The threshold value for fishing mortality has not been calculated due to a lack of adequate information on bycatch levels within the MRU. A limit value considering the ecological requirements of the species, could be calculated by applying the Potential Biological Removal (PBR) to the best available population abundance estimate and after regional or sub-regional consultation.

Uncorrected (i.e. not corrected for availability and perception biases) abundance have been produced in autumn 2020 through aerial line distance sampling (N=58111; %CV=9). This parameter can be compared to data from activities conducted in portions (strata) of the MRU during the period 2010-2014 (Pierantonio et al., 2024)

The parameter describes the trend in annual nest counts recorded in the index area/s of the subregions with coastal areas with annual, consistent and nationally representative nesting events.The assessment of trend in annual nest counts is a new parameter introduced in the current art.8 reporting cycle in order to improve the assessment of DIC2 as foreseen by the EU MSFD art.8 and IMAP indicator reporting guidelines (UNEP/MAP 2021, EC 2022). The implementatio of the IMAP guidelines for Italy involve the evaluation of nesting trends in areas object of effort correlated monitoring programs covering 50% of the population and potentially covering 4 national index areas so as to guarantee a sufficient sampling representativity. The MRU index area for which the parameter data are provided is identified with the code MWE-CAM and hosts 34% of nests recorded during 2018-2021 in the Italian MRU of the WME. Information on the datasources, datasets, parameter data, references and index area extension are indicated in the Summary Report. The data pertaining to effort related monitoring activities regards only the years 2020-2021 while annual nest counts referring to 2018-2019 were obtained following reactionary surveying activities involving the first hand reporting of the nest presence based on third party observers. The data therefore referring to the latter period can potentially underestimate the actual nest numbers in the area. Nevertheless, data reported by Hochscheid et al. (2022) describing the trend in nesting counts and locations observed in the past decades allow to conclude that there is an increase in the current numbers and locations of nesting events thereby justifying the conclusion in qualitative terms, that the trend is increasing , in line with what is reported for Italy, for the respective IMAP indicator, in the Barcelona Convention QSR.

The parameters refers to the hatchling emergence success (HES) which describes the percentage of hatchlings which hatched and reached the surface of the nest to emerge. The percentage is calculated by subtracting the number of dead and live hatchlings found in the nest during the post hatch excavation, from the the total number of hatched egss divided by the total number of eggs layed in the nest. The GES of this demographic parameter is determined using the threshold value defined by UNEP/MAP 2021 in the IMAP demographic indicator; the optimum target to be achieved for C.caretta nests should be an annual HES higher than 65% , with a -10% accepted tolerance resulting in a proposed GES threshold value for annual HES values higher than 55%. The parameter is calculated by considering the hatching data of all nests in a year for a given assessed area as a single nesting event. Each assessment area considered should therefore be object of a specific HES assessment for the IMAP indicator application.The UNEP/MAP 2021 guidelines indicate (for countries such as Italy) that the data should be obtained from areas that are object of effort related beach monitoring and that are representative of 50% of the observed national nesting populationand potentially covering 4 national index areas so as to guarantee a sufficient sampling representativity. The index area considered for the italian WME MRU is identified as WME-CAM. The latter was object of intensive effort related beach monitoring activities only in the years 2020-2021 while data referring to 2018-2021 were collected under reactionary surveying effort so the numbers may represent an underestimate of the actual nests present. The low representativity in coverage and monitoring effort drive the assessment of this parameter to unknown. Information on the datasets used, sources, location and references is present in the summary report.

The parameter refers to the percentage annual coverage of nesting events with respect to the distribution of coastal 10x10km cells of the italian WME MRU during the period 2018-2021 (annual percent coastal cells occupied by nests per subregion in the period 2018-2021).The parameter development is line with the indications provided by the EU and regional guidelines for art.8 and IMAP indicator assessment. There are no previously reported data to compare the actual coverage with however bibliographic data indicate an increase in nesting events and locations in the subregion in the last decade, such that the trend is considered to be increasing in qualitative terms, in line with what is reported for Italy in the respective IMAP indicator in the Barcelona Convention QSR. Details on the data sets, sources, coverage figures and references are described in the summary report.

The parameter has been positively assessed by the Range Tool HD (http://discomap.eea.europa.eu/App/RangeTool/) with a 200 km gap distance. Caretta caretta exhibit highly variable dispersal patterns in the Mediterranean, influenced by diverse feeding habitats (Schofield et al., 2013). Long-distance movements of over 200 km have been reported (Luschi, P., & Casale, P. 2014)

A standardized approach for assessing the suitability of the habitat conditions of critical marine turtle areas at sea is not addressed by the EU MSFD or HD guidance documents on reporting. Moreover, a standardized method for quantifying threshold values for criteria D1C4 and D1C5, which are closely correlated, is currently unavailable. No assessment is therefore conducted for the nesting habitat conditions of the italian MRUs while a qualitative judgement is identified as good for the habitat condition at sea based on the combined abundance (D1C2) and distribution (D1C4) trends observed at sea based on which the criteria are considered to be in good conditions.