Rome, 12 April 2024 Press Release
14 April, World Dolphin Day 2024
194 cetaceans stranded in Italy in the last 15 months: the majority are dolphins
Italy risks infringement proceedings for failing to take action to monitor and mitigate by-catch.
The European LIFE DELFI project team: ‘Rescue teams ready for stranded and stranded cetaceans. Testing of acoustic deterrents supported by artificial intelligence continues’.
From LIFE DELFI report: more precise indications on the assessment of interactions with fisheries thanks to the new post-mortem survey protocol
194 cetaceans have been stranded on Italian coasts in the last 15 months, most of them dolphins. The toll continues to be worrying: 157 specimens were found along the Italian coast in 2023 – mostly dolphins (73 bottlenose dolphins and 51 stingrays) – 37 in the first three months of 2024. Reporting this – on the occasion of World Dolphin Day (14 April) – is the European LIFE DELFI project, which cites data collected by the ‘Beached Data Bank’, managed by CIBRA of the University of Pavia and the Museum of Natural History in Milan.
Numbers that, together with the fish-dolphin interactions monitored during the project, testify to the seriousness of the phenomenon. It is no coincidence that last February a letter of formal notice (the prelude to infringement proceedings) arrived from Brussels to the Italian government for its failure to comply with the Habitats Directive. The missive, in particular, accuses Italy of failing to introduce research and conservation measures to prevent bycatch from having a negative impact on certain species, including dolphins. These are some of the most beloved animals that, due to their opportunistic behaviour, follow fishing boats to catch their catch from the nets. This type of interaction often results in the dramatic injury of dolphins with serious economic damage for the fishermen as well.The LIFE DELFI project, coordinated by CNR-IRBIM and co-financed by the European Union, aims to reduce interactions at sea between dolphins and fishing.
‘The trend in the data on stranded cetaceans in Italy is constant and shows no sign of abating,’ says Alessandro Lucchetti, researcher at CNR-IRBIM and coordinator of LIFE DELFI. ’This confirms the need to adopt technical measures (on fishing gear and possibly on areas) aimed at reducing interactions between dolphins and fishing activities. With LIFE DELFI we have provided scientific research and technological innovation to monitor and reduce the phenomenon of interactions between fishing and dolphins through acoustic and visual deterrents and new types of pots. In addition, thanks to our partners, we have also formed rescue teams that can go into action in the event of cetaceans in distress at sea or stranded’. For two years now, a collaboration has been underway with the Marche Polytechnic University, Department of Information Engineering, which is yielding surprising results.
‘Thanks to the project and the collaboration with CNR-IRBIM, we are developing a technology that is completely innovative in the European panorama, which will make it possible to obtain new interactive acoustic bollards based on dolphin recognition through artificial intelligence,’ explains David Scaradozzi, UNIVPM researcher. The involvement of fishermen does not stop with the dissemination of the bollards but also with training courses for dolphin watching, proposed as an alternative economic activity, and through the opening of Info-Desks to support requests for funds and resources.LIFE DELFI involves tourists, swimmers, divers and all those who love the sea: to support scientific research and initiate citizen science activities it is possible to download the Marine Ranger App.‘A series of actions aimed at contributing to the Biodiversity Strategy, the horizon is to find the way for a possible coexistence between dolphins and fishermen.We have made the protection of the biodiversity of the seas and the phenomenon of interactions known to multiple stakeholders, from the youngest with educational courses in schools to sea operators by raising awareness of good practices to adopt in the event of sightings of dolphins and other marine mammals. We appeal to institutions and administrations to make the management and conservation measures outlined by the Life Delfi project operative,’ says Federica Barbera of Legambiente’s Biodiversity Office.
The Report on beached dolphins victims of bycatch: from LIFE DELFI a new diagnostic framework for post-mortem investigations
The analysis of cases in the recent report on ‘Bycatch and stranded dolphins 2023’ – elaborated by the Department of Comparative Biomedicine and Nutrition of the University of Padua together with the partners University of Siena, Legambiente, the Croatian Blue World Institute, and the Marine Protected Areas Punta Campanella and Egadi Islands – considers the strandings in Italy detected in 2022, as many as 161, and finds evidence of interaction with fishing on 15.71% of the cetacean carcasses analysed. Among the categories of interaction with fishing, ‘by-catch’ and ‘larynx strangulation’ cases are the main categories recorded in 2022 (36.36%). The same result emerged when considering cases in the Adriatic, on the shores of Croatia.
‘Establishing a correlation between the cause of death of a dolphin and interaction with fishing is a complex operation, due to logistical difficulties and the state of decomposition of the carcasses,’ explains Prof. Sandro Mazzariol of the University of Padua. As part of LIFE DELFI, we have developed a new diagnostic framework that the Italian Zooprophylactic Institutes and Croatian laboratories have adopted to establish more accurately the causes of death of cetaceans, and above all what kind of interaction there has been with fishing activities. The complete analysis from 2020-2023 couldcould provide an overview of the impact of interaction with fisheries in the LIFE DELFI study area that includes the Tyrrhenian, Adriatic and the areas of Sardinia and Sicily. These data will allow the implementation of a conservation policy and mitigation strategy useful to reduce dolphin-fishery interaction’.