Assessment of thyrrenian seamounts attractiveness on Stenella coeruleoalba.

In the framework of the PROMETEOS project, 64 seamounts were identified in Tyrrhenian Sea and specific morphological characteristics have been calculated for each seamount. Random Forest regression technique has been applied to striped dolphin distribution aiming at assessing importance and effect of seamounts on this species. A total of 467 sightings have been considered deriving from OBISSEAMAP (Tyrrhenian aerial survey of Tethys Institute and ISPRA), and two dedicated campaigns (Tirreno 2013 and Tirreno 2014). Distance from seamounts, together with other morphological features such as depth and distance from the coast, resulted the most important variables affecting presence of striped dolphin. Moreover, results clearly showed that differences in the structures appeal are due to some specific seamounts characteristics (slope and minimum peak depth) allowing to rank mountains in terms of capacity to attract Stenella coeruleoalba and thus to possibly address management and conservation practices