{"id":13739,"date":"2019-09-25T09:35:03","date_gmt":"2019-09-25T07:35:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.azti.es\/descifrar-y-proteger-el-ultimo-ecosistema-virgen-abundante-y-desconocido-que-queda-en-la-tierra\/"},"modified":"2019-09-25T12:07:13","modified_gmt":"2019-09-25T10:07:13","slug":"deciphering-and-protecting-the-last-known-abundant-and-unexploited-marine-ecosystem-on-earth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/old.azti.es\/en\/deciphering-and-protecting-the-last-known-abundant-and-unexploited-marine-ecosystem-on-earth\/","title":{"rendered":"Deciphering and protecting the last known abundant and unexploited marine ecosystem on Earth"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<ul><li>The\nAZTI research centre is leading the \u201cSUMMER\u201d Horizon2020 project. This is an\ninitiative that seeks to generate knowledge about mesopelagic fish; the largest\nknown unexploited marine living resource.<\/li><li>The\nstudy will establish a protocol to estimate the biomass of these fish, the opportunities\noffered by its exploitation, and the associated risks, in order to assess if it\ncan be exploited in a sustainable manner.<\/li><li>The\nproject, which will last until 2023, has a budget of 6.5 million Euros and includes\n22 research centres and companies from ten countries in Europe and beyond. The\nproject officially launches September 24-26<sup>th<\/sup> in Bilbao, Spain, with\nmore than 70 researchers attending. <\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"352\" src=\"https:\/\/www.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/mesopelagic-fish-1024x352.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13728\" srcset=\"https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/mesopelagic-fish-1024x352.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/mesopelagic-fish-300x103.jpg 300w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/mesopelagic-fish-768x264.jpg 768w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/mesopelagic-fish-450x155.jpg 450w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/mesopelagic-fish-900x309.jpg 900w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/mesopelagic-fish-1536x527.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/mesopelagic-fish-992x341.jpg 992w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/mesopelagic-fish-1984x681.jpg 1984w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/mesopelagic-fish-1200x412.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/mesopelagic-fish-1800x618.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Bilbao, on 25 of September 2019<\/em> &#8211; Advances in research and technology have helped to considerably improve our knowledge of the ocean and of its natural resources. However, there are still ecosystems to be explored. One of these is the mesopelagic ecosystem, the zone located at depths of between 200 and 1000 metres. According to recent studies, fish biomass in this zone could amount to 10 billion tonnes; ten times more than the biomass of all the other fish together. This makes it the largest known marine living resource unexploited to date by humankind. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But what species does this community consist of? What opportunities does its exploitation offer? How would such exploitation affect other marine organisms and ecosystems? What effect would its exploitation have on existing and unknown stressors from climate change? To answer these questions, the AZTI research centre in Spain is coordinating the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.azti.es\/en\/proyectos\/summer\/\">SUMMER Horizon2020 project<\/a>; an initiative that seeks to know more about this mesopelagic community, as well as the opportunities and risks represented by its exploitation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>More specifically, the project will\nestablish a protocol to improve the accuracy of the mesopelagic fish biomass\nestimates, and will quantify the ecosystem services that it provides; namely,\nall the benefits that are or can be derived from these organisms, such as, for\ninstance, source of food for aquaculture, or its function both in the trophic\nchain and in climate regulation. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cWithin the framework of the project, we\nwill also determine how these organisms contribute to atmospheric carbon\ndioxide sequestration, and we will explore the potential use of mesopelagic\nfish in fish meal and processed food industries, including as a source of\nbioactive compounds for pharmaceutical and nutraceutical products\u201d, Xabier\nIrigoien, the scientific director of AZTI explains.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>To achieve these objectives, the project will\ncollect samples from the mesopelagic community, which currently serve as food\nfor high trophic level organisms that have considerable economic and cultural\nimportance, such as squid, tuna, sharks, manta rays, deep-water fish, marine\nbirds and mammals. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2><strong>The SUMMER objective:<\/strong><strong> <\/strong><strong>sustainable management<\/strong><strong> <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>According to the latest report of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United\nNations, by 2050 the world\u2019s human population will\nhave surpassed 10 billion and will need 70% more food than today. In this sense, it is noteworthy that the current\nconsumption of fish is already at maximum sustainable levels. As such, the\npotential biomass of mesopelagic fish has awoken interest both as a source of\nfood for aquaculture in the form of fish feed, as well as for the nutraceutical\nand pharmaceutical industries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote\"><p>\u201cTo exploit this resource in a sustainable manner, we must have an adequate preliminary estimation of its abundance, of the ecosystem services that it provides, and in turn, of the risks associated with its exploitation. We must provide an urgent answer to the lack of knowledge about essential aspects, such as the species that comprise this ecosystem, what the&nbsp; biomass is, or how they are spatially distributed\u201d, Irigoien points out. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p>Furthermore, the role played by\nmesopelagic organisms in capturing CO<sub>2<\/sub> and sequestering it, and thereby\nplaying a part in climate regulation, has still not been quantified. &nbsp;\u201cThe possible net benefits of its\nexploitation could be lower than the cost, due to its role as food for other\nspecies and its place in global climate regulation. Before commercially exploiting this ecosystem, we must\nassess all the other services it provides us\u201d, the expert states. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/www.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/summer_kickoff_teamphoto-1024x683.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13732\" srcset=\"https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/summer_kickoff_teamphoto-1024x683.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/summer_kickoff_teamphoto-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/summer_kickoff_teamphoto-768x512.jpg 768w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/summer_kickoff_teamphoto-450x300.jpg 450w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/summer_kickoff_teamphoto-900x600.jpg 900w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/summer_kickoff_teamphoto-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/summer_kickoff_teamphoto-992x661.jpg 992w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/summer_kickoff_teamphoto-1984x1323.jpg 1984w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/summer_kickoff_teamphoto-1200x800.jpg 1200w, https:\/\/old.azti.es\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/summer_kickoff_teamphoto-1800x1200.jpg 1800w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><figcaption>International team of researchers at the kick off meeting in Bilbao.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The AZTI research centre is leading the \u201cSUMMER\u201d Horizon2020 project. This is an initiative that seeks to generate knowledge about mesopelagic fish; the largest known unexploited marine living resource. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":13726,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_price":"","_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_header":"","_tribe_default_ticket_provider":"","_tribe_ticket_capacity":"0","_ticket_start_date":"","_ticket_end_date":"","_tribe_ticket_show_description":"","_tribe_ticket_show_not_going":false,"_tribe_ticket_use_global_stock":"","_tribe_ticket_global_stock_level":"","_global_stock_mode":"","_global_stock_cap":"","_tribe_rsvp_for_event":"","_tribe_ticket_going_count":"","_tribe_ticket_not_going_count":"","_tribe_tickets_list":[],"_tribe_ticket_has_attendee_info_fields":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[361,445,574,580,575,581,576,582],"tax-big-challenge":[42,36],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v18.4.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Deciphering and protecting the last known abundant and unexploited marine ecosystem on Earth - AZTI<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/old.azti.es\/en\/deciphering-and-protecting-the-last-known-abundant-and-unexploited-marine-ecosystem-on-earth\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Deciphering and protecting the last known abundant and unexploited marine ecosystem on Earth - AZTI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The AZTI research centre is leading the \u201cSUMMER\u201d Horizon2020 project. 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