In October 2014, we spent a couple of weeks doing
field work in the two main Catalan Marine Protected Areas: Parc Natural de Cap
de Creus i Parc Natural del Montgrí, les Illes Medes i el Baix Ter. The
objective was the execution of the monitoring of the seagrass meadows within
these two MPAs corresponding to the year 2014. The work was performed in the
framework of a contract with the Direcció
General de Medi Natural, which is the agency of the regional government in
charge of coastal conservation.
Though it may seem that monitoring has less glamour than innovative science, it is a
crucial and basal tool for conservation and must be based on
sound science. Otherwise, unreliable results can lead to wrong management
decisions and, consequently, potential failing of the conservation objectives
of MPAs.
In this sense, the choice of a proper methodology
represents a key aspect in order to successfully assess ecosystem condition and
trends. Also, it must be remain constant over time, in order to guarantee the
comparability between successive years. So, we were engaged in not only
obtaining high-quality information on seagrass meadows, but also in
implementing cost-effective methodologies, standardizing protocols and
producing documents to help in the reproducibility of sampling procedures.
With this aim, we produced a short video documenting our
underwater works. Enjoy it!
