EMPHATIC

Cetaceans are strategic, sentinel species, playing important roles in marine management and maintaining ecosystem functioning, including enhancing productivity and carbon sequestration. Their populations are severely affected by multiple threats that result in cumulative impacts. These include deterioration of individual health and condition, reproductive failure, mortality, and consequent population declines. In the scope of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), Member States must monitor the status of cetacean populations, to address MSFD Descriptor 1 of Good Environmental Status (Biodiversity is maintained). The D1 established criteria related to bycatch (D1C1), abundance (D1C2), demography (D1C3), distribution (D1C4) and habitat (D1C5). Direct evaluation of the population’s health and determination of species distribution range are important to assess population viability/status. Presently, most of the traditional techniques applied in routine monitoring are not adequate to address these aspects, and new efficient tools are needed to fill these gaps, ideally innovative and non-invasive, and also affordable and implementable in the long-term. EMPHATIC aims to generate and implement a cetacean monitoring toolbox for cetacean populations, suitable to be used in routine environmental assessments; and develop health status indicators, applicable under the MSFD and Habitats Directive, and regional mechanisms (OSPAR, ACCOBAMS, ASCOBANS). We will analyse seawater eDNA to create a research methodology for cetacean distribution monitoring through the detection of their genetic material. We will employ a novel integrated analysis to develop a population health index based on the microbiome of the respiratory tracts (blow and necropsy samples), the stress levels (blow hormone content), and the body condition (photogrammetry and necropsy data). Through the creation of a cost-effective long-term sampling programme, the developed techniques will be included into the survey design and analytical pipelines of existing monitoring efforts, including citizen science initiatives for sample collection. The work developed within EMPHATIC will focus on study areas of the Bay of Biscay and the Iberian Coast sub-region and of the Western Mediterranean Sea. It will target species of relevance for cetacean conservation in the areas, and for which proof of concept has been employed for the techniques proposed. Nevertheless, the application of the generated monitoring and research tools can be extended to other regions and species. EMPHATIC will use available monitoring data and samples, as well as open-data such as genomic datasets. The developed tools will be designed to complement other monitoring techniques, for added-value of data integration to support policy-making. The generated data, protocols and analytical pipelines will be published in open databases for a more comprehensive application.