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To enrich spatio-temporal information on the distribution of alien, cryptogenic, and neonative species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173 marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open access to the scientific community. Through this effort, we collected and harmonized a dataset of 12, 649 records. It includes 247 taxa, of which 217 are Animalia, 25 Plantae and 5 Chromista, from 23 countries surrounding the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Chordata was the most abundant taxonomic group, followed by Arthropoda, Mollusca, and Annelida. In terms of species records, Siganus luridus, Siganus rivulatus, Saurida lessepsianus, Pterois miles, Upeneus moluccensis, Charybdis (Archias) longicollis, and Caulerpa cylindracea were the most numerous. The temporal distribution of the records ranges from 1973 to 2022, with 44% of the records in 2020–2021. Lethrinus borbonicus is reported for the first time in the Mediterranean Sea, while Pomatoschistus quagga, Caulerpa cylindracea, Grateloupia turuturu, and Misophria pallida are first records for the Black Sea ; Kapraunia schneideri is recorded for the second time in the Mediterranean and for the first time in Israel ; Prionospio depauperata and Pseudonereis anomala are reported for the first time from the Sea of Marmara. Many first country records are also included, namely: Amathia verticillata (Montenegro), Ampithoe valida (Italy), Antithamnion amphigeneum (Greece), Clavelina oblonga (Tunisia and Slovenia), Dendostrea cf. folium (Syria), Epinephelus fasciatus (Tunisia), Ganonema farinosum (Montenegro), Macrorhynchia philippina (Tunisia), Marenzelleria neglecta (Romania), Paratapes textilis (Tunisia), and Botrylloides diegensis (Tunisia).

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., While many species are changing their spatial distributions rapidly with climate change, the global capacity to track these changes and then adapt management and policy has been limited. To build this capacity for demersal fishes, we compiled the largest worldwide collection of bottom trawl survey metadata and demonstrate how surveys can be combined to follow species across national and survey boundaries. Open data and transparent scientific assessment can be a key step towards improved management of redistributing transboundary species and stocks.

Jellyfish are often described as a nuisance species, but as our understanding shifts to more ecosystem-based conceptions, they are also recognized as both important components of marine ecosystems and a resource for humans. Here, we describe global jellyfish fisheries and review production, fishing methods, and applications based on the existing literature. We then focus on future development of a European jellyfish fishery based on current and recent EU research initiatives. Jellyfish have been a staple food in East Asia for eons and now show a potential for non-food applications as well. The main fishing methods are mostly traditional, with set-nets, driftnets, hand-nets, and scoop-nets utilizing small crafts or beach-seines. All require a lot of manual labor, thus providing vital, albeit seasonal, occupation to weaker populations. Larger commercial vessels such as purse seines and trawlers are newly introduced métiers which may enable a larger catch per unit effort and total catch, but pose questions of selectivity, bycatch, vessel stability, and transshipment. Social concerns arising from the seasonality of jellyfish fisheries must be met in SE Asia, Latin America, and in any location where new fisheries are established. In the EU, we recognize at least 15 species showing potential for commercial harvesting, but as of 2021, a commercial fishery has yet to be developed; as in finfish fisheries, we advise caution and recognition of the role of jellyfish in marine ecosystems in doing so. Sustainable harvesting techniques and practices must be developed and implemented for a viable practice to emerge, and social and ecological needs must also be incorporated into the management plan. Once established, the catch, effort, and stock status must be monitored, regulated, and properly reported to FAO by countries seeking a viable jellyfish fishery. In the near future, novel applications for jellyfish will offer added value and new markets for this traditional resource.

Over the past six decades, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) has reported fisheries ‘landings’, not ‘total removals’ for Israel. Thus, public data do not include all removals, including discards, the recreational fishery, subsistence portions of the catch or Bluefin tuna catches. Moreover, FAO data inadvertently included landings by Gaza fishers in the Gaza Strip during the 1960s and 1970s. We reconstructed total removals for Israel fishing in the Mediterranean Sea using various anchor points from recent studies to account for the missing removals. We estimated total removals at slightly over 255,400 tonnes for 1950-2010, which are nearly 30% higher than the 198,136 t of Israel’s reported catch to FAO (after exclusion of data from the Gaza Strip). The major components of unreported removals were discards (over 37,400 t), dominated by the trawl fishery, and recreational removals (over 15,500 t), which account for a large and rapidly growing fishery sector in Israel. In contrast, subsistence catches (just under 4,000 t) are low, which is not unexpected for a developed country. Non-indigenous Indo-Pacific organisms are a large and growing component in the multispecies catch of Mediterranean fishers; however they appear to change species composition and mode of exploitation more than they affect the level of total removals. In the highly oligotrophic, yet fast changing Levantine Sea, the high discarding rates, use of unsustainable fishing methods and under-regulated fisheries (particularly the recreational sector) pose a threat to the integrity of the marine environment and the ecosystem services we expect from it., Tijekom proteklih šest desetljeća, FAO je davao izvješća o ulovu (iskrcajnom ulovu), ali ne i o ukupnom izlovu za Izrael. Stoga, javni podaci ne uključuju sve izlove, uključujući odbačeni ulov, ulov u rekreacijskom ribolovu, ulove u dopunskom ribolovu kao i ulove plavoperajne tune. Štoviše, FAO podaci nehotice uključuju i ulov ribara u pojasu Gaze tijekom 1960-ih i 1970- ih. Rekonstruirani su ukupni izlovi za Izraelski ribolov u Sredozemnom moru, koristeći razna polazišta iz nedavnih studija kako bi se obračunali nedostajući podaci o sveukupnom izlovu. Procijenjen ukupni izlov iznosi nešto više od 255.400 tona za razdoblje od 1950.-2010., koji je gotovo 30% veći od 198.136 t izraelskog prijavljenog ulova prema FAO (nakon odbacivanja podataka iz pojasa Gaze). Glavne komponente neprijavljenih izlova su: odbačeni ulov (preko 37.400 t), u kojem dominira koćarski ribolov, i rekreacijski izlov (preko 15.500 t), koji čini veliki i brzo rastući sektor ribarstva u Izraelu. Nasuprot tome, ulovi u dopunskom ribolovu (nešto manje od 4.000 t) su niski, što i nije neočekivano za razvijene zemlje. Strani organizmi iz Crvenog mora su velika i rastuća komponenta u ulovima mediteranskih ribara, no čini se da će isti promijeniti sastav vrsta kao i način iskorištavanja živih bogatstava znatno više nego što recimo utječu na razini ukupnog izlova. U vrlo oligotrofnom, ali i brzo mijenjajućem Levantskom moru, velike količine odbačenog ulova, postojeća uporaba neodrživih metoda ribolova kao i slabo reguliran ribolov (osobito unutar rekreativnog sektora) predstavljaju prijetnju integritetu morskog ekosustava te ujedno time i onome što možemo očekivati od njega.