About the Authors

Manuel Maldonado

maldonado@ceab.csic.es

Affiliation Centro de Estudios Avanzados de Blanes (CEAB-CSIC), Blanes, Girona, Spain

Ricardo Aguilar

Affiliation Oceana, Madrid, Spain

Jorge Blanco

Affiliation Oceana, Madrid, Spain

Silvia García

Affiliation Oceana, Madrid, Spain

Alberto Serrano

Affiliation Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico Santander, Santander, Spain

Antonio Punzón

Affiliation Instituto Español de Oceanografía, Centro Oceanográfico Santander, Santander, Spain

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interest exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MM RA. Performed the experiments: MM RA JB SG AP AS. Analyzed the data: MM RA AP. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: MM RA JB SG AS AP. Wrote the paper: MM RA AP AS. Responsible for the taxonomic study and the oceanographic setting: MM. Collected, processed and mapped field data: RA JB SG. Helped collect, process and map field data: AS. Filtered and analyzed VMS data: AP AS. Collected information on plans for exploitation of hydrcarbons at the Balearic Sea: MM RS.