcoTroph) are valuable tools that can be used to describe ecosystem structure and functioning, identify target species to be monitored, and allow comparisons of ecosystem states under different management options. Nevertheless, the Ecopath modelling approach is constrained by 2 major sources of uncertainty:...

High-level predators have been depleted in the oceans worldwide following centuries of selective fishing. There is widespread evidence that high-level predators’ extirpation may trigger trophic cascades leading to the degradation of marine ecosystems. Restoration of large carnivores to former levels of abundance might lead to ecosystem recovery, bu...