A revisionary study of the genus Mobula Rafinesque, 1810 (Chondrichthyes, Mobulidae), with the description of a new species (1987)
Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara (born November 27, 1948) is an Italian marine conservation ecologist who has bridged the worlds of marine science, conservation and policy.
Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara's interest in marine life grew out of a lifelong love of the sea. His ancestors were mariners and his father was a founder of the Centro Velico Caprera, which honed Giuseppe's interest in Italy's marine environs and focused his childhood fascination with animals towards protecting marine life.
Notarbartolo di Sciara was born in 1948 in Venice and belongs to the ancient Sicilian family Notarbartolo. He obtained laurea degrees in biological sciences (1974) and in natural sciences (1976) at the University of Parma, Italy. Opportunities for research on marine mammals in Italy were non-existent in the 1970s, however, so when he finished his studies at University of Parma, working on gobies and diving rats, he traveled to the U.S. where he resided until the 1985. At Hubbs-Sea World Research Institute in San Diego, California, he worked on beluga whales and whale sharks, as well as doing research with humpback whales in Hawaii and Bryde's whales in Venezuela. He later enrolled as a student at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, where he obtained a Ph.D. (1985) in marine biology with a thesis on manta ray taxonomy and ecology[1][2] in the Gulf of California. There he discovered and described a new manta ray species, Mobula munkiana, which he named after his mentor, the esteemed oceanographer Walter Munk. In 1985 Notarbartolo di Sciara moved back to his home country where he started working on Mediterranean and Red Sea conservations issues. In Italy he married Flavia Pizzi. They have two children, Marco and Bianca.
Research
Notarbartolo di Sciara has been concerned for over 40 years with the advancement of knowledge of the natural history, ecology, behaviour, taxonomy and conservation of aquatic vertebrates, with an emphasis on whales, dolphins, seals, sharks and manta rays, and has described his research in about 230 scientific works and books, and many reports and conference presentations. While investigating manta ray taxonomy and ecology in the Gulf of California (Mexico), the research vessel on which he was living and navigating caught fire and sunk, however he continued his work after basing himself on land. Back in Milano, Italy, Notarbartolo di Sciara continued influencing marine research through his involvement with the Tethys Research Institute, a private non-profit organisation specialising in the study and conservation of Mediterranean large marine vertebrates. Under his guidance the Tethys Research Institute was steered towards a suite of research activities to provide knowledge on Mediterranean marine mammals ecology essential for the implementation of conservation measures.
Conservation policy, science and management
In 1986 Notarbartolo di Sciara recognised the need for an institution targeting Mediterranean marine species at risk, and founded in response the Tethys Research Institute, specialising in the study and conservation of Mediterranean marine mammals. Today Tethys is a widely respected research NGO, producing numerous scientific publications each year and supporting the work of many dozens of graduate students in marine biology.
A decade later, Notarbartolo di Sciara was nominated by the President of Italy to lead the Central Institute for Applied Marine Research (ICRAM, later merged into ISPRA). His 7-year term as President of ICRAM guided that institution in a more strategic direction and allowed the creation and flourishing of many important conservation and planning initiatives, including the strengthening of marine protected area design, coordinated research within MPA sites, and applied science for conservation problem-solving. Notarbartolo di Sciara has also exhibited conservation leadership by serving as the President of the European Cetacean Society[3] (1993-1997).
Today Notarbartolo di Sciara is well known throughout Europe as a conservation leader and television personality. He was a regular guest of "L’Arca di Noè", a series on wildlife of the world, and of Geo & Geo, a live show televised daily throughout Italy.
Marine Protected Areas (MPAs)
While at Tethys, Notarbartolo di Sciara proposed in 1991 the creation of a large protected area for cetaceans in the north-western Mediterranean, which later became the Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean Marine Mammals, established by treaty between France, Italy and Monaco.[4] His return to Italy from the U.S. allowed fateful encounters with many of the other champions for marine conservation who would become so instrumental in making the international Pelagos Sanctuary a reality, including Prince Ranier III of Monaco. Key was his membership in and subsequent coordination role in the marine mammal working group of CIESM (the International Commission for the Scientific Exploration of the Mediterranean Sea).[5] Also critically important was his leadership and support of Tethys, since the Mediterranean cetaceans that are the focus of the NGO also provided the impetus for the establishment of the Pelagos Sanctuary. His involvement with Pelagos Sanctuary continues to this day.
As president of ICRAM he spearheaded the promotion of Italy's marine protected area system, based on solid science and monitoring practice. In particular, his efforts were instrumental in the launching of project "Afrodite", whereby the core zones of 15 Italian MPAs were monitored on the basis of standard protocols (e.g.,[6]). Notarbartolo di Sciara has also often worked as a consultant to organisations involved in the conservation and management of the Mediterranean, including the Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA) of UNEP's Mediterranean Action Plan,[7] and MedPAN.[8]
Notarbartolo di Sciara has also been heavily involved with the conservation of the Red Sea. In particular, he has been a science advisor to HEPCA, the Hurghada Environmental Protection and Conservation Association[9] – the main marine conservation NGO in Egypt. He was also instrumental in creating the highly touted management plan for Samadai MPA,[10] which allowed tourism to co-exist with conservation of spinner dolphins and coral reefs. In 2017 with several colleagues he published a detailed review of cetaceans found in the Red Sea.[11]
In 2013, with Erich Hoyt, he founded the IUCN Joint SSC/WCPA Task Force on Marine Mammal Protected Areas. The Task Force launched in 2016 a programme to identify Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) in the world's oceans, seas and inland waters, to support marine mammal and biodiversity conservation.
Protected species
While the president of ICRAM, Notarbartolo di Sciara served for several years as Commissioner for Italy at the International Whaling Commission, and contributed to the establishment of a national policy on whaling issues and on the promotion of a conservation agenda within the IWC, in cooperation with other like-minded nations.
In 2002 the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area ACCOBAMS came into force, and Notarbartolo di Sciara served as the chair of the Agreement's Scientific Committee from the beginning until 2010.[12] Notarbartolo di Sciara has served as Deputy Chair of the Cetacean Specialist Group[13] of the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) since 1991, and as member of the Shark Specialist Group since 1993. Notarbartolo di Sciara has been engaged in monk seal conservation science since 1986, first conducting a feasibility study for a monk seal captive-breeding a rehabilitation facility in Italy on behalf of the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry. In 2009 he was contracted by the Hellenic Society for the Study and Protection of the Mediterranean Monk Seal (MOm) [14] to draft the national conservation strategy for monk seals in Greece, and has drafted two successive editions (in 2014 and 2019) of the Regional Strategy for the Conservation of Monk Seals in the Mediterranean, both adopted by the Parties to the Barcelona Convention.
From 2007 to 2016 Notarbartolo di Sciara taught a course on the science and policy of conserving marine biodiversity at the Università degli Studi di Milano, Italy. From 1985 to 1990 he held the position of contract professor at the University of Parma, teaching courses in "Natural history of large marine vertebrates", "Behavioural ecology of cetaceans", and "Ethology of large marine vertebrates". He has been guest lecturer at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Yale University in the U.S., and at many other academic institutions in Europe and Latin America.
Views
On marine conservation: good science is essential to conserve the oceans; however conservation is a political endeavour. Without political will, conservation doesn't happen. Bridging science and policy is difficult but doable, and occasionally done; bridging policy and implementation is the real problem, because it is still the exception rather than the rule. Conservation policy is a vital link between science and politics, and maintaining a healthy relationship between scientific objectivity and political advocacy without damaging conservation science’s credibility is becoming an accepted practice. Through the science-mediated interpretation of empirical observations made in marine habitats, many scientists feel that they are entrusted with this information. It therefore becomes an imperative that carries a moral obligation to do everything possible to ensure that marine spaces are not only identified and studied, but respected and preserved.
On the position of humans in the natural world: until about 400,000 years ago, Homo sapiens was just one of the many mammals eking a living in the African savannah, busy finding something to eat while trying to avoid being eaten. In a relatively short time, and in ways now reasonably well understood by anthropologists, we have become technologically savvy to the point that we are now capable of dominating, and likely destroying, the whole planet. Unfortunately humans have been unable to develop, in parallel to their technological prowess, the moral stature necessary to control their brutal strength. This has made of them, essentially, a race of brutes. Having grown increasingly disconnected from nature generation after generation, humans have lost the sense of where they really belong, and most people today think of nature as an optional, to be kept outside of their cosy existence. Sheltered inside the protective cocoon of an imaginary reality, humans see nature mostly as something of a nuisance to be protected against.
Alas, the physical world in which we live is still the master, whether we like it or not, so this attitude of natural denial is likely to bring about mankind’s demise. Furthermore, it is also the cause of the most pernicious indifference and lack of interest for the natural world, and most damningly, of indifference for the damage we increasingly inflict on such world. The ethical consequences of this dystopian approach are staggering. Take for instance human attitude towards non-human animals. The very concept of dualism of humans vs. animals is misleading, as there is no such dualism, and humans are nothing but animals. However, quite conveniently we have convinced ourselves that such dualism is real, so that in our mind we can divide the world between us and all the others. Only we, the humans, are created in the image of God, only we have a soul, only we have an immortal destiny, etc. Everything else is inferior, created by that same God to be at our disposal, and has no rights. Even now that science is telling us what insightful people knew all along, that non-human animals have personalities just like us, are capable of feeling joy and despair, love and fear, can make plans and play politics – in a word, are persons in no way different from human persons – the dualism persists unabated, as if it were a hard-wired feature of our brains. No matter what, on the one side it is us, with full rights, and on the other it is them, nothing more than some sort of animated things.
Honours and awards
Knighthood in the Order of Saint-Charles, received from H.S.H. the Prince Albert II of Monaco on 17 November 2009, for services rendered to the Principality in his quality of Chair of the Scientific Committee of the "Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area".
Honorary citizenship of the town of Sciara, in Sicily, founded in 1670 by Filippo Notarbartolo (the grandfather of the great-grandfather of Giuseppe's great-grandfather), received from the Mayor of Sciara on 12 December 1999. For activities in the field of science, thereby contributing to spreading the name of Sciara around the world.
European Cetacean Society Mandy McMath Conservation Award, Malta, March 2015.
"Tridente d’oro" awarded by the International Academy of Underwater Sciences and Technologies on 11 September 1993, on the island of Ustica (Italy), for activities in the field of marine science.
International prize "Primula d’Oro" awarded by "Uomo e Natura, trimestrale delle aree protette mediterranee", on 28 September 2002, in Naples, for the spearheading of the creation of the Pelagos Sanctuary.
Career prize "Una vita per il mare" ("A life for the sea"), 10th edition, awarded in 2006 by the City Aquarium of Milano and Verdeacqua.
Echthrogaleus disciarai, a crustacean parasite of manta rays, named in Notarbartolo di Sciara's honour in 1987 (Benz G.W., Deets G.B. 1987. Echthrogaleus disciarai sp. nov. (Siphonostomatoidea: Pandaridae), a parasitic copepod of the devil ray Mobula lucasana Beebe and Tee Van, 1938 from the Sea of Cortez. Canadian Journal of Zoology 65:685-690).
Related Research Articles
Marine mammals are mammals that rely on marine (saltwater) ecosystems for their existence. They include animals such as cetaceans, pinnipeds, sirenians, sea otters and polar bears. They are an informal group, unified only by their reliance on marine environments for feeding and survival.
Hubbs' beaked whale was initially thought to be an Andrews' beaked whale when discovered by ichthyologist Carl Hubbs; however, it was named in his honor when it was discovered to be a new species. This species has the typical dentition found in the genus, but its main outstanding features are a white "cap" on the head and very extensive scarring. The species is known from 31 strandings, a few at-sea sightings, and observations of two stranded whales that were kept in captivity for 16–25 days.
The ginkgo-toothed beaked whale is a poorly known species of whale even for a beaked whale, and was named for the unusual shape of its dual teeth. It is a fairly typical-looking species, but is notable for the males not having any scarring.
The long-finned pilot whale, or pothead whale (Globicephalamelas) is a large species of oceanic dolphin. It shares the genus Globicephala with the short-finned pilot whale. Long-finned pilot whales are known as such because of their unusually long pectoral fins.
The striped dolphin is a dolphin found in temperate and tropical waters of all the world's oceans. It is a member of the oceanic dolphin family, Delphinidae.
Originally called the International Ligurian Sea Cetacean Sanctuary, what is now known as the Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean Marine Mammals is a Marine Protected Area aimed at the protection of marine mammals (cetaceans). It covers an area of approximately 84,000 km2, comprising the waters between Toulon, Capo Falcone, Capo Ferro and Fosso Chiarone (Tuscany).
Enrico Hillyer Giglioli was an Italian zoologist and anthropologist.
The Tethys Research Institute is a non-profit research organisation founded in 1986 to support marine conservation through science and public awareness and by participating in the international conservation process. Tethys' activities are mainly carried out in the Mediterranean Sea, although research programmes have been conducted also in the Black Sea, the North Atlantic Ocean, the Caribbean, the Red Sea and Antarctica. The results of these activities have been presented in scientific publications as well as in meetings, workshops and conferences.
The devil fish or giant devil ray is a species of ray in the family Mobulidae. It is currently listed as endangered, mostly due to bycatch mortality in unrelated fisheries.
The spinetail devil ray, also known as the spinetail mobula ray or Japanese mobula ray, is a species of pelagic marine fish which belongs to the family Mobulidae. It is found throughout the tropical and sub-tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific and eastern Atlantic Ocean.
Mobula munkiana, commonly known as the manta de monk, Munk's devil ray, pygmy devil ray, smoothtail mobula or Munk’s pygmy devil ray is a species of ray in the family Mobulidae. It is found in tropical parts of the eastern Pacific Ocean, ranging from the Gulf of California to Peru, as well as near offshore islands such as the Galapagos, Cocos, and Malpelo. Munk's devil ray was first described in 1987 by the Italian ecologist Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara and named for his scientific mentor, Walter Munk.
The Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute (BDRI) is a research and educational centre dedicated to the understanding and conservation of cetaceans and the marine environment in which they live. The Institute's BDRI center was founded by the biologist Bruno Díaz López in Sardinia, Italy in 2005. In 2014, the BDRI opened a new facility in Galicia, Spain.
The Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and contiguous Atlantic Area, or ACCOBAMS, is a regional international treaty that binds its States Parties on the conservation of Cetacea in their territories. The Agreement aims is to reduce threats to Cetaceans in the Mediterranean and Black Seas, as well as in the contiguous Atlantic area west of the Straits of Gibraltar.
Cinque Terre National Park is a protected area inducted as an Italian national park in 1999. Located in the province of La Spezia, Liguria, northern Italy, it is the smallest national park in Italy at 4,300 acres, but also the densest with 5,000 permanent inhabitants among the five towns. In addition to the territory of the towns of Cinque Terre, the Cinque Terre National Park encompasses parts of the communes of Levanto and La Spezia. Cinque Terre was included as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1999.
Bernd Gerhard Würsig is an educator and researcher who works mainly on aspects of behavior and behavioral ecology of whales and dolphins. Much of his early work was done in close collaboration with his wife Melany Ann Würsig, and they have published numerous manuscripts and books together. He is now Professor Emeritus at Texas A&M University, teaching only occasionally but still involved with graduate student and other research. He is especially active with problems and potential solutions concerning Indo-Pacific humpback dolphins, Sousa chinensis, in and surrounding waters of Hong Kong.
Erich Hoyt is a whale and dolphin (cetacean) researcher, conservationist, lecturer and author of 26 books and more than 700 reports, articles and papers. His book Marine Protected Areas for Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises, has been widely reviewed as the "definitive reference of the current extent of cetacean ecosystems-based management" and as "a unique and essential book for anybody interested in the conservation and protection of cetaceans. [This] definitive source on MPAs marine protected areas for cetaceans…will influence the design and management of this important and rapidly developing conservation tool." Choice listed the book as an "Outstanding Academic Title’ for the year 2012. Since 2013, as Research Fellow with Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC) and IUCN SSC/WCPA Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force co-chair with Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara, Hoyt has focussed on the creation and development of the new conservation tool of Important Marine Mammal Areas, or IMMAs. In 2016, following a MAVA Foundation pilot project to identify IMMAs in the Mediterranean, the Task Force's GOBI collaboration funded by the German Climate Initiative (IKI) began a six-year project to identify and implement IMMAs across most of the southern hemisphere. The IMMA tool has been received and widely endorsed by the Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), various commissions within the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), the International Whaling Commission, as well as national governments and scientists.
The Swiss Cetacean Society or Swiss Society for the Study and Protection of Cetaceans is a Swiss nonprofit organization dedicated to the conservation of marine mammals and other endangered marine species in their natural habitat. Founded in 1997, its headquarters are in Lausanne in Switzerland.
Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) were formulated by the joint International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Species Survival Commission / World Commission on Protected Areas, Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force (MMPATF)
Natacha Aguilar de Soto is a Spanish marine biologist at the University of La Laguna (ULL), Tenerife, Canary Islands. She is a Ramón y Cajal research and teaching fellow at ULL and has been a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research Fellow at ULL and at the Center for Research in Ecological Modeling (CREEM) of the University of St. Andrews (SMRU). She is the director of cetacean research within ULL's BIOECOMAC.
Mediterranean cetaceans constitute a unique assemblage of species found in the virtually closed basin of the Mediterranean Sea. This assemblage differs from those found in the North Atlantic or the Red Sea. In the Mediterranean, cetaceans are represented by around twenty species, but only eight of these are considered common: the Short-beaked dolphin, Common dolphin, Bottlenose dolphin, Risso's dolphin, Long-finned pilot whale, Cuvier's beaked whale, Sperm whale and Fin whale. Their distribution varies greatly from region to region, and their abundance and diversity seem to be greatest in the Corso-Liguro-Provençal basin, where cetaceans have been protected by the Pelagos Sanctuary since 2002.
References
↑ Notarbartolo di Sciara G. 1987. A revisionary study of the genus Mobula Rafinesque, 1810 (Chondrichthyes, Mobulidae), with the description of a new species. Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 91:1-91.
↑ Notarbartolo di Sciara G. 1988. Natural history of the rays of the genus Mobula in the Gulf of California. Fishery Bulletin 86(1(:45-66.
↑ Notarbartolo di Sciara G., Agardy T., Hyrenbach D., Scovazzi T., Van Klaveren P. 2008. The Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean marine mammals. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 18:367-391. doi:10.1002/aqc.855
↑ Guidetti P., Milazzo M., Bussotti S., Molinari A., Morenu M., Pais A., Spanò N., Balzano R., Agardy T., Boero F., Carrada G., Cattaneo-Vietti R., Cau A., Chemello R., Greco S., Manganaro A., Notarbartolo di Sciara G., Russo G.F., Tunesi L. 2008. Italian marine protected area effectiveness: does enforcement matter? Biological Conservation 141:699-709. doi:10.1016/j.biocon.2007.12.013
↑ Notarbartolo di Sciara G., Hanafy M.H., Fouda M.M., Afifi A., Costa M. 2009. Spinner dolphin (Stenella longirostris) resting habitat in Samadai Reef (Egypt, Red Sea) protected through tourism management. Journal of the Marine Biological Association of the United Kingdom 89(1):211-216. doi:10.1017/S0025315408002221
↑ Notarbartolo di Sciara G., Kerem D., Smeenk C., Rudolph P., Cesario A., Costa M., Elasar M., Feingold D., Fumagalli M., Goffman O., Hadar N., Mebrathu Y.T., Scheinin A. 2017. Cetaceans of the Red Sea. CMS Technical Series 33. 86 p.
↑ Notarbartolo di Sciara G., Birkun A., Jr. 2010. Conserving whales, dolphins and porpoises in the Mediterranean and Black Seas: an ACCOBAMS status report, 2010. ACCOBAMS, Monaco. 212 p.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply. Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.
