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European stranding networks as a tool for monitoring marine mammal populations (Part I): towards optimising the functioning of networks
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The study of stranded animals is a valuable aid to monitoring marine mammals globally. However, the utility of strandings data depends on their quality and representativeness, which is affected by various biological, physical, social and economic factors. An analysis of how stranding networks work could help understand limitations in the data collected and facilitate correcting for or even eliminating them. In 2021, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea’s Working Group on Marine Mammal Ecology carried out an expert consultation using a questionnaire to provide insight into the contribution of European stranding networks as a monitoring tool in European countries with Northeast Atlantic and adjacent coasts (hence also including some networks operating along the Mediterranean coast). A key aim was to identify ways to improve data on mortality of marine mammals due to fishery bycatch. The present paper is the first of a two-part series based on the responses to the questionnaire by 45 organisations from 19 countries, and focuses on characterising the activities and capacities of the stranding networks surveyed, identifying differences within and between countries, highlighting strengths and weaknesses, and providing recommendations to enhance the value and credibility of the information collected. The second paper will focus on the information specifically related to mortality due to fishery bycatch. Stranding networks provide extensive spatio-temporal coverage of European coastlines, but their activities may be constrained by limited resources as well as limitations imposed by the stranding process. There is a need for better coordination and standardisation of the collection and analysis of data and samples and increased spatial coverage to fill gaps. To improve data quality, in particular to support assessment of impacts of threats such as bycatch, more necropsies and associated sample analysis are needed. It would also be advantageous to collect more information from less fresh animals, record search effort, and give greater attention to pinnipeds and non-marine mammal taxa. We also highlight the need to make information available and the potential value of a common database. Streamlining the reporting of results at the European level and providing systematic funding to stranding networks in accordance with their needs are necessary steps to optimise their role as a tool for the long-term monitoring of marine mammals and other marine megafauna in Europe.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2025
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Euxinic ocean during the Late Devonian mass extinction inferred from organic compounds
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Evaluation of four enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays for the serological survey of avian influenza in wild bird species.
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Evaluation of operational ocean forecasting systems from the perspective of the users and the experts
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RBINS Staff Publications 2023
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Evaluation of quantitative sampling methods in pleuston: An example from ostracod communities
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RBINS Staff Publications 2017
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Evaluation of Rapid Assessment techniques for monitoring biodiversity in large tropical lakes: a case study from Lake Tanganyika
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Evaluation of species richness estimators based on quantitative performance measures and sensitivity to patchiness and sample grain size
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RBINS Staff Publications
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Evaluation of the use of different taxonomic resolutions as surrogates for ant diversity in urban green spaces
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RBINS Staff Publications 2025
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Evidence for a pre-PETM dispersal of the earliest European crocodyloids
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Crocodyloid remains from the late Paleocene of Mont de Berru (France) hosted in the collections of the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris, France) and in the Institut royal des Sciences naturelles de Belgique (Brussels, Belgium) are described for the first time. This material, although fragmentary, can be clearly referred on a morphological basis to Asiatosuchus depressifrons (Blainville, 1855), a species previously reported from several Eocene Belgian localities thanks to abundant material including a nearly complete skeleton. The Paleocene material shares with A. depressifrons the number of alveoli involved in the dentary symphysis, the exclusion of the splenials from the symphysis, and the presence of a distinct depression on the jugal. The fossil remains from Berru represent the oldest European crocodyloid. Along with the alligatoroid Diplocynodon remensis Martin, Smith, de Lapparent de Broin, Escuillié and Delfino, 2014, previously reported from the same locality, the crocodyloid A. depressifrons indicates that these genera reached Europe before the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum. Although more complete remains from outside Europe are needed to refine phylogenetic hypotheses, according to the currently established fossil record the forerunners of diplocynodontids likely dispersed from North America, whereas those related to Asiatosuchus likely dispersed from Asia.
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RBINS Staff Publications 2017
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Evidence for a single population expansion event across 24,000 km: the case of the deep‑sea scavenging amphipod Abyssorchomene distinctus
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Anthropogenic activities such as mining pose a putative threat to deep-sea ecosystems and baseline studies of key indicator species are required to assess future loss of biodiversity. We examined population genetic structure, connectivity, cryptic diversity and phylogeography of the deep-sea scavenging amphipod, Abyssorchomene distinctus, using DNA sequence data (mitochondrial COI and nuclear 28S genes) from 373 specimens collected from six abyssal basins. We observed a striking absence of cryptic diversity, suggesting a single, widely distributed species in the Pacifc and Indian Ocean. A single event of population expansion across distances up to 24,000 km is further supported by a main ancestral haplotype in the star-like shaped COI haplotype network, a skewed nucleotide mismatch distribution and deviations from evolutionary neutrality tests. In the Pacifc, A. distinctus showed weak genetic population structure and low diferentiation between the basins of the Clarion-Clipperton Zone and the DISCOL Experimental Area, suggesting a possible higher chance of recovery from deep-sea mining impacts. However, since our data indicate a single recent historic population expansion event, A. distinctus populations will likely be afected to unknown extents, as the exact drivers shaping distribution and dispersion of A. distinctus are still unclear
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RBINS Staff Publications 2024
