[ report an error in this record ] Print this page

GuitarProtect_animal: Acoustic telemetry for the last identified population of Common Guitarfish (Rhinobatos rhinobatos) of the western Mediterranean (Spain).
Citation
Pozo-Montoro, M.; Mourier J.; Jimenez-Alvarado D.; Bas-Gomez, A.; Jimenez-Montalban, P.J.; Garcia-Charton J.A.; (2025): GuitarProtect - Acoustic telemetry for the last identified population of Common Guitarfish (Rhinobatos rhinobatos) of the western Mediterranean (Spain). https://marineinfo.org/doc/dataset/8958

Availability: This work is licensed under http://vocab.nerc.ac.uk/collection/L08/current/MO meaning it is under moratorium until 2030-06-30

Description

The common guitarfish (Rhinobatos rhinobatos), protected in Europe and the Mediterranean Sea, was thought to be extinct for over 30 years in the western Mediterranean. Since 2024, individuals from a newly identified population in southeast Spain have been tagged and monitored to study their seasonal movements, residency patterns, and connectivity between marine protected areas, aiming to understand the factors behind their persistence in this region. This project generates the first ecological insights on guitarfish within this and other potential areas currently monitored under the ETN array, supporting the effective conservation and management of this internationally protected species while providing detection coverage of this new area to ETN through an OP-updated network of receivers. This project was granted technical and financial support from the Ministry for the Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge of Spain, the Department of Environment, Universities, Research and Mar Menor of Murcia and the Department of Water, Agriculture, Livestock and Fishing of Murcia.


Scope
Themes:
Biology, Biology > Acoustics, Biology > Ecology - biodiversity, Biology > Fish, Fisheries > Fish stocks/catches/taggings, Physical > Underwater acoustics
Keywords:
Marine/Coastal · Acoustic detection · Acoustic devices · Acoustic tags · Acoustic Tags · Acoustic telemetry · Acoustic Telemetry · Animal movement · Animal Project · Conventional Tags · Endangered fish · Endangered species · Fish movement · Live fish movement · Marine protected areas (MPAs) · Movement ecology · Rays · Residence times · Seasonal distribution · Islas Hormigas · Rhinobatos rhinobatos (Linnaeus, 1758)

Geographical coverage
Islas Hormigas [Marine Regions]

Temporal coverage
July 2024 - July 2028

Taxonomic coverage
Rhinobatos rhinobatos (Linnaeus, 1758) [WoRMS]

Parameters
Fish detections Methodology
Fish detections: Acoustic telemetry
Fish detections: PIT telemetry (Passive Integrated Transponder)
Fish detections: Sensor measurement stored on animal-borne tag

Contributors
Universidad de Murcia, moredata creatorprincipal investigatordata collector
University of Montpellier, moredata creator
University of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (ULPGC), moredata creator

Related datasets
Parent dataset:
European Tracking Network (ETN) data, more
Other relation:
GuitarProtect_array: Acoustic telemetry receiver array in Murcia Region, Spain, more


Dataset status: In Progress
Data type: Data
Data origin: Research: field experiment
Metadatarecord created: 2025-12-05
Information last updated: 2026-06-03
All data in the Integrated Marine Information System (IMIS) is subject to the VLIZ privacy policy