Abstract
The biodiversity of the Mediterranean Sea is rapidly changing due to anthropogenic activity and the recent increase of seawater temperature. Citizen science is escalating as an important contributor in the inventory of rare and data-limited species. In this study, we present several records of five data-limited native fish species from the eastern Mediterranean Sea: Alectis alexandrina (Geoffroy Saint-Hilaire, 1817), Ranzania laevis (Pennant, 1776), Dalatias licha (Bonnaterre, 1788), Lophotus lacepede (Giorna, 1809), and Sudis hyalina (Rafinesque, 1810). All of the records were collected by a participatory process involving fishers and validated by associated taxonomic experts of the citizen science programme “Is it Alien to you? Share it!!!”. This study fills an important gap for the distribution of the reported species and signifies the important role of citizen participation as a tool for extending marine biodiversity knowledge and fisheries management in an area with several gaps of knowledge on targeted and non-targeted species.
Highlights
The Mediterranean Sea is facing several unprecedented anthropic pressures [1,2]
Trained observers with silhouettes measured all of the individuals that were categorized as underwater observation (UW)
During 2018 there had been two more records that were collected on 9th of October an individual of ≈ 15 cm TL by a spear fisher and another individual ≈ 6.5 cm TL was photographed by a diver; both occurrences were in Cyprus Ayia Napa, (Levant Sea, 34◦58 53.0” N, 34◦00 17.9” E) and Portaras Bay, (Levant Sea, 35◦00 30.1” N, 34◦03 48.4” E), J
Summary
The Mediterranean Sea is facing several unprecedented anthropic pressures (e.g. pollution, habitat destruction, and geographical reshuffling of species) [1,2]. Major gaps exist regarding deep species assemblages [6], rare and data-limited species. This is mainly attributed to fragmented research, scarcity of observations, less fishing pressure, and practical difficulties in monitoring deeper waters. The methodology has been developed, including time-series catch data [11], life history aspects [12], and size structure [13]. Another aspect is the willingness by citizens to pay for climate adaptation and fisheries resources, as shown by Tulone et al [14]
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