Table 1.
Data and fishery-interaction evidence categories for the data analysis (P1, P2, P3). The table is organized in “General categories”, “Specific categories”, and their “Description”.
Table 2.
Summary of the categories of the evidence of fishery interaction included in the LIFE DELFI framework, along with their relevant literature.
Fig 1.
Temporal trends of cetacean strandings with evidence of fishery interaction from 1986 to 2023.
(A) Total strandings; (B) Stenella coeruleoalba (Sc); (C) Tursiops truncatus (Tt); (D) Physeter macrocephalus (Pm).
Table 3.
Summary of statistical result of temporal variation in evidence of fishery interaction (only significant correlations are shown).
Fig 2.
Age class (A) and sex (B) prevalence in Stenella coeruleoalba (Sc) and Tursiops truncatus (Tt) with evidence of fishery interaction between 1986 and 2023.
Table 4.
Summary of statistical results of Fishery interaction evidence in relation to age class and sex (only significant correlations are shown).
Fig 3.
Evidence of fishery interaction in cetaceans stranded along the Italian coastline: A. By-catch in animal history; B. Presence of fishing gears; C. Larynx entanglement; D. Ingestion; E. Net marks; F. Amputation; G. Penetrating wounds: G1.
External view of the penetrating wound; G2. Focus on the penetrating wound; G3. Internal focus of the penetrating wound.
Fig 4.
Distribution of anthropogenic interaction categories for Stenella coeruleoalba (Sc) and Tursiops truncatus (Tt).
Bars represent the number of specimens per category, asterisks (*) indicate cases where multiple interaction signs were observed in the same specimen (not represented in the graph).
Table 5.
Summary of statistical results of the prevalence of post-mortem evidence in fishery interaction (only significant correlations are shown).
Table 6.
Summary of statistical results of Fishery interaction evidence distribution in GSAs (only significant correlations are shown).
Fig 5.
Stranding distribution of Stenella coeruleoalba (Sc), Tursiops truncatus (Tt), and Physeter macrocephalus (Pm) across the GSAs.
Fig 6.
Cetacean-fishery interactions across different GSAs.
The maps show the locations of the analyzed areas, while the bar charts display the number of interactions categorized as “Unintentional interaction”, “Net-foraging behavior”, and “Intentional interaction” for the two most represented species: Tursiops truncatus (Tt, in gray) and Stenella coeruleoalba (Sc, in black).
Fig 7.
Illustration of the fishery interaction categories associated with the COD.
The innermost ring represents the main categories, including gillnet (GILLNET), undetermined gears (UND. GEARS), and driftnet or fishing line (DRIFTNET). The middle ring provides a more detailed classification of specific causes, such as entanglement in fishing gear (Enta), larynx Entanglement (LE), chronic entanglement in fishing gear (Chronic Enta.), ingestion (Ingestion), peracute underwater entrapment (PUE), and non-accidental. The outermost ring represents the species involved, identified by their abbreviations: Stenella coeruleoalba (Sc), Tursiops truncatus (Tt), Grampus griseus (Gg), Delphinus delphis (Dd), Globicephala melas (Gm), Physeter macrocephalus (Pm).