Prof. Alan Deidun, resident academic at the Department of Geosciences and Ocean Ambassador for Malta, recently contributed to the high-profile symposium organised by RAC/SPA in Antalya, Turkey, on Marine Key Habitats and Non-Indigenous Species, through the presentation of two posters. Within the posters, preliminary results from Malta's Marine Strategy Framework Directive monitoring programme for Descriptor 2 - Non-Indigenous species, commonly known as 'alien species', were presented, along with a preliminary risk assessment of the ecological threat posed through importation of exotic species from non-EU countries to our shores. 

Ecological monitoring in summer 2017 and in spring 2018 was carried out to document the occurrence of alien species in our waters. This was done as part of a tender issued by the Environment and Resources Authority  through the EU-funded project EMFF 8.3.1 published under the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund 2014-2020. Monitoring was conducted both within Marine Protected Areas as well as within hotspots for NIS introductions, including ports and harbours.

Within the second contribution, details contained within a total of 498 importation licenses issued by the ERA over the September 2016 to September 2017 period were assessed as part of a preliminary risk assessment exercise, given that imports for the pet/aquarium industry have been recognised as one of the major introduction pathways for marine alien species.

The exotic aquatic species featured within the importation licenses studied were exported to Malta from thirty-six different countries located in six different continents, of which the continents with the highest representation in terms of country of origin of the same imports were Asia (fourteen countries), Africa (eleven countries) and South America (five countries). The countries from which most imports to the Maltese Islands originated were Oman, Senegal, Mauritania, Singapore, Morocco, Sri Lanka and Indonesia. Africa exhibited the highest number of exotic aquatic species exported to Malta (412), followed by Asia (203) and North America (15).

RAC/SPA is one of the six Regional Activity Centres within the UN's Mediterranean Action Plan, which seeks to implement the biodiversity-related protocol of the Barcelona Convention, a Regional Sea Convention to which all Mediterranean contiguous countries, in addition to the EU Commission, are party.