Summer school in Batroun, Lebanon (June 2-4, 2014)
written by Anna Fricke

The first summer school of the ENPI-CBCMED M3HABs (Risk Monitoring, Modelling and Mitigation of Benthic Harmful Algal Blooms) project took place in Batroun, Lebanon, 2-4^th June 2014. The project has started in January 2014 and will help to increase awareness and implement measures to manage benthic harmful algal blooms in the Mediterranean basin through the development of common monitoring procedures, automated counting methods and modelling predictive tools.

During the three-day workshop, held at the National Center for Marine Sciences (CNRS) and in the facilities of the San Stephano Resort, international participants of the various partners (e.g. France, Italy, Lebanon, Monaco, Montenegro, Tunisia), together with master and PhD students, came together for lectures, scientific exchange and further planning for the upcoming activities of the project.

(Fotos: Valentina Giussani; Flavio Oliva; Wildlife photoreporter & cinematographer; Sally Sassine)

The main aim of the workshop was the training of students and the intercalibration of methods among participants in order to facilitate and optimise the first sampling season.

In a vibrant and motivated atmosphere the common sampling and samples analyses techniques were demonstrated and students had the occasion of train both in the field and in the laboratory.

Beyond the excellent mediation of the required scientific knowledge on Ostreopsis ecology and taxonomy, the workshop promoted further intercultural exchange and allowed a unique insight in the culture and environment of the host country.

Overall the summer school provided the ideal base for scientific exchange and opened the doors for a further fruitful cooperation along the Mediterranean coasts.

Discover the film on sustainable fishing in the Mediterranean supported by the laboratory ECOMERS.

This film was made thanks to the initiative of the regional federation France Nature Environment (FNE) and with the scientific support of ECOMERS lab. It aims at explaining the way artisanal fishing works and, based on the scientific work of the lab, at showing the importance of this fishing practices in the context of sustainable management of the coastal zone.

For more than 40 years, FNE PACA coordinate (through its departmental federations) the Associations for Protection of Nature and Environment in the Provence 'Alpes Côte d'Azur' to implement sustainable development in the territories.
Current policies at national or European level are biased tomainly address to industrial fisheries (mainly offshore) and often do not take into account artisanal fisheries. However, the latter is a fishery that, for centuries, practiced sustainable fishing, long before this term have been brought up to date.

ECOMERS scientists work since long on the subject of artisanal fishing and helped demonstrate, through their scientific papers published in international journals, the importance of these practices for the sustainable management of the coastal zone. Through this film, ECOMERS communicates the studies carried on this activity. Considering the reduced number of laboratories working in the French Mediterranean on the ecology of coastal areas, ECOMERS is the main laboratory to do research on this topic.

This project has the support of a number of managers of marine protected areas (Frédéric Bachet, Marine Park of the Blue Coast, which is involved in the film), artisanal fishermen associations (in France called 'prud'homies' ; Elisabeth Tempier Prud'homie Sanary, in the film) and, in general, a number of individual artisanal fishermen.

Voir le film

The family Tetraodontidae includes highly toxic species such as the famous Japanese fugu. Several species live in the Mediterranean. Some came through the Suez Canal and are present throughout the eastern basin of the Mediterranean, such as Lagocephalus sceleratus. Other species have an uncertain origin: native of the Mediterranean, or entered from the Atlantic or Red Sea? This is the case of Sphoeroides pachygaster.

(by P. Francour)

This species was not known the French Mediterranean coast yet. On May 9th, 2014, this fish was caught at Vauban harbour, Antibes. It was determined by Patrice Francour and is currently preserved at the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco.
You will find in the Nice Matin article details about the capture. This is an example of how citiziens may help scientists in recording new species.