Pinna nobilis conservation and restoration

ongoing

The Mediterranean endemic bivalve Pinna nobilis has suffered a drastic decline of its populations due to a multifactorial disease, which started in late 2016. The disease has devastated nearly all populations, leaving only a few scattered potentially resistant individuals and a few populations of non-resistant individuals in reservoirs. The occurrence of the protozoan Haplosporidium pinnae and Mycobacterium sp. are considered the milestone that pushed the species close to extinction, but a previous generalized infection by a Picornavirus is now considered as a primary factor inducing the mass mortality, by reducing the immune system of the species. The advances for the recovery of P. nobilis produced in previous conservation projects, have permitted establishing a clear strategy to focus new recovery actions that need international cooperation for its success. The project LIFE PINNACARE joins universities and technological centers from Spain, France, Germany, Italy, Greece and Croatia and benefits of the presence of top experts working in the conservation of fan mussels worldwide, altogether summing hundreds of transformative scientific publications and innovations related to fan mussel conservation. The project will focus on reproduction in captivity and production of a new stock of individuals to be used for repopulation and research, considering the genetic variability of the species, application of new disease treatments to individuals maintained indoors to improve their capacity for reproduction, creation of management protocols, applicable for the translocation of endangered marine invertebrates, to reduce impacts when repopulating with P. nobilis at international level, exploration of new potential reservoirs and environmental improvement and monitoring of the reservoirs, and monitoring the juvenile and resistant individuals observed during previous and the present project.