Researcher - Ana Cañadas

Biographical Sketch

Dr Ana Cañadas is the director of research of ALNITAK since its foundation (1989). In 1992 she started a long-term project to investigate the ecology of several species of cetaceans in the Alborán Sea and contiguous waters. Her field of specialization is the study of cetacean populations, and especially of their distribution, abundance and ecology; statistical analytical methods, especially spatial modelling; and conservation.

During recent years she has played a major coordinating role in several large projects dedicated to cetacean research and conservation, funded by the Spanish Government and by the European Commission: the "Programme for the Identification of Areas of Special Interest for the Conservation of Cetaceans in Spanish Mediterranean waters" for southern Spain funded by the Spanish Ministry of the Environment; the European project "Europhlukes" (EVR1-CT2001-20007); the LIFE-Nature project "Conservation of cetaceans in Andalucía and Murcia" (LIFE02NAT/E/8610); the project "Seguimiento de pequeños cetáceos en aguas europeas del Atlántico Norte" funded by the Spanish Ministry of Fisheries, Spanish participation in the LIFE Nature project "SCANS II" (LIFE04NAT/GB/000245).

She is at present a consultant researcher for Duke University Marine Laboratory (US) in the Pew Fellows Program in Marine Conservation "Spatially-explicit Conservation in the Alborán Sea: Predictive Habitat Modeling and Gap Analysis Guide Pelagic Protected Area Designs"; coordinator of the ACCOBAMS project "Ziphius initiative. Mapping of habitats of Cuvier's beaked whales in the Mediterranean Sea"; co-coordinator in Spain for the project "Seguimiento de cetáceos en aguas europeas profundas del Atlántico Norte", Spanish participation to the project "CODA - Cetacean Offshore Distribution and Abundance" coordinated by the University of St. Andrews; and member of the research team in the project "Development of technologies and new methods to reduce the accidental catch of protected species of the marine fauna: loggerhead turtle and bottlenose dolphin" funded by the Spanish Ministry of Fisheries. She was also appointed by the Scientific Committee of ACCOBAMS in 2003 to initiate the process to develop a cetacean survey to obtain baseline information on distribution and abundance in the whole Mediterranean Sea. She is currently a member of the Cetacean Specialist Group of the IUCN, ACCOBAMS Scientific Committee, and the International Whaling Commission.

 

Recent Publications

Cañadas, A. Donovan, G., Desportes, G. and Borchers, D. In press. Distribution of short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) in the central and eastern North Atlantic with an abundance estimate for part of this area. NAMMCO.

Gómez de Segura, A., Hammond, P.S., Cañadas, A. and Raga, J.A. 2007. Comparing cetacean abundance estimates derived from spatial modelling and line transect sampling. Marine Ecology Progress Series 329: 289-299.

Cañadas, A. and Hammond, P. 2006. Model-based abundance estimate of bottlenose dolphins off Southern Spain: implications for conservation and management. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management, 8(1).

Natoli, A., Cañadas, A., Peddemors, V.M., Aguilar, A., Vaquero, C., Fernández-Piqueras, P. and Hoelzel, A.R. 2006. Phylogeography and alpha taxonomy of the common dolphin (Delphinus sp.). Journal of Evolutionary Biology 19(3): 943.

Cañadas, A., R. Sagarminaga, R. de Stephanis, E. Urquiola and P.S. Hammond. 2005. Habitat selection models as a conservation tool: proposal of marine protected areas for cetaceans in Southern Spain. Aquatic Conservation: Marine and Freshwater Ecosystems 15:495-521.

Cañadas, A., Desportes, G. and Borchers, D.L. 2004. Estimation of g(0) and abundance of common dolphins (Delphinus delphis) from the NASS-95 Faroese survey. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management 6(2): 191-198.

Bearzi, G., R.R. Reeves, G. Notarbartolo di Sciara, E. Politi, A. Cañadas, A. Frantzis and B. Mussi. 2003. Ecology, status and conservation of short-beaked common dolphins Delphinus delphis in the Mediterranean Sea. Mammal Review, 33: 224-252.

Cañadas, A., Sagarminaga, R. and García-Tiscar, S. 2002. Cetacean distribution related with depth and slope in the Mediterranean waters off southern Spain. Deep Sea Research I 49: 2053-2073.

Guerra, A., González, A. F., Rocha, F.J., Sagarminaga, R. and Cañadas, A. 2002. Planktonic egg masses of the diamond-shaped squid Thysanoteuthis rhombus in the eastern Atlantic and the Mediterranean Sea. Journal of Plankton Research, 24(4): 333-338.

Cañadas, A. and Sagarminaga, R. 2000. The Alboran Sea, an important breeding and feeding ground for the long-finned pilot whale (Globicephala melas) in the Mediterranean Sea. Marine Mammal Science 16 (3): 513-529.