Inventory and mapping of habitats and fisheries footprint off “Banco de La Concepción” seamount (Canary Islands). Criteria analysis for the marine protected area establishment | Inventario y cartografía de los hábitats y de la huella pesquera del monte submarino “Banco de La Concepción” (Islas Canarias). Análisis de criterios para la designación del área marina protegida

Banco de La Concepción is one of the areas chosen to be depicted in the frame of INDEMARES project. It is located at 71 km to the NE of Lanzarote. The main aim of the project was to end up with an inventory and mapping of habitats and fisheries footprint off the study area, information which would let the administrations to establish a new Natura 2000 area, trying to reconcile protection of biodiversity with artisanal local economic activities. Methodology approach complies with a multidisciplinary perspective, having described the area from geological, oceanographic, biological and fisheries points of view. Several surveys have taken place since 2009 to 2013 at Banco de La Concepción waters. Data from VMS (Vessel Monitoring System) were used, combined with interviews to users (fishers), to describe the fishery uses in the area. Ten different types of communities have been identified as “Habitat 1170, Reefs”, following Annex 1 from Habitats Directive (Council Directive 92/43/CEE) from European Union. All of them have three dimensional structure and species with certain size turning these areas into important containers of biodiversity and hot spots for shelter. About protected species by Habitats Directive, Centrostephanus longispinus (Philippi, 1845) belongs to Annex IV. Neophryssospongia nolitangere (Schmidt, 1870) is included in the Canary Islands Catalog of Protected Species as a vulnerable species. Within the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, we can find several fishes as endangered species, while in the area can also be found several vulnerable species, special importance have several elasmobranchs species. Subsequent studies about deep water white corals Lophelia pertusa (Linnaeus, 1758) and Madrepora oculata Linnaeus, 1758, present in the study area, could conclude with these species inclusion in the list. Fishery activities identified during this study with a higher degree of fishing intensity (tuna fishing with pole lines and surface longlines for sworfish) don’t interact with the bottom. Electric reel hook and line and bottom horizontal longline activities are not so frequent, but while the first one has very little impact on the bottom (arose from anchoring), the latter is performed by only two vessels but with a high degree of intensity and very spatially concentrated at rocky bottom areas, generating an important impact on the bottom during the raising maneuver by getting snagged with benthic epifauna. Ecological assessment results from values assigned to different community or species features or parameters, not always in a quantitative manner, depending on their diverse nature. To use a totally aseptic quantitative index is impossible; therefore, an often used tool is to resort to an expert panel (group of experts) which members individually assign a value to each of the assessed parameters. This solution absorbs bias produced by individual criteria. We established three value levels (low, medium and high) for each of the twelve parameters used. After all we end up with a map of an ecological assessment index (EAI) which is simple and weighs every parameter equally. Higher EAI is assigned to bathial rocky bottoms with anthipatarians, closely followed by Corallium spp deep water coral reefs. Bathial rocky bottoms with Callogorgia verticillata (Pallas, 1766) have a mid-high EAI. We are not very optimistic about collective action preconditions, which explain the capacity of human communities to design, implement and enforce designed institutions to resources management and protection. There is an absence of fishermen organizations closely linked to the area, of leadership among effective users, which have a very limited experience in conservation initiatives and an a priori reluctant attitude. A proper step-zero at Banco de La Concepción marine protected area will be provided by sharing available scientific information with users, public report and open and full consultation about the protection possibilities, giving time to assimilation, involving local stakeholders, and finding coordination among institutions and security bodies to ensure protection measures enforcement

EC Life+ Project INDEMARES (Code no. 110300900)