Coordinated by the Italian Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale (ISPRA), FLT Med Net is a project started in 2007 with the aim of coordinating a continuous monitoring of marine mega and macrofauna (cetaceans, sea turtles, seabirds, etc.), marine traffic and marine floating marine litter in the Mediterranean area. In particular, FLT Med Net foresees the adoption of a common protocol by different research groups on numerous routes in the Mediterranean Sea, in order to collect data in a uniform way and share them internationally.

Since 2008, thanks to the collaboration with Corsica Ferries-Sardinia Ferries , the researchers of the CIMA Research Foundation have been monitoring the marine mega and macrofauna, and in particular the cetaceans, on board the ferries whose routes cross the Pelagos Sanctuary , from June to September. The ferries have numerous advantages for a systematic and continuous study of the pelagic ecosystem, such as the certainty of being able to replicate large portions of the sea with great regularity in time and space. The continuity of the routes, moreover, allows to monitor the cetaceans with fixed cadence.