MEDITS

"THE MEDITS PROJECT"

AN INTERNATIONAL BOTTOM TRAWL SURVEY IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

The MEDITS survey programme (International bottom trawl survey in the Mediterranean) intends to produce basic information on benthic and demersal species in term of population distribution as well as demographic structure, on the continental shelves and along the upper slopes at a global scale in the Mediterranean Sea, through systematic bottom trawl surveys.

At the beginning of the project in 1993, one of the main challenges was the adoption of a common standardized sampling methodology. The basic protocols have been adopted by the four first partners (Spain, France, Italy and Greece) early in 1994, just before the first international survey.

Nowdays, the countries involved are 9: Spain, France, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Greece, Cyprus.

The Medits programme is conducted owing to the financial support from the European Commission (DG XIV) and the following partners, the IEO for Spain, the IFREMER and the Territorial Collectivity of Corsica for France, the Italian Minister of forest, agricultural and food resources (DG fisheries and aquaculture) for Italy as well as Slovenian, Croatian and Albanian areas, the N CMR for Greece.

The Marine Biology and Fisheries Laboratory of Fano is one of the Italian operative unity and deals with monitoring the geographical sub area 17 (GSA17) that corresponds to the North Middle Adriatic Sea.