Cetacean Strandings and Museum Collections: A Focus on Sicily Island Crossroads for Mediterranean Species

Sabrina Lo Brutto,Gianni Pavan,Andrea Calascibetta,Gaspare Buffa

doi:10.3390/d13030104

Abstract

The study examined the extent of the cetacean strandings in Italy, with a particular focus on Sicily Island. The paper aimed to contribute to the description of a pattern that contemplates the “regular and rare” cetacean species passage along the Sicilian coast. The estimate of marine cetacean strandings was extrapolated from the National Strandings Data Bank (BDS—Banca Dati Spiaggiamenti) and evaluated according to a subdivision in three coastal subregions: the Tyrrhenian sub-basin (northern Sicilian coast), the Ionian sub-basin (eastern Sicilian coast), and the Channel of Sicily (southern Sicilian coast). Along the Italian coast, more than 4880 stranding events have been counted in the period 1990–2019. Most of these were recorded in five Italian regions: Apulia, Sicily, Sardinia, Tuscany, and Calabria. Approximately 15% of the recorded strandings in Italy occurred on the Sicilian coast. In Sicily Island, 725 stranded cetaceans were recorded in 709 stranding events, resulting in approximately 20 carcasses every year; the total number of specimens identified to species level was 539. The distribution along the Sicilian coast was the following: 312 recorded in the Tyrrhenian sub-basin, 193 in the Ionian sub-basin, and 220 in the Channel of Sicily. Stenella coeruleoalba was the species that can be considered as the stable record along the time-lapse investigated, and some rare species have been recorded as well. The role of Sicily Island as a sentinel territory of the cetacean distribution for the central Mediterranean Sea and as a region receiving a marine resource suitable for the scientific research and cetological museum collections is discussed herein.

Highlights

Natural history museums play an important role in zoological research and in the dissemination of scientific results to society, as well as in the enhancement of historical collections that mirror the past and current biodiversity of a region [1,2,3]
An example is a specimen of the northern right whale, Eubalaena glacialis, a rare species for the basin, which stranded in Taranto in 1877 [9], and is presently exposed at the Zoological Museum of the University of Naples Federico II [10]
Of the nine species of the Mediterranean cetaceans, Ziphius cavirostris, Globicephala melas, Grampus griseus, and Steno bredaniensis fall into the “Data Deficient” category; Stenella coeruleoalba, Balaenoptera physalus, and Tursiops truncatus fall into the “Vulnerable” category; Delphinus delphis and Physeter macrocephalus are instead considered to be “Endangered” [38]

Summary

Introduction

Natural history museums play an important role in zoological research and in the dissemination of scientific results to society, as well as in the enhancement of historical collections that mirror the past and current biodiversity of a region [1,2,3]. An exceptional skeleton represent a great attraction to the public They are considered totem animals [14] owing to of the dwarf sperm whale, Kogia sima, stranded near Foce Chiarore, Capalbio (Grosseto, their high emotional impact and because they function as precious documentary material Tuscany) in 1988 [13], which represents the first record for the Mediterranean, is shown at useful for research and science dissemination. Strandings Data Bank (BDS—Banca Dati Spiaggiamenti) was created and made available online by the University of Pavia and the Natural History Museum of Milan on behalf of the Italian Ministry of the Environment. Emergency Response Team (CERT) of the University of Padova, which was established with a mandate by the Ministry of Environment

The Study Area

The Census

Sicily as a Crossroads for Cetaceans’ Passage

The Cetological Collections in Sicily

Findings

Conclusions