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2007). A recent effort to identify the Mediterranean distribution of critical habitats of six groups of
top marine predators (cetaceans, monk seal, seabirds, turtles, sharks and bluefin tuna), to help
identifying concentration areas where the establishment of MPAs might support conservation (Fig.
2-10), was presented during the World Conservation Congress in Barcelona (Hoyt and
Notarbartolo di Sciara 2008).
The map represented in Fig. 2- 9 is a combination of information provided by sources of expertise
in the respective fields (cetacean areas were adopted by the Contracting Parties to ACCOBAMS
by recommendation of the Agreement’s Scientific Committee; monk seal areas were proposed by
MOm and SAD AFAG; seabird areas were proposed by regional experts of Birdlife International;
turtle areas were proposed by Mediterranean exponents of IUCN’s Marine Turtle Specialist Group;
shark areas were proposed by Mediterranean exponents of IUCN’s Shark Specialist Group). Hoyt
and Notarbartolo di Sciara’s effort should be considered a still crude geographical representation of
important habitat areas for a selection of the region’s main marine top predators, due to the partly
conjectural nature of the original data and to the lack of information from a significant portion of the
region (mostly across the Ionian, Aegean and Levantine seas); however it has the merit of
providing a strawman – prepared cooperatively by groups of experts who have rarely worked
together in the past – to be further developed and improved through reiterations of Delphic
methods and software-supported designations.

Fig. 2-9. Cetaceans, monk seal, seabirds, turtles, sharks and bluefin tuna critical habitats. Cetaceans: light green
polygons; monk seal: dark green small circles (established areas) and red small circles (areas to be established); birds:
pink areas; turtles: yellow circles (nesting beaches) and blue circles (feeding areas); sharks: light green circles (nursery

areas of various species); bluefin tuna: red polygon (from Hoyt and Notarbartolo di Sciara, 2008).