(Marta Madina / 19-10-09) The organization for the defense of our seas, Oceana, has taken new pictures in the seabed in the Gulf of Cadiz (Spain). The results sampling have intensified the need of creating an area of marine conservation and support to traditional fishing.

After two months of expedition in Canary Islands, where the crew of the catamaran Oceana Ranger has succeeded in registering twenty new species in this archipelago, the research vessel of the marine organization has stopped in Chipiona again to continue sampling in the Gulf of Cadiz. New video images and submarine pictures are added to those taking in August.

Through a submarine robot, a team of divers, sampling dredges and other technical material, Oceana has continued sampling the seabed in front of the area Chipiona- Rota, to know the conditions of their bottom communities and promote the creation of a conservation area and support of traditional fishing.

Works have shown the biological richness in this water, with a lot of suspended matter and the presences of vast forests of corals and gorgonians in the areas closer to the coastline.

“The turbidity of the water allows that species normally found in deeper waters are here between 10 and 20 meters deep, what creates a very rich and diverse ecosystem of fish, sea squirts, gorgonians, corals and many other species,” says Ana de la Torriente, marine scientist of Oceana Europe.

Samplings also aim to know better the seabed where a offshore wind farm has been proposed to be installed to get more information about the suitability of the area and the sort of seabed that may be affected.

Once we are out of the first 3- 4 miles of the coastline, we enter very different bottoms where compact mud predominates and marine life is reduced to some different species of worms, many remains of molluscs and some crabs angle. Here, diversity and fishing richness is in the column of water, with pelagic and migratory species such as mackerel, croaker or dolphinfish.

“This kind of seabed has probably importance as member of trophic chain of the species of the area, although the initial impression of Oceana is that there are no reasons to think that invertebrates in the area would be negatively affected by the installation of wind turbines,” says Ricardo Aguilar, Research and Project Director of Oceana Europe.

Traditional fisheries developed in the area hardly have caused harm to the seabed, but Oceana is afraid that fishing piracy and use of destructive fishing gear, such as drag, can endanger this so productive ecosystem and the future of traditional fishing.

Samplings carried out, along with those done some months ago and the previous year, will give new information about ecosystems in the Gulf of Cadiz. Its purpose is to serve for a future environmental management plan of the area that includes the creation of a protected marine area that covers from Rota to Mazagón, the impulse of a supporting plan for traditional fishing, eliminating illegal and destructive fishing, and the implantation of energetic models with no co2 emissions, including offshore wind farms.