Updating knowledge about the distribution ranges and population parameters of fish species is essential for effective management of fish resources and for understanding how Mediterranean fauna are adapting to ongoing warming trends. The Morocco dentex (Dentex maroccanus) is a sparid species typically found in the southern Mediterranean Sea; however, there is currently a dearth of records from the northern sector of the basin....

In a context in which climate change, overexploitation, and environmental degradation are continuously progressing, the sustainable use of the sea is a key target, both for resources and fishery operators. With the aim of enhancing the sustainability and competitiveness of the entire fishery sector, an innovation brokering event was organized. Via the application of a participatory, interactive, and bottom-up approach, differe...

The COVID-19 pandemic had major impacts on the seafood supply chain, also reducing fishing activity. It is worth asking if the fish stocks in the Mediterranean Sea, which in most cases have been in overfishing conditions for many years, may have benefitted from the reduction in the fishing pressure. The present work is the first attempt to make a quantitative evaluation of the fishing effort reduction due to the COVID-19 pande...

International scientific fishery survey programmes systematically collect samples of target stocks’ biomass and abundance and use them as the basis to estimate stock status in the framework of stock assessment models. The research surveys can also inform decision makers about Essential Fish Habitat conservation and help define harvest control rules based on direct observation of biomass at the sea. However, missed survey locat...

The knowledge of small‐scale fisheries (SSFs) is important to develop management policies and mitigate the competition for marine resources. However, spatially explicit information is often unavailable at the regional and subregional scale. We designed and tested a novel participatory approach to map the SSF fishing effort using the Mediterranean sea as a case study. We applied the approach in eight countries (Albania, Croatia...

Marine Recreational Fishing (MRF) is a highly attended complex activity, extremely evident along the coastlines, and mainly practiced among riparian communities. For that reason, this activity plays an important role to effectively contribute to the collective well-being, both from the social and economic points of view. However, it may negatively affect the fish stocks and the marine environment in general, mainly due to the...

Information on stock status is available only for a few of the species forming the catch assemblage of rapido fishery of the North-central Adriatic Sea (Mediterranean Sea). Species that are caught almost exclusively by this gear, either as target (such as Pectinidae ) or accessory catches (such as flatfishes apart from the common sole), remain unassessed mainly due to the lack of data and biological information. Based on clust...