Cetacean, turtle and pelagic species and associations in the central-southern Mediterranean sea : implications for conservation action

Abstract

A research area of about 120,000km around the Maltese Islands has been the subject of year-round marine research since 1997. Various species have been studied including cetaceans, turtles, elasmobranchs, bluefin tuna and sea birds. Aerial and marine survey techniques allowed for various aspects of species distribution and spatio-temporal associations to be analysed using the data mining (association rule learning) technique. Such results have applications in maritime and conservation management.