Conservation and management of coralligenous habitat: experience from The BIOMAP Project

<p>Coralligenous is one of the most important habitat for the Mediterranean sea recognised as protected habitat in the EC Regulation No. 1967/2006 concerning management measures for the sustainable exploitation of shery resources in the Mediterranean Sea. Dierent actions have been thus favoured to collect new data on its range of extent and distribution in the Mediterranean and European seas.</p> <p>BIOMAP Project (BIOcostruzioni MArine in Puglia), promoted by Puglia Region, Italy, is a part of the program “PO FESR 2007/2013 – AXIS IV – line 4.4: intervention for the ecological network”. It promotes actions in order to map and monitor coralligenous<br>habitats along the Apulian coast (southern Adriatic margin and northern Ionian margin – Mediterranean sea http://www.biomapping.it/index) .<br>Acoustic (multibeam and side-scan sonar),video data and samples were collected through a number of oceanographic cruises, to identify and locate coralligenous habitats in 21 Sites of Community Interest (SCI), 3 Marine Protected Areas (MPAs).