Baseline data for the Entire Mediterran and Black Sea
Tim Awbery • 4 November 2019
The First Result of the ACCOBAMS Survey Initiative
The First Result of the ACCOBAMS Survey Initiative (ASI) were presented today at the ASI Special Event held in Istanbul in Turkey proceeding the ACCOBAMS 7th Meeting of the Parties which runs from tomorrow to Friday. The ASI aims to “establish an integrated, collaborative and coordinated monitoring system” to assess the status of the cetacean population at the whole ACCOBAMS area level. Aerial surveys were conducted for more than 75% of the region with many of the gaps filled using boat surveys.
The ASI Special Event saw talks from member of CNRS Lebanon, Representatives of Egypt and Syria, Mare Nostrum, TUDAV, UNEP/MAP/SPA-RAC, Pelagis Observatory, IMMRAC and of course from Simone Panigada, the ASI Project Coordinator and Florence Descroix-Commanducci, ACCOBAMS Executive Secretary.
The talks not only presented the results of the study (available at: https://www.accobams.org/asi-data-presentation/) but also talked about the setbacks encountered in several countries and how they were overcome as well as the use of other methods such as acoustic surveys and the future use of drones.
Even while Tim was on a short recovery break after his accident, it was a real relief and a proud moment to know that Francesca Soster was presenting Plotting the Wild's early results on species distribution modelling for cetacean conservation in Malta at ECS2025. It’s been a pleasure collaborating with Francesca and the rest of the team on this work. And… exciting news — the paper has just been accepted for publication! Keep your eyes peeled for its release 👀
"This should have been the worse few weeks of my life"
Ever wondered if dolphins have accents? Well so did we!