LIFE PINNACARE -Pinna nobilis conservation and restoration
Di Fabiana Alfieri In Highlight Il 20 Aprile 2026
LIFE PINNACARE – Pinna nobilis conservation and restoration
Project number: LIFE24-NAT-ES-PINNACARE/101216239
Project duration: 1 October 2025 – 30 November 2029
Total budget: €3,926,002
Total EU co-financing: €2,355,601
Coordinating beneficiary:Valencia Catholic University Saint Vincent Martyr (Spain)
Associate Partner: Italian Coordinator Prof. Francesca Carella, University Federico II of Naples, Dept of Biology
Project description:
Populations of the Mediterranean endemic bivalve species, the noble pen shell (Pinna nobilis), have been devastated by a mass mortality event that began in late 2016 in the western Mediterranean Sea.Today, the only surviving populations are found in coastal lagoons and deltas, with several thousand individuals in the Ebro River Delta (Spain), the Thau Lagoon (France), the Venice Lagoon (Italy), and the Gulfs of Kaloni and Amvrakikos (Greece). Only a few hundred individuals remain in Mar Menor (Spain), the Diana Lagoon (France), and other coastal lagoons, as well as in the Sea of Marmara (Turkey). These areas are crucial for the survival of the species, as they serve as reservoirs of individuals that can be used for repopulation purposes and experimental research.
Since 2016, European scientists have made significant progress in the recovery of P. nobilis by developing clear strategies to guide new conservation actions, which, among other factors, require strong international cooperation to be successful. The LIFE PINNACARE Project has brought together universities and conservation centers from Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Greece, and Croatia, connecting leading experts working on pen shell conservation with the aim of preventing the long-term extinction of the noble pen shell. The project will be implemented across 32 sites within the Natura 2000 ecological network, with targeted measures for the conservation of the species and its habitat.
The main project activities focus on:
- The application of new disease treatments to individuals kept in controlled conditions in order to improve their reproductive capacity.
- Captive breeding and the production of a new stock of individuals to be used for repopulation and research, considering the genetic variability of the species.
- The development of management protocols applicable to the translocation of threatened marine invertebrates, aimed at reducing impacts during the international repopulation of P. nobilis.
- The investigation of new potential reservoirs, as well as environmental improvement and monitoring of existing reservoirs.
- Monitoring of juvenile and resistant individuals identified during previous and current projects.
The main activity of Prof. Francesca Carella University of Naples focuses on Biosecurity practices, disease treatment in captivity, health status and animal immunity and resistance and population monitoring. The group is focused on the new recent discovery of the immunosuppressive PnPV (pinna nobilis picornavirus).
In addition, in cooperation with other partner institutions, it will participate in all other research activities of the project, including analyses related to animal maintenance and reproduction.