Medits 2000: Technical Report for the Region M3 (Italian coasts - South Tyrrhenian Sea, Strait of Sicily - and Maltese waters)

The 2000 Medits (hereby MED2000) survey in the M3 region was carried out from 25th May to 1st July 2000 using the professional stern trawler "Sant'Anna". In MED2000 for the first time also the Maltese waters (herein defined as sub-region M3d) were included in the survey. The first M3 sub-region, the region known as the Strait of Sicily (M3c), has been surveyed, from 25th May to 5th June, by the scientific staff of the "Istituto di ricerche sulle Risorse Marine e l'Ambiente, IRMA-CNR" of Mazara. Subsequently, the waters around Malta (M3d) were explored from 6th to 8th of June. The second sub-region covered was the central part of M3 study region (M3b), i.e., the grounds of the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea off Calabria (Capo Suvero) and the Northern coasts of Sicily (Capo S. Vito). This sub-region has been surveyed, from 12th June to 18th June, by the scientific staff of the "Istituto Talassografico - CNR" of Messina. Finally, the trawler moved to the northern side of the M3 study region, i.e., the grounds of the Central and Southern Tyrrhenian Sea facing Campania (Volturno river) and Calabria (Capo Suvero) regions respectively . This sub-region (M3a) has been surveyed, from 19th June to 1st July, by the scientific staff of the "COISPA - Tecnologia and Ricerca" of Torre a Mare (Bari). An overall of 147 hauls were performed in the whole M3 region; in particular, 57, 28 and 56 hauls were performed along the Italian coasts (M3a, M3b and M3c respectively) whereas 6 hauls (1 not valid) were realised in Maltese waters (M3d). Some problems rose during the survey around the Maltese waters, due to the poor knowledge related to the trawlable bottoms. This required a preliminary exploration of the substrate and more than one trial in performing the tow. Notwithstanding, severe damage of the gear resulted in the invalidated haul (North of the Gozo Island, in the 200-500 m stratum). An attempt to recover this tow in the same stratum, but in a different zone (SSW Malta Island), failed after few minutes, due to the breakage of the footrope. In all hauls, a miniature data logger (MINILOG-TD), recording both temperature and depth, was mounted on the head rope of the gear. It was not possible monitoring directly the gear performance (a SCANMAR equipment was not available), but haul duration was recorded according to average effective time on bottom and the horizontal opening of the gear in each haul was estimated on the base of the formula derived from previous trials carried on by IRPEM-CNR (Ancona, Italy) technicians using SCANMAR equipment. Both haul registration and processing of biological samples were accurately performed according to MEDITS protocol.