Catch and discardfish species of trawl fisheries in the Iskenderun Bay (Northeastern Mediterranean) with emphasis on lessepsian and chondricthyan species

Fish species in catch and discard of trawl fisheries in and around Iskenderun Bay were examined within the fishing closure period and fishingperiod.The sampling was performed from May 2010 to January 2011 by a commercial trawl vessel.Chondricthyan species composed 49 % of discard catch biomass whileGymnura altavela and Dasyatis pastinacawere dominant in hauls. 27 lessepsian fish species were captured during the study,nine of them beingtarget species for trawl fisheries. In total, 14 of the lessepsian fish species were determined as discard species.In both sampling periods, Equulites klunzingeriand Citharus linguatula contributed to discard fish catch dissimilarity among depth ranges (deeper and shallower than 60 m). E. klunzingerishowed high abundance in discard catch.There were no significant differences in the distribution of the discard fish biomass between the sampling periods (ANOVA test, p>0.05). However, depth range pointed out significantdifferences in discard fish catch composition (p<0.05).Among major commercial fish species of trawl fisheries, Mullus surmuletus and Sparus aurata were not separated as discard in anyhaul by fishermen. Any size of these two species  were included in commercial catch (Total length ranged from 61 to 721 mm)

New records of rare species in the Mediterranean Sea (October 2021)

This Collective Article presents information about 27 taxa belonging to five Phyla (one Ochrophyta, one Cnidaria, three Arthropoda, two Mollusca and twenty Chordata) and extending from the Western Mediterranean Sea to the Levantine Sea and theBlack Sea (Sea of Marmara). The new records were reported from 11 countries as follows: Algeria: occurrence of the Africanstriped grunt Parapristipoma octolineatum; Spain: new records of eight uncommon fish species (Gadella maraldi, Hypleurochilusbananensis, Lobotes surinamensis, Parapristipoma octolineatum, Selene dorsalis, Sphoeroides marmoratus, Tetragonuruscuvieri, and Trachyrincus scabrus) from the Spanish Mediterranean; Italy: new record of the football octopus Ocythoe tuberculatafrom the Southern Tyrrhenian Sea; a rare sighting of a juvenile phase of a moray eel of the genus Gymnothorax, tentativelyidentified as Gymnothorax cf. unicolor in the Ligurian Sea; first record of adult Facciola’s sorcerer Facciolella oxyrhynchus inthe Adriatic Sea; occurrence of the tope shark Galeorhinus galeus in the Northern Adriatic Sea; Libya: first confirmed recordof the pen shell Pinna rudis; first documented record of the palaemonid shrimp Brachycarpus biunguiculatus; first record of thefish Sudis hyalina; Malta: new records of Grant’s rockling, Gaidropsarus granti; multiple concomitant reports of the rare hydromedusanspecies Aequorea forskalea; Croatia: a record of the skipjack tuna Katsuwonus pelamis in the Southern Adriatic Sea;Albania: new record of the bigeye thresher shark Alopias superciliosus; Greece: confirmation of the rare brown alga Sargassumflavifolium occurrence in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea; first record of the scaleless dragonfish Bathophilus nigerrimus; Turkey:first occurrence of the calanoid copepod Pteriacartia josephinae in the Aegean Sea; first documented record of the Cremona’s seaslug Placida cremoniana for the easternmost Mediterranean Sea; new record of the yellow-headed goby Gobius xanthocephalusin the Sea of Marmara; Cyprus: first record of the Liechtenstein’s goby Corcyrogobius liechtensteini; an individual of the Yellowfintuna Thunnus albacares captured with handline by an artisanal fisher; Lebanon: an individual of the Black marlin Istiompaxindica captured in a gill ne