Its area does not exceed 1% of the area of ​​the World Ocean, but 10% of all marine species live in it, 1/4 of which lives only there. Its waters are home to half the world’s population of the Mediterranean seal, the humpback whale, the second largest animal in the world, the pufferfish, the animal with the largest brain ever recorded in the animal kingdom, the black dolphin, shy porpoises, many species of dolphins, the tiny porpoise , living exclusively in the waters of Thrace, and, of course, the carriage-carriage. The ark of biodiversity is on fire.

This summer research center Mercator Ocean International, based in Toulouse, measured sea surface temperatures in the western Mediterranean between 28 and 30 degrees Celsius, 5 degrees above average. A sea heat wave began in May in the Ligurian Sea between Corsica and Italy, spread in June to the Gulf of Taranto in the Ionian Sea, and in July affected the Balearic Islands, Sardinia and the Tyrrhenian Sea (the sea between the Italian peninsula, Corsica, Sardinia and Sicily).

Experts are sounding the alarm because sea ​​warming this affects the already burdened Mediterranean ecosystem through overfishing, oil and plastic pollution, yacht traffic and noise pollution. Marine mammal populations have declined by 41% over the past 50 years, half of the shark and ray species are considered endangered, and the monk seal population is less than 400 individuals.

Invading fish

The invasion of marine organisms adapted to high temperatures leads to the desertification of entire areas.

The climate crisis will cause some species to become extinct, many fish species to move to deeper waters or even to the poles to find suitable temperatures, and others to migrate here from tropical climates and overlay the ecosystem. Among them are the barracuda (hammerhead), the rapidly breeding warblers of the Ropilem family, and the harefish. Since most invasive fish enter the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal, the Cyclades are their first stop. Such as says Mrs. Annie Mitropoulou “K.”director of the Cyclades Conservation Foundation, due to climate change, alien species are invading our waters, as they are already adapted to high temperatures, which leads to the desertification of entire areas.

“It should be noted that the invasion of marine alien species would not be so rapid if we did not take care of the extermination of their natural predators due to overfishing. For example, a large sea bass may eat lionfish, while a sea turtle prefers jellyfish as a treat. Luckily, some of them are edible, so maybe we can help fight them by including them in our diet.” This refers to a campaign carried out by the organization in collaboration with iSea to consume edible alien marine species in order to reduce their population and therefore the impact of their spread on marine ecosystems.

The damage has already been done

“The climate crisis does not call for a holiday in the Cyclades, it is here to stay,” she comments. In addition to the invasion of alien species, the climate crisis is burdening the grasslands of Posidonia “which we have already damaged, mainly due to uncontrolled mooring”, he said, while leading to the gradual erosion of the beaches, which in turn can cause the appearance of marine waves. rise in the level of underground coastal aquifers, but also damage to infrastructure (ports, coastal airports, etc.).

“The impressive thing is that while nature has its own defenses to resist the violent changes caused by the man-made climate crisis to a certain extent, we have achieved that any natural response limits, for example. destroying the grasslands of posidonia, which could absorb massive amounts of carbon dioxide, destroying with umbrellas, beach bars, jeeps, parked everywhere the dunes, sand dunes and coastal vegetation that are natural buffer zones of coasts from erosion, reducing natural predators of unwanted invaders and depleting water supplies from for excessive water consumption. The adaptation of all of us will be difficult,” concludes Ms. Mitropoulou.