The current network of marine protected areas is insufficient to guarantee the protection of seabirds in Spanish waters. The Northern Gannet, Cory’s Shearwater and Bulwer’s petrel are the seabirds most at risk of encountering the areas identified for the installation of offshore wind farms. Cory’s shearwaters, both the Balearic and the Mediterranean subspecies, face the highest risk of bycatch. Gulls, terns, and the European storm petrel are the species most exposed to incidents involving aquaculture installations, especially off the coasts of Pontevedra, the Ebro Delta, Murcia and Alicante.

These are some of the conclusions of the AMPLIAMAR project, led by Jacob González-Solís, professor at the Faculty of Biology and member of the Biodiversity Research Institute (IRBio) at the UB, and coordinated by researcher Diego Vicente (UB-IRBio). It is funded by the Biodiversity Foundation of the Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, through the Pleamar Programme, co-financed by the European Maritime, Fisheries and Aquaculture Fund (EMFAF).

GPS technology to study vulnerable and little-known species

Fisheries, aquaculture, wind-energy projects, mineral and hydrocarbon extraction and maritime traffic are among the human activities with the greatest current or potential impact on seabirds. AMPLIAMAR aims to develop a proposal to expand Spain’s Network of Marine Protected Areas (RAMPE, the acronym in Spanish) by identifying Key Biodiversity Areas (KBAs, the acronym in English) for seabirds.

“KBAs provide a vital framework for guiding conservation actions and spatial planning; they are based on quantitative criteria and are crucial for mitigating anthropogenic pressures on the natural environment and preserving global biodiversity,” says Jacob González-Solís, head of the Seabird Ecology Lab at the UB and honoured by the ICREA Acadèmia 2023 programme.

The study, based on the GPS tracking of thousands of seabird journeys, has revealed ecological and population data on highly sensitive species that were previously virtually unknown. These include the feeding areas of the Manx Shearwater (Puffinus puffinus canariensis) and the Band-rumped Storm Petrel (Hydrobates castro) in the Canary Islands, or those of the European Shag (Gulosus aristotelis desmarestii) in Galicia.

“GPS trajectory analysis is a technique that has revolutionized the study of seabirds; it helps us know where they feed or migrate, and even what they are doing at any given moment.” The project confirms the effectiveness of GPS tracking for delimiting Key Biodiversity Areas and marine spatial planning. “But, even so, there is still much work to be done,” notes Diego Vicente, project coordinator and member of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences.

The project, which involved a titanic effort by 25 research teams from nine countries to track seabirds with GPS, integrates a large volume of spatial and temporal data. Its aim is to analyse the overlap of 23 seabird species — resident, transboundary and migratory populations — with human activities in the marine sector (aquaculture, fishing, wind energy, etc.).

RAMPE map: which seabirds are the least protected?

The conclusions indicate that RAMPE provides good coverage of some coastal areas with a high concentration of seabirds, but poorer coverage in pelagic or oceanic areas, especially around the Canary Islands.

Although the RAMPE covers much of the areas with a high concentration of seabirds, “there are still many hotspots that are not included in any form of protection,” notes González-Solís. “Specifically — he adds — the current RAMPE covers only 18% of the identified KBAs, although it includes a large proportion of the areas with high concentrations of seabirds.”

The areas under the current RAMPE encompass the most important zones for species such as the European Shag (Gulosus aristotelis desmarestii), the Yellow-legged Gull (Larus michahellis), Audouin’s Gull (Larus audouinii), the Yelkouan Shearwater (Puffinus yelkouan), the Balearic shearwater (P. mauretanicus) and the Scopoli's Shearwater (Calonectris diomedea). However, species such as the Bulwer’s petrel (Bulweria bulwerii), the European storm petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus), the Barolo Shearwater (Puffinus baroli) and the Desertas petrel (Pterodroma deserta) remain outside the protection network.

Also participating in the project were Santi Guallar, Sara Saldanha, Nacho Pérez, Adrián Pina, Raül Ramos, Guillem Izquierdo, Beñat García, Núria Patiño, Celine van Weelden, Álvaro Barros, Paula Domínguez and Ángel Sallent. It also included the collaboration of the fishermen’s confraternities of Ciutadella and San Pedro del Pinatar, the Andalusian Federation of Fishermen’s Confraternities (FACOPE) and the Provincial Federation of Fishermen’s Confraternities of Alicante, and it received authorization and support from various local and national administrations.