Acronym CONECTA
Category
Fisheries
Title Population connectivity of the red shrimp, Aristeus antennatus, in the NW Mediterranean between the Gulf of Lion and Ggulf of Valencia - larval dispersal model Programme National Programme
Instrument (FP6)
Contact Type (FP7)
Strand (Interreg)
NA
Theme (FP7)
Activity Area (FP6)
Regional Area (Interreg)
Action (COST)
NA
Specific Programme (FP7)
NA
Funding source National Coordinator NA Coordinator email NA
Coordinator institution
CSIC - Spanish National Research Council (Spain)
Institutions involved
UdG - University of Girona (Spain) ,
Start year 2015 End year 2018 Funding (€) € 289,190 Website NA Summary Within the demersal fisheries the red shrimp, aristeus antennatus is the most important exploited species whose contributes to wealth in the ports of the spanish mediterranean coastline, due to its worth in fish-markets and for its cost-benefits yield. The red shrimp fishery requires the most specialized and bigger trawlers in the area, resulting in a potential scenario of overexploitation of this important resource. Since the late 80s, the two groups involved in the CONECTA project targeted their research to the red shrimp as a model of exploited marine resource to promote self sustained fishery management of marine species. This expertise has been used by the spanish government as the scientific support for the implementation of the first regulation of the red shrimp fishery, focused in sea area next to palamos (girona county; boe 126, 27/05/13).
In addition, due to these previous studies and achievements, the applicants have been able to detect gaps in current knowledge and to define scientific priorities to advance in an integrated and sustainable management of the species. The conecta project aims to determine the connectivity between populations of the red shrimp from the gulf of lion to the gulf of valencia, in order to design regional management plans rather than local ones, as currently established, for instance, in the palamos area. The implementation of the ministerial order cited above concerning fishery regulations in palamos was certainly the result of a social consensus, despite a lack of sufficient and solid scientific evidences to demonstrate whether these measures will generate revenues to palamos or, because of the potential connectivity among shrimp populations, to neighbouring locations (source-sink population dynamics).
To go ahead in this field, the conecta project is intended to assess the following general objectives: a) to describe the distribution and abundance patterns of the larval stages of the red shrimp from the north-western mediterranean; b) to quantify the gene flow between populations of the red shrimp in the study area (adult, juvenile and larvae); c) to construct the first bio-hydrographical model on population connectivity; d) to establish scientific exchanges with other spanish scientists to generate new perspectives in the study of the whole spanish mediterranean coast.
The results will state new scenarios to advance in the global knowledge of the red shrimp and its sustainable exploitation, from the new integrated multidisciplinary hypothesis of larval dispersal and gene flow. Both groups of researchers have demonstrated large expertise and specialization in the field of the conecta project and have led several national and international research projects, altogether assuring the consecution of the objectives of the conecta project. This coordinated research project, conecta, represents a cooperative research effort between two research teams recognised as quality research group, the renewable marine resources team at instituto de ciencias del mar, csic, and the ichthyology-genetics laboratory at the girona university. These two groups are respectively specialized in the study of fishery biology and the population genetics of marine organisms.
Keywords
Shellfish;
Crustacean;
Crustacean fisheries;
Sustainability;
Biology;
Shrimp;
Fisheries management;
Marine Region
49
Gulf of Lions (GSA 7)
53
Northern Spain (GSA 6)
2
Marine Region Map
