Marine alien species - CapSenHAR project
The biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea is constantly evolving, colonized by expanding species that arrive through natural corridors, such as the Strait of Gibraltar, and by non-indigenous or alien species that are introduced through anthropogenic activities such as maritime traffic, aquaculture and the aquarium hobby or which arrive through artificial corridors such as the Suez Canal. The success of new species may be favored by climate change and/or altered environmental conditions. Some of these may become invasive and pose a threat to the environment, cause damage to the economy or represent a danger to human health.
The scientific community recognizes the importance of actively involving citizens in the observation of natural phenomena, particularly in difficult to control environments such as the marine one, this way of doing scientific research known as Citizen Science. Fishermen and divers, living daily in close contact with the marine environment, are expert connoisseurs of the sea and its resources: guided by researchers, they can become real "sentinels of the sea", signaling the presence of alien species even in areas not investigated by monitoring activities, thus carrying out a real large-scale surveillance activity.
In the CapSenHAR Project, ISPRA coordinated the implementation and strengthening of the Early Detection and Rapid Response system for the identification, monitoring and surveillance of alien species developed within the HARMONY project. This system, based on the collection of data on non-indigenous species through a Citizen Science approach, Local Ecological Knowledge, saw the involvement of a heterogeneous network of observatories at a cross-border level, which includes fishermen and divers. The data collection protocol, produced as part of the Harmony project, was in fact implemented and replicated in new marine protected areas of the Sicilian-Maltese area, and was "transferred" to the operators of the MPAs so that they could become active subjects in data collection and therefore in the surveillance system.