Monitoring of strandings in European waters: state of play
Marine mammals and other marine megafauna are subject to a variety of impacts related with human activities. Within the EU waters, stranding networks are actively collecting information on the causes of death of cetaceans, seals, and sea turtles that strand along the coastlines. However, despite the effort made by international agreements to coordinate stranding networks within the European basins and standardise their operational procedures, large differences still exist among European stranding networks. This report addresses this issue with the aim to identify the level of structuring, operational approaches, data collection standards and data pathways, across these networks, through a review of the scientific literature and reports produced within the international agreements in place to deal with marine mammal research and conservation, as well as by directly addressing the institutions dealing with strandings through an online survey. The survey was designed to assess to which extent data are collected, how (i.e., use of dedicated protocols), and where they are stored (i.e., use of common repositories), with a specific focus on the assessment of three major anthropic impacts (marine litter ingestion, vessel strikes and fisheries interactions), to identify the major gaps and needs for improvement in data collection and reporting at EU level.
VIGHI Morgana;
2025-04-22
Publications Office of the European Union
JRC141997
978-92-68-26711-0 (online),
OP KJ-01-25-225-EN-N (online),
https://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/handle/JRC141997,
10.2760/2724745 (online),
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