{"id":773,"date":"2020-06-12T06:44:16","date_gmt":"2020-06-12T05:44:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cimafoundation.org\/2020\/06\/12\/on-science-the-letter-for-the-protection-of-cetaceans-in-the-south-china-sea\/"},"modified":"2022-09-29T08:19:54","modified_gmt":"2022-09-29T08:19:54","slug":"on-science-the-letter-for-the-protection-of-cetaceans-in-the-south-china-sea","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cimafoundation.org\/en\/news\/on-science-the-letter-for-the-protection-of-cetaceans-in-the-south-china-sea\/","title":{"rendered":"On Science, the letter for the protection of cetaceans in the South China Sea"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>The collaboration between the main\nChinese Oceanographic Institute and the CIMA Research Foundation has led\nresearchers to investigate the richness of the South China Sea, which is home\nto more than a third of the planet&#8217;s species of cetaceans . The latest result\nof this academic collaboration is a letter that highlights the need for\npolicies to better protect them<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Conservation policies and investment in scientific\nresearch are needed to protect the species that inhabit the South China Sea. A letter\njust published in the journal <em>Science<\/em>,\nreaffirms this statement and represents one of the first outcomes of the\nprestigious Sino-Italian collaboration between the Institute of Deep-sea\nScience and Engineering (IDSSE) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences\u2014one of the\nmost important oceanographic research institutes in the world\u2014and CIMA Research\nFoundation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Cetaceans are apical predators with a fundamental\necological role. They are also an important component of marine biodiversity\nand indicators of the health status of ecosystems. More than a third of all\nspecies of cetaceans inhabit the South China Sea. It is in these waters that,\nin May 2019, Chinese and Italian researchers embarked on a mission to conduct\nthe first dedicated survey on the presence and health status of different\ncetacean species in this still little understood sea. Of the eight species of\ncetaceans encountered, seven had never been reported before in the area. All\nobserved species are protected by the Convention on the Conservation of\nMigratory Species (CMS) and listed in Appendices I and II of CITES, which\nprotects species globally through the regulation of their trade. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cDuring this survey, we carried out several sampling\nprotocols aimed at the census of animals both numerically and genetically, the\nlatter through small skin biopsies, and satellite marking necessary to monitor\nanimal movements. Thanks to the protocols developed by the DSFTA of the\nUniversity of Siena, we also carried out pilot monitoring to quantify the\npresence of plastics, both through visual monitoring of floating plastics and\nthrough the capture of different species of fish, to understand the impact of\nplastics in the food chain\u201d, explains Massimiliano Rosso, researcher in the\nMarine Ecosystems Department of CIMA Research Foundation and co-author of the\nletter. \u201cThe results of this investigation have highlighted a unique wealth in\nthis sea; wealth, however, threatened by different human activities.\u201d Fishing,\nabove all, not only reduces the availability of prey for, but also poses the\nrisk of bycatch, i.e. involuntary catches in hooks or nets dropped by fishermen\ncoming from at least five nation states operating in the area under study. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The team counted on the presence of other Italian\nresearchers such as Alessandro Bocconcelli, visiting scientist at CIMA Research\nFoundation, whose thirty years of experience in approaching animals was\nfundamental during the collection of biopsies, and Francesco Caruso, researcher\nat the Chinese Institute, specialized in bioacoustics. Dr. Caruso emphasizes: \u201cUnderwater\nnoises produced by human activities can damage the hearing and orientation of\ncetaceans by altering their behavior and communication skills, a phenomenon\nthat can have very negative effects on the survival of different species of\nwhales and dolphins\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It is these observations that led the authors of the\nletter to underline the importance of taking conservation actions. Songhai Li,\nproject coordinator for IDSSE, aims to strengthen collaboration between the\nscientific and political communities to raise awareness and stimulate regional\ngovernments to change current policies for the protection of marine mammals in\nthe South China Sea. In the meantime, research on cetaceans should continue and\nexpand, including through international cooperation programs, in order to\nidentify areas for conservation efforts to focus and implement protection\nstandards through the better management of human activities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWe have already signed a memorandum of understanding\nwith the IDSSE of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The project that the\nSino-Italian group is carrying out\u2014of which the letter published in <em>Science<\/em> is one of the latest results\u2014was\nsupposed to go ahead during May of this year, but was temporarily suspended due\nto the Covid-19 pandemic\u201d, explains Luca Ferraris, president of CIMA Research\nFoundation. \u201cHowever, the work carried out during this period has shown us how\nmuch collaboration with our Chinese colleagues is fundamental to help the\nprotection of the environment and the conservation of these important\npredators, the marine mammals.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The collaboration between the main Chinese Oceanographic Institute and the CIMA Research Foundation has led researchers to investigate the richness of the South China Sea, which is home to more than a third of the planet&#8217;s species of cetaceans . The latest result of this academic collaboration is a letter that highlights the need for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":962,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,121],"tags":[133],"class_list":["post-773","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-marine-ecosystems","tag-east-asia"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cimafoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cimafoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cimafoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cimafoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cimafoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.cimafoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cimafoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cimafoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cimafoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cimafoundation.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}