Description of the vessel traffic within the north Pelagos Sanctuary: Inputs for Marine Spatial Planning and management implications within an existing international Marine Protected Area

International shipping, although considered a safe and environment-friendly form of transportation, has many direct and indirect impacts on cetaceans in many ways, particularly in the Mediterranean Sea, one of the world's busiest waterways. An AIS receiver located at 44.30 °N and 8.45 °E, operating between 3 May 2013 and 31 October 2014, provided a detailed description of the distribution, number, type and operation of vessels within the Pelagos Sanctuary, an international protected area dedicated to the conservation of marine mammals. A total of 3,757,587 km of vessel traffic was recorded from 82,831 transits by 4205 distinct vessels. The spatial and temporal distribution of traffic was not uniform and dependent on vessel type (0.00