Non Indigenous Species In The Mediterranean And The Black Sea

Recent decades have seen significant changes in the biota of the Mediterranean and the Black Sea due to the introduction of non-indigenous species. Reliable scientific data on the dynamics of their distribution and abundance are essential to understand their ecological and economic effects. This review – in addition to providing images and descriptions of relevant species to aid in identification – presents a unique historical and regional perspective on these species’ impacts, based on many years’ worth of research. The Black Sea’s primary invaders come from the Mediterranean. Species like the comb jelly Mnemiopsis leidyi have caused major declines in biodiversity in the region by crippling key segments of the food chain. Similar results have been noted in the Marmara Sea, a crucial water exchange point located between the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea. Infiltration into the Mediterranean comes from both the east and west – with Lessepsian species passing through the Suez Canal and fish and invertebrate species originating from the Atlantic expanding their ranges. As of the publication of this review, over 900 non-indigenous species have been reported in the Mediterranean and almost 300 in the Black Sea, with these numbers expected to rise in the future. Numerous Lessepsian fishes are commercially relevant and have been absorbed into local markets, particularly in the eastern Mediterranean region. While these species are targeted through various fishing techniques, many others are simply discarded due to a lack of value and there are even some, such as lionfishes, pufferfishes and several species of jellyfishes, that present immediate dangers to human health. Stewardship of native species, regional cooperation on the enforcement of legal measures, increased public awareness and the creation of marine protected areas are thus essential to minimize and reduce the impacts of non-indigenous species both in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.

This open access volume presents a comprehensive account of all aspects of biological invasions in South Africa, where research has been conducted over more than three decades, and where bold initiatives have been implemented in attempts to control invasions and to reduce their ecological, economic and social effects. It covers a broad range of themes, including history, policy development and implementation, the status of invasions of animals and plants in terrestrial, marine and freshwater environments, the development of a robust ecological theory around biological invasions, the effectiveness of management interventions, and scenarios for the future. The South African situation stands out because of the remarkable diversity of the country, and the wide range of problems encountered in its varied ecosystems, which has resulted in a disproportionate investment into both research and management. The South African experience holds many lessons for other parts of the world, and this book should be of immense value to researchers, students, managers, and policy-makers who deal with biological invasions and ecosystem management and conservation in most other regions.

Discards – the part of the catch that is not retained on board, which may include target species or any other (commercial and non-commercial) species that are returned at sea dead or alive – usually result in a reduction of harvesting opportunities and may have negative consequences on the stocks, ecosystems and the marine environment. In the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, studies on discards only cover a small portion of the total fishing activities and discard rates are often poorly estimated or totally unknown. Information is lacking for many types of fishing gear, countries and GFCM subregions, and most available studies only cover relatively short periods and small areas. Discards therefore represent a major source of uncertainty about the actual fishing mortality rates of stocks. These knowledge gaps highlight the need to expand discard monitoring programmes and standardize practices, so to assess discards appropriately and address their important impacts. This publication and the methodology discussed herein aim to provide a framework for the development and implementation of an efficient, standardized data collection and monitoring system for discards through on-board observations, questionnaires at landing sites and self-sampling activities. It ensures minimum common standards for the collection of discards data and allows for repeatability and comparisons among fisheries across the region, thus offering a harmonized basis of knowledge, information and evidence for decision-making.

This 2023 special edition of the GFCM’s flagship publication, The State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries, updates statistics and figures on the status and management of fisheries in the region and includes, for the first time, an overview of regional indicators on the aquaculture sector in Mediterranean and Black Sea countries. It aims to deliver useful and reliable data to a wide audience as an essential source of information on fisheries and aquaculture in the region and a key tool to support decision-making and monitor progress towards the goals set by the GFCM. The fifth instalment of its series, this publication covers topics of regional importance in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors over the course of seven chapters. Fleet status and capture fisheries production are the focus of the first two chapters, which include figures on fishing capacity and landings by country and fleet segment. Chapter three captures the human dimension behind the region’s fisheries through socioeconomic data on revenue and employment. In chapter four, information on discards is updated and categorized for the main fishing fleets in each GFCM subregion, along with details on the species that make up this important component of the catch. Chapter five reviews the status of fisheries resources, especially regional trends and trends in priority species, while chapter seven summarizes relevant existing and new adopted measures towards the sustainability of key fisheries and the protection of vulnerable ecosystems. Aquaculture is included in this edition for the first time, described in terms of volume and socioeconomic indicators in chapter six.

This third edition of the State of Mediterranean and Black Sea Fisheries provides a comprehensive overview of the status of fisheries in the region, looking at their main features and trends, in order to better inform their management and better examine current and future challenges that they will face in the near future. The aim of this report is to produce a document that could provide useful analysis and direction for decision-making and future action. In this respect, this publication also represents a convenient source of information for the FAO Committee on Fisheries and offers a practical complement to the data provided in the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture published by the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Department. This volume includes seven chapters divided into two sections: a first part on the status and trends of different aspects of Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries, including fleet, catches, socio-economic variables and bycatch, and a second part that focuses on the management of Mediterranean and Black Sea fisheries, including an overview on small-scale fisheries. This report is based to a large extent on the most up-to-date data available submitted by GFCM contracting and cooperating non-contracting parties, including information on stock status, national catches, fleet and socio-economic information up to 2018. It is also complemented with information from other sources.

This volume is an indispensable addition to the multidisciplinary coverage of the science of the Mediterranean Sea. The editors have gathered leading authorities from the fields of Marine Biology, Ecology, paleoclimatology, Chemical and Physical Oceanography, Zoology, Botany, Aquatic Photosynthesis, Socioeconomics, Mariculture, Mediterranean History and Science of Humanity. Beginning with the birth of the Mediterranean Sea and its myths. From coral to fish, an introduction is given to its major inhabitants of plants and animals past and present. The chapters illustrate how organisms interact as part of the structure and function of the Sea's main ecosystems. The rise of the Mediterranean as the cradle of the Western Civilization leads to a discourse on the status of human interaction with the sea. Accelerating global climate change, water warming, ocean acidification and sea level rise, and analyses of their effects on key organisms, entire ecosystems and human socioeconomics are given. Forecasting and predictions are presented taking into account different future scenarios from the IPCC (International Panel on Climate Change). The volume is richly illustrated in color, with an extensive bibliography. A valuable addition to the limited literature in the field, offering up-to-date broad coverage merging science and humanities.​

In the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, the assessment of demersal stocks mainly relies on scientific surveys (bottom and beam trawl) while the assessment of pelagic stocks is essentially based on acoustic surveys using acoustic techniques with mid-water trawling. These routine surveys-at-sea provide essential information, which in turn are crucial to fine-tune the assessments of the status of resources and to estimate more precisely indicators at the population and fish community levels. However, survey practices differ from one subregion to another, each approach having its own strengths and limitations. In addition, there is still a lack of large-scale standardized surveys aimed at analysing the diversity and distribution of the main demersal and pelagic species across the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. One way of tackling this issue is to carry out international scientific surveys covering the main demersal and pelagic stocks based on a common methodology. The methodology presented in this publication aims at supporting the planning and implementation of regional demersal (bottom and beam) trawl and pelagic acoustic surveys. It can be useful for the implementation of new surveys-at-sea in areas where demersal trawl and pelagic acoustic surveys are not regularly carried out. It can also contribute to increasing comparability between existing surveys thanks to the standardization of methods, sampling of catches and data recording and analysis. Finally, it represents a valuable tool to define minimum requirements towards sustainability and management objectives at the regional and subregional level.

The blue economy is a widely used concept in policy circles; however, people across a wide spectrum have a peripheral understanding of the phenomenon. At the moment, there are several conflicting understandings of the blue economy but no universally accepted definition and veritable measures. Considering the existential importance of the blue economy for the protection of marine environments and sustainability of businesses, there is an urgent need for rigorous conceptual, policy-focused, theoretical, and empirical studies on the subject from multidisciplinary perspectives. Implications for Entrepreneurship and Enterprise Development in the Blue Economy enriches existing definitions of a blue economy with inputs from a multidisciplinary lens and provides veritable measures for evaluating blue economy progression and compliance. Covering topics such as economics, natural resource development, social equity, and sustainability, this reference work is ideal for policymakers, entrepreneurs, managers, oceanographers, marine biologists, scholars, industry professionals, government officials, academicians, researchers, practitioners, instructors, and students.

This report aims to accelerate climate change adaptation implementation in fisheries management throughout the world. It showcases how flexibility can be introduced in the fisheries management cycle in order to foster adaptation, strengthen the resilience of fisheries, reduce their vulnerability to climate change, and enable managers to respond in a timely manner to the projected changes in the dynamics of marine resources and ecosystems. The publication includes a set of good practices for climate-adaptive fisheries management that have proven their effectiveness and can be adapted to different contexts, providing a range of options for stakeholders including the fishing industry, fishery managers, policymakers and others involved in decision-making. These good practices were linked to one or more of the three common climate-related impacts on fisheries resources: distributional change; productivity change; and species composition change. Therefore, these three impacts can serve as practical entry points to guide decision-makers in identifying good practice adaptation measures suitable for their local contexts. These good practices are based upon transferable experiences and lessons learned from the thirteen case studies across the globe and hopefully will contribute to greater uptake and implementation of climate-adaptive fisheries management measures on the ground.

This document reviews and compiles the scientific information available on the new and non-indigenous fish and decapod crustacean species in the Adriatic Sea, central Mediterranean Sea. For fish, the new species are those whose presence in the Adriatic Sea was recorded recently, since the year 2000. For decapod crustaceans, only alien species found in the Adriatic Sea after the Second World War are dealt with. In total, 15 crustaceans and 52 fish species were selected and presented in this handbook. Following an introductory section, giving a general overview on the Adriatic Sea geographical characteristics, this document reviews, in its first part, the ichthyofauna and decapod crustaceans in the area. The second part of the document provides a description of each new species including synonyms, meristic formula, main morphologic features, bio-ecology, known geographical distribution, relevance and reference literature. This work was designed and implemented within the framework of the FAO-AdriaMed Project “Scientific Cooperation to Support Responsible Fisheries in the Adriatic Sea”.