European Ocean Biodiversity Information System

The purpose was to increase the knowledge about the distribution, abundance and health status of cetacean species in the Mediterranean Sea, particularly in the Pelagos Sanctuary and the Tuscany waters, to contribute to understanding the biology and ethology of these wonderful creatures. The latest studies concerning the noise pollution of the sea product produced by human activities and the effects on sensitive species such as the Cuvier's beaked whale. We work all year long in the Versilia area (North Tuscany) on a group of resident bottlenose dolphins called Alpha community and during the spring/summer time in the Tuscan Archipelago area on all the species of cetaceans, including T. truncatus, B. physalus, S. coeruleoalba, P. macrocephalus, G. griseus, D. delphis, G. melas and Z. cavirostris. Our platform is a 40 ft sail catamaran "Krill" (for a crew of 10 persons) equipped for the research activities (hydrophones, underwater digital HD camera, HD photocamera etc.), two engines and 5 mt rubber boat with 40 cv motor. Our activities include: ecology, ethology (interactions, parental care, etc.), bioacoustic, didactic of the school. Our last studies are the project to understand the presence/absence of bottlenose dolphins in the North Tuscany, related to environmental co-variates (i.e., sea surface temperature, coastal distance, bathymetry), in collaboration with University of Pisa, Genoa Acquarium, O.T.C. and Pelagos commitee and the comparison between the use of mark-recapture and distance sampling.