STM CNR 2019

Thanks to the CNR Short-Term Mobility Grant, Michela Martinelli carried out a research period at the National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd (NIWA) in Auckland, New Zealand, for the project: “Implementation of specific methodologies for the assessment of commercially exploited European lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) populations in the Adriatic Sea.” The project aimed to consolidate the collaboration between institutions that, operating on similar themes in distant geographical contexts, adopt analogous methodologies. NIWA has active programs for monitoring and stock assessment of the New Zealand scampi (Metanephrops challengeri), while CNR-IRBIM focuses on the study of the European lobster (Nephrops norvegicus) populations in the Adriatic Sea, with particular attention to the Pomo Pit population. The main objective of the visit was to study the possible application of analytical approaches used in New Zealand to the data resulting from the European lobster monitoring, adapting them to the Adriatic context to support the development of a stock assessment model for that area. Michela Martinelli’s visit to NIWA was also part of the framework for the joint supervision of a student in the international FishMed-PhD program. This collaboration led to the production of internationally relevant scientific publications (Aguzzi et al. 2021, Chiarini et al. 2022) and provided a decisive contribution to updating the European lobster stock assessment in the Adriatic Sea (see www.fao.org/gfcm/data/safs).

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Location: National Institute of Water & Atmospheric Research Ltd (NIWA)

Winner:

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Duration: January 26, 2020 - February 16, 2020

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Areas of Research:

• Marine biology and ecology