GIS SPATIAL ANALYSIS AS MANAGEMENT TOOL TO DESCRIBE THE HABITAT USE OF BOTTLENOSE DOLPHINS IN THE LAMPEDUSA WATERS (ITALY): RESULTS FROM ELEVEN YEARS OF OBSERVATION Marina Pulcini 1,2 , Caterina Maria Fortuna 2 , Gabriella La Manna 1,4 , Francesca Triossi 1,3 , Daniela Silvia Pace 1,3 1 CTS – Settore Conservazione della Natura, Via Andrea Vesalio 6, 00161 Rome, Italy 2 ISPRA - Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale, via di Casalotti 300, 00166 Rome, Italy 3 Oceanomare Delphis onlus, Via Gino Marinuzzi, 74, 00124 Rome, Italy 4 Università di Parma, Dipartimento di Biologia Evolutiva e Funzionale, Viale G. P. Usberti, 43124 Parma, Italy (marina.pulcini@isprambiente.it) INTRODUCTION Bottlenose dolphins, Tursiops truncatus, have a global distribution, with the exception of polar waters; in the Mediterranean Sea the species has been studied only in relatively small portions of the basin, wide areas remain largely unexplored and most of the research to date has been conducted in northern portions of the basin, mostly confined to coastal areas and modest information exists for the eastern and southern part of the basin (Bearzi et al. 2009). The active laws and treaties in force today offer a potential framework for the conservation of cetaceans, and for the protection of their habitat in the Mediterranean region. Unfortunately, implementation and enforcement of those instruments have not been consistently effective. Actions taken to date have not been adequate to maintain a ‘favourable’ status of bottlenose dolphin populations (as advocated by the EU Habitats Directive, EU 56/2008 Marine Strategy) or to prevent further population decline. Tangible actions to protect bottlenose dolphins and other Mediterranean cetaceans have been surprisingly few, especially if one considers the large number of existing laws, regulations and agreements that have been in place for years and even decades (Cites (1973), Bonn and Bern Convention (1979, 1983), Accobams (1996), Pelagos Sanctuary (1999), Barcelona Convention and its protocols (1980, 1982, 1983, 1999), the Habitats Directive and Regulation (EC) 812/2004.) Moreover, the current IUCN conservation action plan for cetaceans has strongly recommended the estimation of bottlenose dolphin subpopulation sizes in the Mediterranean Sea (Reeves et al. 2003). The present paper responds to this recommendation with the first comprehensive assessment of the distribution and abundance of bottlenose dolphins around Lampedusa Island (Italy).. In this paper presents eleven years of photo-identification data of bottlenose dolphins living around Lampedusa Island collected by three different research groups (Pulcini et al., 1997, 2004; Pace et al., 1998, 2003; Giacoma et al., 2006) from 1996 to 2006. Particularly it organises and validates this data, with the aim of providing the first baseline quantitative data on bottlenose dolphins for this area. This information is fundamental for the management of the MPA and possibly for the designation of the first Italian SAC dedicated to bottlenose dolphins. MATERIALS AND METHODS This study was conducted in the waters surrounding Lampedusa Island (Fig.1). This Italian island is located on the north African continental shelf, at about 130 km from the Tunisian coast, known as Sicily Channel.