valencia's university

Marine Zoology Unit- ICBiBE

Conservation Biology

Research on conservation biology concentrates on cetaceans and sea turtles. Since 1982, the Marine Zoology Unit (formerly within the Department of Zoology) keeps a record of cetacean strandings in the Comunidad Valenciana (about 380 km of coastline). Our objectives have become progressively more ambitious over the years and today we also monitor sea turtle strandings and interactions with fisheries of turtles and cetaceans in waters off Valencia. Since 1988, the Marine Zoology Unit has acted on behalf of the Government of Valencia as the scientific authority monitoring strandings and by-catches of cetaceans and sea turtles in the Comunidad Valenciana.

Conservation Biology

The Marine Zoology Unit hosts the Mediterranean Database of Cetacean Strandings (MEDACES) under the auspices of the ACCOBAMS and the United Nations Environmental Programme. In addition, the unit has been coordinator of a comprehensive study within the EU’s Natura 2000 Network initiative funded by the Ministry of Environment of Spain. The aim of the study was to identify and designate protection areas for cetaceans and marine turtles in Spanish Mediterranean waters. Our contribution to this project consisted of aerial surveys in the Comunidad Valenciana and Murcia Region to obtain population estimates and distribution data of the cetacean and turtle populations. We have also carried out studies of the distribution, migration and nesting behaviour of marine turtles in Equatorial Guinea, and of food habits of sea turtles and cetaceans in the Mediterranean Sea.

Representative Projects

  • “Estudio de las poblaciones nidificantes de tortugas marinas del Parque Nacional de Jaragua (República Dominicana)”, MEC nº CGL2006-02936-BOS.
  • "Estudio de las amenazas para la conservación de mamíferos marinos de Patagonia",  Fundación BBVA, BIOCON 04.
  • Estudio  de las poblaciones de tortugas marinas nidificantes en el Parque Nacional de Jaragua (República Dominicana)”, AECI nº A/2991/05.
  • Estudio de los  cetáceos y tortugas marinas de las costas valencianas, Conselleria de Territorio y Vivienda, Generalitat Valenciana.
  • Proyecto para la puesta en marcha y el mantenimiento de la Base de Datos Internacional de Información de Varamientos de Cetáceos en el Mar Mediterráneo, Ministerio Medio Ambiente. Link.
  • Reduction of the impact of the EU fishery on Mediterranean sea turtles, European Commission nº LIFE-2002-NAT/ST/IT/000030.
  • Programa de Identificación de las Áreas de Especial Interés para la Conservación de los Cetáceos en el Mediterráneo Español, Ministerio Medio Ambiente. Link.
  • Estudio de la mortandad masiva de delfines listados en el Mediterráneo, Ministerio de Educación y Ciencia nº NAT91-1128.

 


Conservation Biology

Representative Publications

 

  • Gomez de Segura A, Hammond PS, Cañadas A, Raga JA (2007). Comparing cetacean abundance estimates derived from spatial models and design-based line transect methods.  Marine Ecology (Progress Series) 329: 289-299.
  • Gomez de Segura A, Crespo EA, Pedraza SN, Hammond PS,  Raga JA (2006). Abundance of small cetaceans in the waters of the central Spanish Mediterranean. Marine Biology, 150: 149-160.
  • Gomez de Segura A, Tomás J, Pedraza SN, Crespo EA,  Raga JA (2006). Abundance and distribution of the endangered loggerhead turtle in Spanish Mediterranean waters and its conservation implications. Animal Conservation, 9: 199-206.
  • Casale P, Lazar B, Pont S, Tomás J, Zizzo N, Alegre F, Badillo J,  Di Summa A, Freggi D, Lackovi G, Raga JA, Rositani L, Tvrtkovi N (2006). Sex ratios of juvenile loggerhead sea turtles (Caretta caretta) in the Mediterranean Sea. Marine Ecology Progress Series, 324:281-285.
  • Blanco C, Raduan MA, Raga JA (2006). Diet of Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus) in the western Mediterranean Sea. Scientia Marina, 70: 407-411.
  • Valsecchi EA, Amos W, Raga JA, Podesta M., Sherwin W (2004).  The effects of inbreeding on mortality during a morbillivirus outbreak in the Mediterranean striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba). Animal Conservation, 7: 1-8.
  • Gómez de Segura A., Tomás J, Pedraza SN, Crespo EA, Raga JA (2003). Preliminary patterns of distribution and abundance of Loggerhead Sea turtles, Caretta caretta, around Columbretes Islands Marine Reserve, Spanish Mediterranean. Marine Biology, 143: 817-823.
  • Tomás J, Guitart R, Mateo R, Raga JA (2002). Marine debris ingestion in loggerhead sea turtles, Caretta caretta, from Western Mediterranean. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 44: 211-216.
  • García-Martínez J, Raga JA, Latorre A, Moya A (2002). Mitochondrial DNA variability of striped dolphins in European waters. In: CJ Pfeiffer (ed.), Molecular and Cell Biology of Marine Mammals, Krieger Publishing Company, Malabar, 21-33.
  • Evans PGE, Raga JA (eds.) (2001). Marine Mammals Biology and Conservation, Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, New York, 630 pp. LINK PDF
  • Blanco C, Salomón O, Raga JA (2001). Diet of the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) in the Western Mediterranean Sea. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom, 81: 1053-1058.
  • Tomás J, Aznar FJ, Raga JA (2001). Feeding ecology of the loggerhead turtle Caretta caretta (Linnaeus 1758) from western Mediterranean waters. Journal of Zoology (London), 255: 525-532.
  • Van Bressem MF, Van Waerebeek, K, Raga JA (1999). A review of virus infections of cetaceans and the potential impact of morbilliviruses, poxviruses and papillomaviruses on host population dynamics. Diseases of Aquatic Organisms, 38: 53-65.
  • Blanco C, Aznar J, Raga JA (1995). Cephalopods in the diet of Stenella coeruleoalba (Meyen, 1833) from Western Mediterranean during an epizootic in 1990. Journal of Zoology (London), 237: 151-158.
  • Aguilar A, Raga JA (1993). The striped dolphin epizootic in the Mediterranean Sea. Ambio, 22: 524-528.
[<] Return

More info: zoomar@uv.es