INDICIT II
“Impacts of marine litter on sea turtles and biota” in RSC and MSFD areas (Indicator Impact Taxa) – INDICIT II
Plastic items compose more than 80% of the litter observed offshore and on beaches. They are omnipresent and accumulate for years to centuries in the seas. Marine taxa such as sea turtles have wide geographic range (Atlantic and Mediterranean), use different habitat compartments (neritic to pelagic) and are known to ingest marine debris. As a consequence, the MSFD Task Group on Marine Litter suggested the debris items ingested by sea turtles as an indicator for the monitoring of GES for D10. The initial assessment of GES and the methodological standard procedures for the use of this indicator urgently need to be implemented in order to meet the regional (e.g. within RSCs) and global MSFD requirements and allow to evaluate the efficiency of programmes of measures such as the ban of plastic bag and other legislative decision in EU countries.The INDICIT-II project is a follow-up of the INDICIT project (2017-19). INDICIT-II project aims to capitalize the INDICIT results concerning the networking, the elaboration of standard guidelines, the collection of large standard data set and the evaluation of GES scenario for the indicator “Litter ingested by sea turtles”, as well as to identify the key elements for the implementation of two other indicators for the monitoring of litter impacts “Biota entanglement in debris” and “Microdebris ingestion by biota”. INDICIT II involves 12 partners from the public sector (7 EU countries and 2 non-EU countries), all contracting parties to the OSPAR (Atlantic) and/or Barcelona (Mediterranean) conventions. The general objectives are (1) to capitalize the practical outcomes related to networking, development of standardized tools, gathering of standard data and GES assessments for the Indicator “Litter ingested by sea turtles”, (2) to support the implementation of the indicators “Entanglement of sea turtles, birds, cetaceans in floating debris” and “Micro-plastic ingestion by fish and sea turtles”, (3) to support the next 6-year cycle of MSFD implementation by testing the indicators (especially the more advanced “Litter ingested by sea turtles”) in response to National PoMs in pilot areas. By developing standardized knowledge for several fauna taxa at an extended spatial level, the project will contribute to provide integrative tools to assess anthropogenic risks and distance to GES especially in the framework of D10. Finally, the project aims to foster synergies with other EU projects and to transfer knowledge to competent authorities in three regional seas of priority, the North-East Atlantic Ocean, the Macaronesia and the Mediterranean Sea.
Funding Source: DG ENV - MSFD - SECOND CYCLE: IMPLEMENTATION OF THE NEW GES DECISION AND PROGRAMMES OF MEASURES
total budget: 267,029 euros (own contribution), 769,949 euros (EU contribution)
HCMR budget: 28,082 euros (own contribution), 70,277 euros (EU contribution)
Project website: https://indicit-europa.eu/