The Eastern Aegean Sea hosts a diverse assemblage of elasmobranchs, many of which are vulnerable or endangered. This study presents a fishery-independent assessment of species composition, catch characteristics, and spatial patterns in bottom trawl fisheries between Lesvos Island and Ayvalik. A total of 48 surveys were conducted between September 2022 and October 2024, identifying nine elasmobranch species, with Scyliorhinus c...

This collective article presents new information about 15 introduced taxa belonging to five phyla: one Rhodophyta, one Chlorophyta, one Mollusca, one Annelida, two Arthropoda, and nine Chordata (one Ascidiacea and eight Osteichthyes). The records refer to eight Mediterranean countries and extend from the Alboran Sea to the Levantine Sea as follows: Spain: first record of the African hind Cephalopholis taeniops for the Alboran...

This Collective Article presents information on 20 taxa belonging to five (5) Phyla: Cnidaria (2), Mollusca (8), Arthropoda (4), Echinodermata (1) and Chordata (5) recorded from the Alboran Sea to the Levantine Sea. These new records were found in seven (7) different ecoregions as follows: Alboran Sea: new record of the rare football octopus Ocythoe tuberculata in the harbour of Algeciras (Spain); Western Mediterranean Sea: fi...

Nowadays, the Mediterranean is a hotspot of biodiversity, characterized by changes in fish communities due to invasions. These invasions, mainly occurring through the entrance of species through the Suez Canal, a process called Lessepsian migration, has been increasing in the last 40 years. It is reported that, in Turkish seas, where 512 fish species are found, are 75 Lessepsian species. However, knowledge about the impact of...

In the present article, new records are given for 15 species (4 native and 9 alien and 2 cryptogenic), belonging to 6 Phyla (i.e. Chlorophyta, Ctenophora, Cnidaria, Mollusca, Arthropoda, and Chordata), from 10 Mediterranean countries: Morocco: the finding of the crab Callinectes sapidus represents the westernmost one of the species in the Mediterranean; Italy: first records of the nudibranch Polycera hedgpethi from the harbour...