Acronym: AsinaraMPA-Fish UVC
Keywords: #ReserveEffect; #FishFauna; #VisualCensus
View of the Lighthouse at Punta Scorno, inside the Isola dell'Asinara MPA (photo: P. Guidetti).
Coordinator/Lead Partner: Genoa Marine Centre, SZN, Italy
SZN Principal Investigator(s): Paolo Guidetti
Partnership: NA
Funding body and amount: Area Marina Protetta 'Isola dell'Asinara', Italy
Overall funding: 25,000 €
Funding to GMC-SZN: 25,000 €
Grant period: April 24th 2023 – August 15th 2023
Project in a nutshell:
The goal of the project is to investigate the distribution patterns, in space and time, of fish assemblages along a gradient of protection (i.e., in fully and partially protected areas, and in areas open to fishing outside the MPAs’ boundaries) at the Marine Protected Area Isola dell'Asinara (Asinara MPA; NW Sardinia, Italy). Similar studies allow to assess the effectiveness of protection within MPAs, i.e. the so-called ‘reserve effect’. To do that, we collect in situ fish data (i.e., species richness, abundance, size distribution, biomass) using non-destructive underwater visual census on rocky reefs, according to an ad-hoc sampling design. Results of this study are crucial to i) know the conservation status of the marine environment within the Asinara MPA, ii) provide suggestions to refine management measures and, iii) get new evidence to support conservation policies at national and EU levels.
Contacts: paolo.guidetti@szn.it