Acoustic telemetry as a tool for the design and evaluation of marine protected areas
CCMAR SEMINARS
14th February 2018, at 1:30 pm
Anf. C (CP)
Acoustic telemetry as a tool for the design and evaluation of marine protected areas
David Abecasis
(CCMAR)
Abstract
Acoustic telemetry is a tool that provides data on the movements of marine species, including home range areas, residency, diel or seasonal movement patterns and habitat use. In addition to increasing our knowledge about the spatial ecology of marine species, acoustic telemetry information can be used to evaluate, and design marine protected areas (MPAs). I will present case studies in which this type of information was used to 1) evaluate fishing vulnerability inside an MPA 2) evaluate the current MPA design and 3) to optimize the design of an MPA network. I will discuss the drawbacks of using home range information alone and introduce a novel index, also based on acoustic telemetry data, that provides a better insight into the protection provided by MPAs.
CV
David Abecasis graduated in Biology by the Universidade de Lisboa in 2003. He did is honours thesis at the Department of Fisheries and Oceanography (DOP) of the University of the Azores, where he stayed until moving to CCMAR in 2005. In 2006, he was awarded a FLAD fellowship to spend 3 months at the Hawai’i Institute of Marine Biology to gain knowledge on acoustic telemetry data analysis. In 2008, he obtained a MSc in Marine and Coastal Studies and later (2013) a PhD in Marine Ecology, both by the University of the Algarve. He has been a team member of several scientific expeditions (Lusofona, EMEPC, DOP, Waitt) to the Azores and Madeira islands, and offshore seamounts. In 2009 he was a research assistant at the Edith Cowan University (Australia) and collaborated with the Animal Tracking Facility of the Integrated Marine Observing System (IMOS - Australia). Currently he is a FCT post-doc at CCMAR where he has been applying acoustic telemetry data in the evaluation and design of marine protected areas. He maintains his collaboration with DOP being part of the BALA and AtlantOS projects’ team. He has also been behind the establishment of the recently launched European Telemetry Network.
