Brochura | LIFE+ Migrate General

LIFE+ MIGRATE was launched in October 2012 with the goal of implementing parts of the European Union’s Habitat Directive (92/43/EEC) with regards to establishing the conservation status of the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) and the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) in Maltese waters and establishing an important zones for them.

The Project is coordinated by the Maltese Environment Planning Authority (MEPA), as the lead beneficiary, with KAI Marine and the Ministry for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change (MSDEC) as partners and Bank of Valletta (BOV) as a cofinancier. KAI Marine is an international interdisciplinary team of experts in the design of management schemes for the conservation of great pelagic marine species.

The outcome of one of the actions under the LIFE+ MIGRATE is a series of guidelines for the adequate management of the potential risks to the maintenance of a favourable conservation status of the cetacean and sea turtle populations present in Maltese waters. Among these guidelines, that are based on a solid scientific foundation, is the identification of potential sites that should be included in Europe’s network of protected areas, NATURA 2000.

For more information please visit: WWW.LIFEPROJECTMIGRATE.COM WWW.MARINENATURA2000MALTA.COM

PROJ ECT MIGRATE - LIFE11 NAT//MT/1070 EU LIFE+ Funding Programme This project is part-financed by the European Union Co-financing rate: 49.4 % EU Funds; 37.1 % National Funds and 13.5 % Private funds

booklet 1_ General_

Natura 2000 sites

Front page map: “Satelite image of Malta”. Licenced under the Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Satelite_image_of_Malta.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Satelite_image_of_Malta.jpg

Europe’s main contribution to the Convention for Biological Diversity is the Habitats Directive and its NATURA 2000 network of sites that are critical for the breeding, feeding and migration of species that require special effort of conservation.

Malta’s contribution to the Convention of Biological Diversity and the European Union’s Habitat Directive and its marine NATURA2000 network.

neritic

LIFE MIGRATE+_

LIFE MIGRATE+_

<land

pelagic

LOGGERHEAD TURTLE

The LOGGERHEAD TURTLE (Caretta caretta; Maltese: Il-Fekruna tal-Baħar) is the most common sea turtle, and is listed in Annex II & Annex IV of the Habitat Directive. Loggerheads found in Maltese waters can possibly be of both Mediterranean and Atlantic origin (from the nesting beaches of the eastern shores of the Atlantic.

LAMPUKI

BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN

During their sub adult life stage, turtles gain the ability to swim against the ocean currents, and at this point they can alternate the open sea phase with a coastal phase, where they approach the coast to feed on crustaceans and other demersal prey. At this point, turtles migrate back to the nesting beaches where they were born, in order to initiate their reproductive cycle at maturity around 24-30 years of age.

At this stage, the female will nest in cycles of 2, 3 or 4 years, emerging on the beach to dig a boot shaped nest in the sand where she will lay around 100 eggs.

BLUE SHARKS AND OTHER PREDATORY FISH

OTHER CETACEANS

Other species of sea turtle and cetacean can also be found around Maltese waters, as the green turtle, the striped dolphin, the Risso’s dolphin, the long finned pilot whale, the beaked whale, the fin whale and the sperm whale. Among these species, it is important to highlight the Mediterranean common dolphin.

seamount

COMMON DOLPHIN

4000m abyssal

upwelling of nutrients epipelagic 200m zoning

continental slope

PHYSIOGRAPHY plays a key role in the lives of cetaceans and sea turtles. Features such as sea mounts or escarpments are landmarks for navigation, but also aggregate prey either directly by offering a habitat for benthic and demersal species or indirectly by inducing upwellings. Different cetaceans have different preferences for either the continental shelves or slope or deep waters.

BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS feeding on demersal fish or loggerhead turtles feeding on benthic invertebrates during their oceanic phase can be observed frequently on the continental shelf or along its edge.

LOGGERHEAD TURTLES in their oceanic phase are generally found off the shelf edge in deeper waters. Likewise other cetacean species, an in particular odontocetes, are found offshore tracking deep sea squid. If we sail these deep waters using an echosounder, we can often observe what we call the deep scattering layer between 200 meters to over 1000. This is a layer that aggregates a mass of creatures as jellies and also several deep sea squid species that make up the most important part of the diet of odontocetes in the oceanic domain.

bathypelagic

zoning

Drifting around in surface waters, these turtles act as thousands of small oasis in the open seas. Aggregating algae, a mass of invertebrates and a cloud of small pelagic fish under their shade, turtles provide bait balls for hungry pelagic predators. Turtles themselves will feed on a variety of pelagic invertebrates including jellyfish.

The BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN (Tursiops truncatus; Maltese: Id-Denfil ta’ Geddumu Qasir) is one of the more coastal dolphin species in European waters. This cosmopolitan species is found as an offshore sub species and a coastal subspecies. Around Malta bottlenose dolphins are found regularly in small pods foraging on demersal prey along the continental shelf edge but also taking advantage of fishing gear and fish farms to obtain an easy meal.

THE OCEANIC REALM Marine ecosystems are difficult for us to visualize, unlike habitats on land that are easy for people to make reference to. In appearance, this is just an endless blue surface, but underneath that surface there are extraordinary physiographic and oceanographic features.

Think of water flows larger than the Amazon, or escarpments far deeper than the famous Grand Canyon.

BLUEFIN TUNA

Emerging from the sand after an average of a 60-day incubation under the sun, hatchlings race out to the open seas where they enter the first phase of their extraordinary life cycle. During this open sea phase, turtles are transported by surface currents agrregating with other current-driven organisms, like jellies, and will spend several years throughout their juvenile years until they become sub adults.

continental shelf

25 n.m.

Other OCEANOGRAPHIC FEATURES as currents, frontal zones, down-wellings, and up-wellings play also a key role in aggregating the prey of cetaceans and aggregating and / or dispersing turtles migrating passively during their oceanic phase.

Temperature on the other hand plays a crucial role with regards to sea turtles, that as reptiles see their metabolic rate affected by waters much warmer or colder than their preferred 18 degrees C.

mesopelagic 1000m zoning

THE BLUE SERENGETI

Malta’s position in the channel between the Western and Eastern Mediterranean basins makes it a site of particular interest for the great pelagic wonderers of our seas. Lampuki/dolphin fish, swordfish, bluefin tunas, sharks, cetaceans and marine turtles as well as seabirds probably use these islands’s waters and as landmark for their migrations.

Editorial design and illustration: GOBIUS 2015 www.gobius.pt

SEABIRDS

SITES OF SPECIAL RELEVANCE AROUND THE ISLANDS OF MALTA AND GOZO The Maltese Islands consists of a group of 3 islands with Malta being the largest, situated at the southern tip of the continental shelf of Sicily.

To the east from these islands, there is a steep escarpment that plunges to the abyss of the Ionian where the Mediterranean reaches its record depth of over 4,000 meters.

Malta also designated a 25 nautical mile Fisheries Management Zone, where the deepest waters are found to the south west and north west of the archipelago.

Factsheet_

CETACEANS AND SEA TURTLES IN MALTESE WATERS Cetacean Data from WWW.ACCOBAMS.ORG

Male: 2.5-3.5 m (max. 3,9 m) - 200-300 kg.

Female: 2.2-3.2 m approximately 10% less than males) Newborn: 1-1.2 m - 15-20 kg

Risso’s dolphin (Grampus griseus)

Adult: 3-4 m - 250-400 kg Newborn: 1.2-1.5 m

Sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus)

Major sexual dimorphism: Male: 16-18 m - 30-45 tons Female: 11-12 m - 10-20 tons Newborn: 3.3-4.2 m - about 1 ton

Common dolphin (Delphinus delphis)

Striped dolphin (Stenella coeruleoalba)

Male: 2.0-2.6 m – between 60 and 130 kg Female: 2.4 m - between 60 and 130 kg Newborn: 80-90 cm - about 10 kg In the Mediterranean, animals rarely exceed 2.3 m.

Adult: 1.8-2.6 m - 90-160 kg.

Newborn: 85-95 cm - < 10 kg In the Mediterranean, animals are smaller (record: males 220 cm and 105 kg; females: 225 cm and 95 kg).

Long-finned pilot whale (Globicephela melas)

Fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus)

Male: 5.5-6.2 m, 1.5-3.5 tons Female: 4.5-5.5 m – 1-2.5 tons Newborn: 1.7-1.8 m - 70-80 kg

Loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta)

Adults: 90-280 cm - 135-450 kg Males have thicker tails and shorter plastrons than females.

www.marinenatura2000malta.com

Sexual dimorphism: Male: 18-20 m Female: 20-22 m Newborn: 6-6.5 m - 3 tons In the Mediterranean, these values are smaller.

Green turtle (Chelonia mydas)

Adults: 150cm - 317 kg Males have longer tails and can be slightly larger than females.

Editorial design and illustration: GOBIUS 2015 www.gobius.pt

Bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus)

Factsheet_

APPROACHING CETACEANS

NO WAITING

With Calves

60m Maximum speed within 200 meter range of 12 knots!

300m

Core zone

DO NOT approach pods with calves!

NEVER touch wild animals!

Approach to around 60 metres, with a constant speed and course at an angle from behind.

NEVER swim with wild animals!

NO CHASING

Do not get closer to the cetaceans, let them come to bowride if THEY want, but do not chase the animals under any circumstance.

www.marinenatura2000malta.com

neritic

LIFE MIGRATE+_

LIFE MIGRATE+_

<land

pelagic

LOGGERHEAD TURTLE

The LOGGERHEAD TURTLE (Caretta caretta; Maltese: Il-Fekruna tal-Baħar) is the most common sea turtle, and is listed in Annex II & Annex IV of the Habitat Directive. Loggerheads found in Maltese waters can possibly be of both Mediterranean and Atlantic origin (from the nesting beaches of the eastern shores of the Atlantic.

LAMPUKI

BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN

During their sub adult life stage, turtles gain the ability to swim against the ocean currents, and at this point they can alternate the open sea phase with a coastal phase, where they approach the coast to feed on crustaceans and other demersal prey. At this point, turtles migrate back to the nesting beaches where they were born, in order to initiate their reproductive cycle at maturity around 24-30 years of age.

At this stage, the female will nest in cycles of 2, 3 or 4 years, emerging on the beach to dig a boot shaped nest in the sand where she will lay around 100 eggs.

BLUE SHARKS AND OTHER PREDATORY FISH

OTHER CETACEANS

Other species of sea turtle and cetacean can also be found around Maltese waters, as the green turtle, the striped dolphin, the Risso’s dolphin, the long finned pilot whale, the beaked whale, the fin whale and the sperm whale. Among these species, it is important to highlight the Mediterranean common dolphin.

seamount

COMMON DOLPHIN

4000m abyssal

upwelling of nutrients epipelagic 200m zoning

continental slope

PHYSIOGRAPHY plays a key role in the lives of cetaceans and sea turtles. Features such as sea mounts or escarpments are landmarks for navigation, but also aggregate prey either directly by offering a habitat for benthic and demersal species or indirectly by inducing upwellings. Different cetaceans have different preferences for either the continental shelves or slope or deep waters.

BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS feeding on demersal fish or loggerhead turtles feeding on benthic invertebrates during their oceanic phase can be observed frequently on the continental shelf or along its edge.

LOGGERHEAD TURTLES in their oceanic phase are generally found off the shelf edge in deeper waters. Likewise other cetacean species, an in particular odontocetes, are found offshore tracking deep sea squid. If we sail these deep waters using an echosounder, we can often observe what we call the deep scattering layer between 200 meters to over 1000. This is a layer that aggregates a mass of creatures as jellies and also several deep sea squid species that make up the most important part of the diet of odontocetes in the oceanic domain.

bathypelagic

zoning

Drifting around in surface waters, these turtles act as thousands of small oasis in the open seas. Aggregating algae, a mass of invertebrates and a cloud of small pelagic fish under their shade, turtles provide bait balls for hungry pelagic predators. Turtles themselves will feed on a variety of pelagic invertebrates including jellyfish.

The BOTTLENOSE DOLPHIN (Tursiops truncatus; Maltese: Id-Denfil ta’ Geddumu Qasir) is one of the more coastal dolphin species in European waters. This cosmopolitan species is found as an offshore sub species and a coastal subspecies. Around Malta bottlenose dolphins are found regularly in small pods foraging on demersal prey along the continental shelf edge but also taking advantage of fishing gear and fish farms to obtain an easy meal.

THE OCEANIC REALM Marine ecosystems are difficult for us to visualize, unlike habitats on land that are easy for people to make reference to. In appearance, this is just an endless blue surface, but underneath that surface there are extraordinary physiographic and oceanographic features.

Think of water flows larger than the Amazon, or escarpments far deeper than the famous Grand Canyon.

BLUEFIN TUNA

Emerging from the sand after an average of a 60-day incubation under the sun, hatchlings race out to the open seas where they enter the first phase of their extraordinary life cycle. During this open sea phase, turtles are transported by surface currents agrregating with other current-driven organisms, like jellies, and will spend several years throughout their juvenile years until they become sub adults.

continental shelf

25 n.m.

Other OCEANOGRAPHIC FEATURES as currents, frontal zones, down-wellings, and up-wellings play also a key role in aggregating the prey of cetaceans and aggregating and / or dispersing turtles migrating passively during their oceanic phase.

Temperature on the other hand plays a crucial role with regards to sea turtles, that as reptiles see their metabolic rate affected by waters much warmer or colder than their preferred 18 degrees C.

mesopelagic 1000m zoning

THE BLUE SERENGETI

Malta’s position in the channel between the Western and Eastern Mediterranean basins makes it a site of particular interest for the great pelagic wonderers of our seas. Lampuki/dolphin fish, swordfish, bluefin tunas, sharks, cetaceans and marine turtles as well as seabirds probably use these islands’s waters and as landmark for their migrations.

Editorial design and illustration: GOBIUS 2015 www.gobius.pt

SEABIRDS

SITES OF SPECIAL RELEVANCE AROUND THE ISLANDS OF MALTA AND GOZO The Maltese Islands consists of a group of 3 islands with Malta being the largest, situated at the southern tip of the continental shelf of Sicily.

To the east from these islands, there is a steep escarpment that plunges to the abyss of the Ionian where the Mediterranean reaches its record depth of over 4,000 meters.

Malta also designated a 25 nautical mile Fisheries Management Zone, where the deepest waters are found to the south west and north west of the archipelago.

LIFE+ MIGRATE was launched in October 2012 with the goal of implementing parts of the European Union’s Habitat Directive (92/43/EEC) with regards to establishing the conservation status of the loggerhead turtle (Caretta caretta) and the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) in Maltese waters and establishing an important zones for them.

The Project is coordinated by the Maltese Environment Planning Authority (MEPA), as the lead beneficiary, with KAI Marine and the Ministry for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate Change (MSDEC) as partners and Bank of Valletta (BOV) as a cofinancier. KAI Marine is an international interdisciplinary team of experts in the design of management schemes for the conservation of great pelagic marine species.

The outcome of one of the actions under the LIFE+ MIGRATE is a series of guidelines for the adequate management of the potential risks to the maintenance of a favourable conservation status of the cetacean and sea turtle populations present in Maltese waters. Among these guidelines, that are based on a solid scientific foundation, is the identification of potential sites that should be included in Europe’s network of protected areas, NATURA 2000.

For more information please visit: WWW.LIFEPROJECTMIGRATE.COM WWW.MARINENATURA2000MALTA.COM

PROJ ECT MIGRATE - LIFE11 NAT//MT/1070 EU LIFE+ Funding Programme This project is part-financed by the European Union Co-financing rate: 49.4 % EU Funds; 37.1 % National Funds and 13.5 % Private funds

booklet 1_ General_

Natura 2000 sites

Front page map: “Satelite image of Malta”. Licenced under the Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Satelite_image_of_Malta.jpg#mediaviewer/File:Satelite_image_of_Malta.jpg

Europe’s main contribution to the Convention for Biological Diversity is the Habitats Directive and its NATURA 2000 network of sites that are critical for the breeding, feeding and migration of species that require special effort of conservation.

Malta’s contribution to the Convention of Biological Diversity and the European Union’s Habitat Directive and its marine NATURA2000 network.