European Elasmobranch Association Conference 2026

What another productive year was for European Elasmobranch Association Conference!!!

iSea and its colleagues joined 3 days full of presentations, workshops, specialist sessions, discussions and posters.

We are very proud to see our interns, Projects Managers and collaborators be a part of this amazing Association, as they got the chance to present our work, exchange good practices, share different methodologies, compare results and lessons learned across projects, and explore promising solutions collaboratively.

Angel Shark Project initiated the Specialist Session: “Restoring European Seas for Sharks and Rays and beyond: Linking the EU Nature Restoration Regulation with Existing Conservation Policies” with the aim to explore how different frameworks, together with tools such as Important Shark and Ray Areas (ISRAs), can be aligned to support coherent national objectives and measurable shark and ray recovery across EU and non-EU Mediterranean States.

Life PROMETHEUS organized the workshop “Reducing Shark and Ray Bycatch: From Innovative Mitigation Tools to Fishery-Wide Implementation” aiming to identify the research, policy, funding and stakeholder engagement needed to accelerate the adoption of effective and practical shark and ray bycatch mitigation measures.

Martina Ciprian was one of the 3 specialists talking on the Early Career Research Committee Workshop “Beyond Academia: Careers in Elasmobranch Science” and presented the work “Genetic population structure of the Common Smoothhound (Mustelus mustelus) across the Mediterranean Sea” based on the results of By ElasmoCatch Project to evaluate the genetic connectivity of the population of Common Smoothhound sharks in Amvrakikos with other areas of the Mediterranean Sea.

Nikoletta Sidiropoulou presented iSea’s work under the title “Habitat Association of Selected Elasmobranchs in Lemnos: Looking into Posidonia Meadows, Maerl Beds and Rocky Reefs” and the poster “Joining Forces for Angelsharks: Tracking and Satellite Tagging Squatina squatina”.

Giovanna Bergamin, from the University of Padova, presented the results of testing magnets and LEDs light in the Amvrakikos Gulf implemented within Life PROMETHEUS and By ElasmoCatch Project in the session “Fisheries Science & Management” under the title “Effectiveness of bycatch mitigation devices in reducing captures of elasmobranchs in small-scale fisheries in the Amvrakikos Gulf, Greece”.

Annika Herzog, from the Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences, presented the distribution of early life stages of the Duckbill Eagle Ray, the Spiny Butterfly Ray and the Common Eagle Ray in Amvrakikos Gulf in the session “Ecology-Important Areas” under the title “Distribution of Early Life Stages of Three Threatened Stingrays in Amvrakikos Wetlands National Park (Greece)”.

Samy Abouhussein from BANLASTIC provided the preliminary results of our collaborative work in Egypt's Mediterranean Coast under the title “Preliminary Survey of Elasmobranch Diversity for Further Conservation in Egypt's Mediterranean Coast”.

Kyriaki Pyroridou, presented MECO in Greece during the meeting of MECO project which aims to bring the members of the network together, present the project’s results and highlight its approach on how citizen science and crowdsourced observations can contribute to elasmobranch research at both local and regional scales.

We are looking forward for the next European Elasmobranch Association Conference #EEA 2027 with excitement and anticipation!!

Find more information about the European Elasmobranch Association Conference 2026 here: European Elasmobranch Association Conference 2026