The endemic Mediterranean fan mussel Pinna nobilis is on the brink of extinction due to an infectious disease that has caused an ongoing Mediterranean Mass Mortality Event (MME) since 2016. Currently, healthy P. nobilis populations can only be found in a few refuges, mainly transitional waters such as coastal lagoons and estuaries. In the eastern Mediterranean, the only remaining fan mussel population is located in the Gulf of...

Coastal protection from erosion is an important ecosystem service provided by marine vegetation. Seaweeds and seagrasses can attenuate wave action in coastal areas and increase sediment retention. Here we investigated for the first time the effects of erect Cystoseira sensu lato forests in attenuating the wave energy in two Mediterranean shallow areas (Greece and Tunisia). The hydrodynamic effects were measured using the disso...

In the Mediterranean Sea, the genus Pinna encompasses two large fan-shaped bivalve species, Pinna nobilis and Pinna rudis. Historically, both species coexisted in the western Mediterranean until a mass mortality event (MME) brought P. nobilis to the brink of extinction. Notably, P. rudis remained unaffected by the MME, and its recent successful recruitment and further spread have been hypothesized to be linked to the local ext...

Since the first confirmed records of mass mortality events (MME) in the Aegean Sea in 2018, Pinna nobilis populations in Greek seas have been decimated. To bolster recovery efforts, this study aimed to assess the status of fan mussel populations in the Aegean and Ionian seas and investigate potential recolonization through natural recruitment. From May 2022 to May 2023, 163 independent underwater visual surveys were conducted...

The above authors remove these recent publications due to remaining uncertainty because they are based on a visual observation by a citizen (citizen science), without a specimen being available. The available information was not adequate to support this record based solely on photographic evidence and direct contact between the authors and the citizen.