Ichthyological Bulletin of the JLB Smith Institute of Ichthyology; No. 58

The following 84 gobioid fishes are reported from the Maldive Islands (those preceded by asterisk represent new records). GOBIIDAE: Amblyeleotris aurora (Polunin & Lubbock), *A. diagonalis Polunin and Lubbock, *A. periophthalma (Bleeker), *A. steinitzi (Klausewitz), A. wheeleri (Polunin & Lubbock), * Amblygobius hectori (Smith), A. semicinctus (Bennett), * Asterropteryx semipunctatus Ruppell, *A. spinosus (Goren), *Bathygobius calitus (Bennett), B. cocosensis (Bleeker), *B. cyclopterus (Valenciennes), * Cabillus tongarevae (Fowler), * Callogobius centrolepis Weber, *C. sclateri (Steindachner), *C. sp., Cryptocentrus fasciatus (Playfair & Gunther), *Ctenogobiops crocineus Smith, C. feroculus Lubbock & Polunin, * Eviota albolineata Jewett & Lachner, *E. guttata Lachner & Karnella, *E. nebulosa Smith, *E. nigripinna Lachner & Karnella, *E. prasina (Kluzinger), *E. sebreei Jordan & Seale, *E. zebrina Lachner & Karnella, *E. sp., * Flabelligobius latruncularius (Klausewitz), * Fusigobius duospilus Hoese & Reader, *F. neophytus (Gunther), *F. sp. 1 (sp. A of Winterpottom & Emery, 1986), *F. sp. 2 (sp. B of Winterbottom & Emery, 1986), *Gnatholepis anjerensis (Bleeker), *G. scapulostigma Herre, *Gobiodon citrinus (Ruppell), *G. sp. (Chagos specimens identified as G. rivulatus by Winterbottom & Emery, 1986), *Hetereleotris zanzibarensis (Smith), *Istigobius decoratus (Herre), *Macrodontogobius wilburi Herre, Oplopomus caninoides (Bleeker) (reported from Maldives by Regan, 1908), O. Oplopomus (Valenciennes) (reported from Maldives by Regan, 1908, as Hoplopomus acanthistius), *Opua maculipinnis, n. sp. (Opua E.K. Jordan is regarded as a senior synonym of Oplopomops Smith; the new species is characterized as follows: no dorsal spines filamentous, the third longest; 10 soft rays in second dorsal and anal fins; 27 scales in longitudinal series on body, 9 prodorsal scales; body depth 4.9 in SL, a midlateral row of five dusky blotches on body each containing a pair of dark brown spots, a large dusky spot under eye, and a large black spot posteriorly in first dorsal fin), *Palutrus reticularis Smith,* Papillogobius reichei (Bleeker), *Paragobiodon lacuniculus (Kendall and Goldsborough), *P. modestus (Regan), *Pleurosicya michelli Fourmanoir, *Priolepis cinctus (Regan), *P. nocturnus (Smith), *P. semidoliatus (Valenciennes), P. sp., Stonogobiops dracula Lubbock & Polunin, * Sueviota lachneri Winterbottom & Hoese, *Trimma emeryi Winterbottom, *T. flammeum (Smith), *T. naudei Smith, *T. striata (Herre), *T. taylori Lobel, *T. tevegae Cohen & Davis, *T sp. 1, *T. sp. 2, *T. sp. 3, *T. sp. 4 (these four species of trimma to be described by R. Winterbottom), *Trimmatom nanus Winterbottom & Emery, Valenciennea helsdingenii (Bleeker), V. puellaris (Tomiyama), V. sexguttata (Valenciennes), V. strigata (Broussonet), V. sp. (to be named by Hoese and Larson, in press), Vanderhorstia ambanoro (Fourmanoir),* V. ornatissima Smith, V. prealta Lachner & McKinney. ELEOTRIDIDAE: Eleotris melanosoma Bleeker. MICRODESMIDAE: * Gunnellichthys curiosus Dawson, *G. monostigma Smith, G. viridescens Dawson, *Ne- mateleotris decora Randall & Allen, N. magnifica Fowler, Ptereleotris evides (Jordan & Hubbs), P. heteroptera Bleeker, *P. microlepis (Bleeker), *P. zebra (Fowler), *P. sp. (probably either P. hanae or P. arabica; specimen needed). XENISTHMIDAE: Xenisthmus polyzonatus (Klunzinger).Digitised by Rhodes University Library on behalf of SAIA

Factors affecting growth of killifish, Aphanius dispar, a potential biological control of mosquitoes

Abstract Preliminary experiments were carried out on the growth of killifish, Aphanius dispar. The motivation of the study was to obtain information for growing the fish on a commercial scale for their use as biological control agents of mosquito larvae. Growth of fry in the laboratory was found to be exponential, where the degree of variance in size among the fry increased with age. Grading the fry was shown to be effective in reducing the significant differences in their growth rates observed prior to grading. The effects of temperature, salinity and feeding rate on the growth of wild adult fish were also investigated. There were significant increases in growth rates of adult fish as temperature was increased from 188C to 238C. Further increases in temperature, to 278C, did not further affect growth. Significant differences were also found among growth rates of fish kept at salinities from 8 to 56 ppt. Growth was found to be lowest at 40 ppt, and increased steadily as salinities approached the two range limits. Growth rates were found to increase significantly as Ž . feeding rates increased from 0% to 4% body weight BW rday. Further increases up to 10% BWrday did not result in further increases in growth. Regressing mean growth rates on feeding rates showed 1.6% BWrday to be the maintenance feeding rate at which fish neither gained nor lost weight.

The first record of the Sargocentron genus from the Maltese Islands (Central Mediterranean) - who will unravel the current conundrum?

The squirrelfish genus, Sargocentron, is reported for the first time from Maltese coastal waters within the Central Mediterranean. The record is based on two individuals caught at two different coastal locations in the Maltese Islands within the space of a few days of each other, through the same fishing technique (trammel nets). In view of the impossibility to collect meristic, morphometric and molecular data from the recorded individuals, and due to the close similarity between a number of Sargocentron congeners, the exact taxonomic identity of the captured individuals could not be conclusively confirmed, although the livery on the two caught individuals resulted to be consistent with that of S. rubrum and S. hastatum.peer-reviewe

Identifying priorities for the protection of deep Mediterranean Sea ecosystems through an integrated approach

© The Author(s), 2021. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Fanelli, E., Bianchelli, S., Foglini, F., Canals, M., Castellan, G., Guell-Bujons, Q., Galil, B., Goren, M., Evans, J., Fabri, M.-C., Vaz, S., Ciuffardi, T., Schembri, P. J., Angeletti, L., Taviani, M., & Danovaro, R. Identifying priorities for the protection of deep Mediterranean Sea ecosystems through an integrated approach. Frontiers in Marine Science, 8, (2021): 698890, https://doi.org/10.3389/fmars.2021.698890.Benthic habitats of the deep Mediterranean Sea and the biodiversity they host are increasingly jeopardized by increasing human pressures, both direct and indirect, which encompass fisheries, chemical and acoustic pollution, littering, oil and gas exploration and production and marine infrastructures (i.e., cable and pipeline laying), and bioprospecting. To this, is added the pervasive and growing effects of human-induced perturbations of the climate system. International frameworks provide foundations for the protection of deep-sea ecosystems, but the lack of standardized criteria for the identification of areas deserving protection, insufficient legislative instruments and poor implementation hinder an efficient set up in practical terms. Here, we discuss the international legal frameworks and management measures in relation to the status of habitats and key species in the deep Mediterranean Basin. By comparing the results of a multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) and of expert evaluation (EE), we identify priority deep-sea areas for conservation and select five criteria for the designation of future protected areas in the deep Mediterranean Sea. Our results indicate that areas (1) with high ecological relevance (e.g., hosting endemic and locally endangered species and rare habitats),(2) ensuring shelf-slope connectivity (e.g., submarine canyons), and (3) subject to current and foreseeable intense anthropogenic impacts, should be prioritized for conservation. The results presented here provide an ecosystem-based conservation strategy for designating priority areas for protection in the deep Mediterranean Sea.This study was supported by the DG ENV project IDEM (Implementation of the MSFD to the Deep Mediterranean Sea; contract EU No. 11.0661/2017/750680/SUB/EN V.C2). MC and QG-B acknowledge support from Generalitat de Catalunya autonomous government through its funding scheme to excellence research groups (Grant 2017 SGR 315)

Are we ready to track climate-driven shifts in marine species across international boundaries? - A global survey of scientific bottom trawl data

Marine biota are redistributing at a rapid pace in response to climate change and shifting seascapes. While changes in fish populations and community structure threaten the sustainability of fisheries, our capacity to adapt by tracking and projecting marine species remains a challenge due to data discontinuities in biological observations, lack of data availability, and mismatch between data and real species distributions. To assess the extent of this challenge, we review the global status and accessibility of ongoing scientific bottom trawl surveys. In total, we gathered metadata for 283,925 samples from 95 surveys conducted regularly from 2001 to 2019. We identified that 59% of the metadata collected are not publicly available, highlighting that the availability of data is the most important challenge to assess species redistributions under global climate change. Given that the primary purpose of surveys is to provide independent data to inform stock assessment of commercially important populations, we further highlight that single surveys do not cover the full range of the main commercial demersal fish species. An average of 18 surveys is needed to cover at least 50% of species ranges, demonstrating the importance of combining multiple surveys to evaluate species range shifts. We assess the potential for combining surveys to track transboundary species redistributions and show that differences in sampling schemes and inconsistency in sampling can be overcome with spatio-temporal modeling to follow species density redistributions. In light of our global assessment, we establish a framework for improving the management and conservation of transboundary and migrating marine demersal species. We provide directions to improve data availability and encourage countries to share survey data, to assess species vulnerabilities, and to support management adaptation in a time of climate-driven ocean changes.En prensa6,86

A review of the gobiid fish genus Monishia Smith, 1949, from the western Indian Ocean and Red Sea, with description of a new species

Volume: 360Start Page: 1End Page:

First record of the moray eel Gymnothorax reticularis, Bloch, 1795 in the Mediterranean Sea, with a note on its taxonomy and distribution

Stern, Nir, Goren, Menachem (2013): First record of the moray eel Gymnothorax reticularis, Bloch, 1795 in the Mediterranean Sea, with a note on its taxonomy and distribution. Zootaxa 3641 (2): 197-200, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11646/zootaxa.3641.2.

DLoop_T_Zillii

Tilapia zillii D-loop sequence alignment in Fasta format. TAUP numbers are voucher specimens deposited in the National Collection of Natural History at Tel- Aviv University. Haplotype numbers are specified. Populations and basins of origin are denoted as follows: TM, Taninim (coastal); EA, Ein Afek (coastal); KN, Kishon (Kishon); KT, Kinneret (Jordan); BS, Beit She’an (Jordan); EF, Ein Feshkha (Dead Sea); NH, Ne’ot HaKikar (Dead-Sea introduced); RG, Ramat Gan (coastal introduced); NM, Nitzanim (coastal introduced); MA, HaMa'apil (coastal introduced). Haplotypes of each population have been submitted under under accession numbers EU163705-EU163723 and FJ613474-FJ61347