From Local Ecological Knowledge to Drone-Based Monitoring Surveys: Addressing the Importance of Marine Top Predators

Top predators play a key role as ecosystem regulators and their presence is a great indicator of a healthy ecosystem. The Gökçeada Island, located in the North Aegean Sea, harbors a wide range of biodiverse ecosystems and offers a variety of habitats for many marine top predators such as cetaceans, chondrichthyans, large teleosts and the Mediterranean monk seal.

Conservation of Top Predators through Monitoring and Capacity Building in the Gökçeada Island (North Aegean Sea)

Limitations in conservation efforts are often due to lack of available information of any target area. However, lack of information should never be a reason to postpone conservation actions. Through a yearlong data collection and using local ecological knowledge, a general idea of the top predators presence and abundance in the target area will be determined.