Dimitrios K. Moutopoulos

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• PhD
• Professor at University of Patras

In fisheries management it is essential to evaluate the effectiveness of marine protected areas (MPAs), understand the shortcomings and limitations of MPAs and propose measures to improve their functioning. Information provided by local fishers and monitoring by the managers were evaluated to depict insights and identify deficiencies in the fishery...

Non- indigenous species (NIS) are spreading and reshaping Mediterranean Sea bio- logical communities and fishery resources. The present study used fisheries data and structured interviews to assess the impacts of NIS on recreational and commercial fishers in Cyprus. NIS that have been present in Cyprus for more than two decades were mostly perce...

A few studies have used historical inland fisheries data for defining reference points necessary for fisheries management. We developed a historical baseline of catches for inland fisheries of Greece during 1928–2019, with the interwar period (1928–1939), a period of intense political and socio-economic turmoil, serving as a pre-development referen...

Simple Summary A thorough search of traditional and digital libraries was conducted for retrieving issues on the interaction of the Greek fisheries with shark species. A significant contribution was made through newspaper collections covering both the Athenian and provincial press including Crete Island for a century (1883–1983). Our historical sea...

Anthropogenic activities have impacted marine ecosystems at extraordinary scales. Biogenic reef ecosystems built by the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) typically declined before scientific monitoring. The past form and extent of these habitats thus remains unknown, with such information potentially providing valuable perspectives for current m...

The study explores the interactions between dolphins and Cypriot fisheries, emphasizing the economic impact and fisher perceptions through data collected from structured interviews with small-scale and large pelagic fishers. The research documents frequent dolphin interactions, impacting catch and gear in both fishing sectors. Reported financial lo...

Ocean ecosystems have been subjected to anthropogenic influences for centuries, but the scale of past ecosystem changes is often unknown. For centuries, the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis), an ecosystem engineer providing biogenic reef habitats, was a culturally and economically significant source of food and trade. These reef habitats are now...

Marine invasive alien species (IAS) are spreading in the Mediterranean Sea, altering species composition and reshaping marine ecosystems. The study explores consumer attitudes towards the consumption of marine invasive alien species (IAS), particularly lionfish and Atlantic blue crab, in the Greek seafood market. These species are considered a thre...

The knowledge of the life-history traits of commercial and data-deficient fish species is essential for assessing, among others, their status, as well as for the formulation of conservation measures and the implementation of sustainable managerial decisions. In the present study, growth parameters were estimated for eight fish species of the Lake T...

The impoundment of Aoos springs was created in 1990 to facilitate hydroelectric production, and fish fauna has been enriched through the years due to deliberate or accidental fish stockings, with certain invasive alien fish species arising (i.e., Lepomis gibbosus, Carassius gibelio), some of which are ranked among the most dangerous species for glo...

Despite the sector’s minor contribution (0.5%) to the Gross National Product, the fisheries sector in Cyprus is particularly important to the micro economy of coastal communities, offering direct and indirect employment and supporting small family businesses. Like any industry, the Cypriot fisheries sector faces its own challenges and opportunities...

The present study aimed to address the issue of pressure on the remaining populations of the critical endangered species, fan mussel, Pinna nobilis, in the Eastern Mediterranean. Marine professional (shell/fish farmers, divers, fishers, administrators, etc.) stakeholders’ knowledge (n = 151) in Greece reports that there was a reduction (81.6%) of t...

Intrinsic differences in the applied management measures of shared stocks in transboundary waters inhibit the ability of either state to benefit from such measures, as one state may benefit in lieu of the other, thus reducing the efficacy of both. This study compares for the first time the fleet structure, specific management measures applied to sp...

Over one third of sharks, rays and chimaeras (chondrichthyans) are threatened with extinction globally. In the Mediterranean Sea, more than half of chondrichthyan species face this risk, although a variety of international, regional, and national rules and regulations apply directly and indirectly targeting management and conservation for these spe...

The evaluation of the state of marine resources is hampered by the absence of reliable fisheries data, especially in data-poor fisheries areas, like in Eastern Mediterranean Sea, and in particular for the small-scale fisheries. This study focuses on the small-scale fisheries within the Natura2000 site; Inner Ionian archipelago (GR2220003), which i...

Amvrakikos Gulf and its surrounding coastal lagoons are of primary importance for the local biodiversity and fishing activities. Fish species inhabited the coastal lagoons based on the seasonal ongoing migration movements of fry and adult fish individuals from the sea towards the lagoons. Information on the early stages of fish and decapod species...

The ecosystem structure of a Mediterranean high-altitude artificial lake (Aoos Springs, Northwest Greece) was assessed and quantified using the Ecopath with Ecosim model. The artificial lake was created in 1990 for hydroelectric production and the fish fauna has been enriched across years due to deliberate or accidental fish stockings, as well as t...

Anthropogenic activities have impacted marine ecosystems at extraordinary scales. Biogenic reef ecosystems built by the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis) typically declined prior to scientific monitoring. Collating >1,600 records published over 350 years, we created a highly resolved (10km2) map of historical oyster reef presence across its biog...

Ocean ecosystems have been subjected to anthropogenic influences for centuries, but the scale of past ecosystem changes is often unknown. For centuries, the European flat oyster (Ostrea edulis), an ecosystem engineer providing biogenic reef habitats, was a culturally and economically significant source of food and trade. These reef habitats are now...

Short description of the project Pick The Alien, implemented by iSea. The poster contains the main pillars of the project, how the events are implemented and its' results from 2019 to 2023.

The current study provides valuable insight into the trawl fishery operating in southern Albanian waters via an integrated approach based on high-frequency onboard monitoring trawl vessels and on-site interviews with local fishers. Multivariate analyses of the composition of species landings or economic revenue revealed groups that, depending on th...

In this study, we present the relationships between total length, unburied length, and shell width and between total length and net weight for the critically endangered Pinna nobilis. This is the first transplantation study in which live specimens of P. nobilis have been used for estimating the length–weight relationship by deploying the unburied l...

The present study aims through a modeling approach to quantify fishing losses from the impact of great cormorants (Phalacrocorax carbo sinensis) during their wintering period in Greek lagoons. A number of assumptions were incorporated into the model regarding fish population growth, species distribution, age (or size) of fish caught, and the differ...

In the present study, the biology of the pumpkinseed Lepomis gibbosus in the artificial lake of Aoos, located in northwestern Greece, was investigated. The samplings of the pumpkinseed were conducted from the shore using a portable electrofishing device over a 4-month period (July 2021–October 2021). A total of 581 specimens were caught, with an av...

A pilot study regarding the transplantation of 100 specimens of the critically endangered Pinna nobilis took place in summer of 2019 in Maliakos Gulf (Central Aegean, Greece). In this study we present the relationships between total height (HT, in cm), unburied length (UL, in cm), and shell width (SW, in cm) for P. nobilis and the relationship betw...

Since 1987, two red porgy species, the native Pagrus pagrus (Linnaeus, 1758) and the introduced Pagrus major (Temminck & Schlegel, 1843) have been reared in Mediterranean hatcheries and cage farms. In wild caught specimens, the difficult distinction between these two species results to lack of information on the presence of P. major in Greek seas a...

Discarding is major issue globally in terms of conservation, fisheries management and economics. To date, studies on fisheries discards have been primarily focused on large-scale fisheries and little attention was given to small-scale fisheries (SSF) discards. The multi-species and multi-gear nature of SSF in the Mediterranean makes any scientific...

Recently, red seabream, Pagrus major, has been added in the Annex IV of Council Regulation (EC) No 708/2007 concerning the use of alien and locally absent species in fish farming. According to the available information, the species has been imported for farming in the eastern Mediterranean Sea for at least 35 years. Few wild specimens have been so...

The impoundment of the Aoos Springs, which was created in 1990 for the needs of hydroelectric production, is characterised by the lack of studies on its fish fauna across years. Seasonal sampling efforts were conducted with Nordic gillnets and an electrofishing device to describe the fish fauna after 30 years from the construction of the impoundmen...

Ascidians’ bioaccumulation is frequently responsible for the massive growth of certain species, causing detrimental effects on aquaculture facilities. The goal of this study is to provide, for the first time in the Eastern Mediterranean, information on biofoulant species in Greek mussel farms over a long time scale and to describe the best manageme...

The present study investigates through an integrated survey, for the first time in Greek shellfish market, the marketing distribution towards a new edible shellfish product that of the non-indigenous pearl oyster Pinctada imbricata radiata. The survey conducted through personal interviews on sector entrepreneurs/staff of the supply (i.e., shellfish...

An exhaustive review of anecdotal references related to dolphin-fishery information in the Greek seas during the early phase of fishery development (1900-1975) was conducted. In that period fishers perceived dolphins as competitors and would intentionally kill them in retaliation for the loss that the dolphins caused by obstructing fishing operatio...

Epidermal conditions, traumatic marks, deformities, and unusual body pigmentation were visually assessed on common bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncatus) using photo-identification and sightings data collected between 2007 and 2018 in Welsh waters. The goals of this study were to describe and categorize external body conditions, in particular, an...

The analysis of official Hellenic Statistical Authority data for the period 1990-2017 for the fishery landings of the category "Fagri, merzani" reveals a paradox: while total Greek marine captured landings decreased by 34.1 percent between 2005 and 2020, the average annual fishery production of this category increased by 23.5 percent. Two hypothese...

Trace elements have the potential to bioaccumulate in marine organisms and to biomagnify towards the upper levels of marine trophic webs, resulting in a range of negative effects on organisms. Elasmobranchs are highly susceptible to bioaccumulation of trace metals, while their consumption by humans is increasing worldwide. Therefore, it is importan...

More than 1/3 of the chondrichthyans species are threatened with extinction globally as the demand for elasmobranch products is increasing due to (i) commercial fish stock overexploitation, (ii) the emerging demand for seafood and protein, and (iii) the increasing finning regulations that triggers the creation of new shark meat markets. Despite tha...

The present study uses fisher knowledge to outline the basic socioeconomic framework of Albanian lagoon fisheries based on on-the-spot interviews conducted with fishers operating in the most important Albanian lagoons. The results indicated that Albanian lagoon fisheries were family-based, with spatial differences observed in vessels from the north...

Information on the feeding habits of elasmobranchs is of fundamental importance to understand their ecological role in the ecosystem. The study area (Ambracian Gulf) is a semi-closed embayment in Western Greece, characterised by shallow depths, muddy bottom, high freshwater influx, and hypoxia phenomena. It is considered a hotspot for megafauna hos...

Collaboration with small-scale fisheries of the Ambracian Gulf sheds light on the understudied elasmobranch diversity of the area. The Ambracian Gulf, a semi-closed embayment in northwestern Greece, is characterized by peculiar abiotic conditions including seasonal thermal shocks, eutrophic conditions, hypoxia and anoxia in depths below 15m in the...

In the Mediterranean Sea more than half of elasmobranchs are facing high extinction risk. Batoids and sharks are jeopardized by human activities, in particular fishing. The Ambracian Gulf is a semi-closed basin in the north-west of Greece, and although is considered an area of high ecological importance, there are no studies on impacts of small-sca...

Non-indigenous fish species (NIFS) are spreading in the Mediterranean Sea, altering species assemblages and reshaping the marine ecosystems. Market-based approach has been promoted as a measure to limit the spread and damages by the NIFS and provide economic revenues to fishers. Understanding drivers of NIFS consumption and documenting consumers' h...

Accurate checklists of species are essential for evaluating their conservation status and for understanding more about their distribution, biology and ecology and, therefore, the first step in order to effectively protect them. According to the existing literature, the Greek seas are rich in chondrichthyan biodiversity and herein, we update the mos...

STECF review and advice on 2 ad hoc contracts aimed to quantify fishing activity with mobile bottom-contacting fishing gears that is deployed within marine protected areas, with respect to effort, catches and the first-sale value of the catches.

The lack of reliable fisheries statistics hampers full assessment of the status of marine resources. Central to this problem are data-poor fisheries such as the Albanian seas and in particular the SSF sector. The present study aims to portray the small-scale fishery of south Albanian waters based on daily onboard monitoring of fisheries species cat...

Greece exhibits the lowest seafood per capita consumption amongst European Mediterranean countries, and the investigation of consumer attitudes to new seafood products would bridge the gap among producers and consumers by promoting the vertical integration of the supply chain. However, limited information exists about consumer preferences for bival...

The current study provides valuable insight into the ecological risks and decline of the bivalve fishery and biodiversity in the Amvrakikos Gulf over the last 50 years through a triangulation of information from in situ surveys and expert judgment, supplemented with historical archives. In situ sampling showed that bivalve species composition was a...

Total length-weight relationships (LWRs) from 3583 individuals of Atherina boyeri (Risso, 1810) caught in Lake Trichonis (Western Greece), using a commercial encircled net and experimental Nordic type benthic and pelagic multi-mesh gillnets, were estimated during 2019-2020. The variation of the parameter b for all seasons combined was significantly...

An Ecopath with Ecosim (EwE) modeling approach was used to explore the ecological structure of the largest lake in Greece (Lake Trichonis). Until the mid-1990s, the lake was receiving a high level of pollution and the fishing pressure was intense, while since the early 2000s, fisheries and other human pressures gradually declined. Nowadays, the lak...

Sharks are among the oldest residents of the planet, they possess a unique value as top predators and constitute irreplaceable elements of marine ecosystems. Unfortunately, contemporary narratives widely presented in popular mainstream media have attached an utterly negative connotation to sharks, propagating an unsubstantiated and fabricated image...

The Mediterranean Sea has a long-lasting history of fishery exploitation that, together with other anthropogenic impacts, has led to declines in several marine organisms. In particular, elasmobranch populations have been severely impacted, with drastic decreases in abundance and species diversity. Based on their experience, fishers can provide info...

Chondrichthyans are apex predators influencing the trophic web through a top-down process thus their depletion will affect the remaining biota. Notwithstanding that, research on chondrichthyans is sparse or data-limited in several biogeographic areas worldwide, including the Levantine Sea. We revise and update the knowledge of chondrichthyans in Cy...

This publication is a Science for Policy report by the Joint Research Centre (JRC), the European Commission’s science and knowledge service. It aims to provide evidence-based scientific support to the European policymaking process. The scientific output expressed does not imply a policy position of the European Commission. Neither the European C...

Elasmobranchs are sensitive marine species due to their K-strategic life characteristics in combination with the intensification of fisheries. Despite the regulations and conventions protecting several species, elasmobranchs are still caught as bycatch and landed throughout the Mediterranean, a location where the pressure on shark populations is we...

Olga Petriki, Roberta Barbieri, Ioanna Tsionki, Georgia Papantoniou, Dimitrios K. Moutopoulos, Maria Th. Stoumboudi:Preliminary results of a fish fauna survey in Lake Trichonis, Greece The preliminary results of a fish sampling campaign conducted in Lake Trichonis are presented. Fish were sampled using benthic and pelagic Nordic type gillnets set a...

The pearl oyster Pinctada imbricata radiata (Leach, 1814) is considered as an invasive species and despite its presence, for more than half of a century in the Mediterranean its fisheries in Greek waters is illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) due to lack of legal framework and fisheries exploitation. The present study is based on a three-leve...

Marine ecosystems are undergoing major transformations due to the establishment and spread of Non-Indigenous Species (NIS). Some of these organisms have adverse effects, for example by reducing biodiversity and causing ecosystem shifts. Others have upsides, such as benefits to fisheries or replacing lost ecological functions and strengthening bioge...

One of the biggest threats facing vulnerable marine megafauna is their interaction withfisheries. Numerous studies have typically been confined to single taxa, however, therisk applies mutually to the majority of vulnerable marine megafauna. Using a bottom-upapproach to utilize fishers and fisheries stakeholders’ knowledge and perceptions ofinciden...

Commission Decision of 25 February 2016 setting up a Scientific, Technical and Economic Committee for Fisheries, C(2016) 1084, OJ C 74, 26.2.2016, p. 4-10. The Commission may consult the group on any matter relating to marine and fisheries biology, fishing gear technology, fisheries economics, fisheries governance, ecosystem effects of fisheries, a...

Large-sized pelagic sharks and teleost fish are vulnerable to overexploitation by professional fisheries but little is known about the species caught by recreational fishing. This study presents for the first time in the Mediterranean an evaluation of the catch of pelagic sharks and teleost fish being caught by recreational fishermen by analyzing p...

The relations between fish total (TL) fork (FL) and standard (SL) lengths, between TL and maximum height (H max) and horizontal (HMO) and vertical (VMO) mouth openings and mouth area (MA) of four freshwater fish species (Alburnoides thessalicus, Barbus strumicae, B. balcanicus and Squalius vardarensis) are estimated for several rivers of northern G...

2020. Portraying fisheries and ecological status of a Mediterranean lake. Acta Ichthyol. Piscat. 50 (1): 71-83. Background. Gaps of knowledge in lentic systems and discrepancies in official fishery statistics biased fisheries state and inhibits the development of conservation strategies. For that reason the integration of conventional (official dat...

The risk ranking of the severity and the consequences of site closures due to Harmful Algal Bloom (HAB) incidents was estimated through the development of a numerical risk matrix for the Mediterranean mussel Mytilus galloprovincialis L. commercial exploitation, in Greece. Results showed that site closures due to HABs that lasted more than 4 to 6 we...

The original marine fisheries catch reconstructions for all countries and territories (or islands) surrounding the Mediterranean Sea for the years 1950 to 2010 were here updated for most entities to 2015, 2016 or 2017, then carried forward to 2018 using statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). The exception...

The present study deals with the monitoring for a real implementation of management policies in marine en-vironments and the potential conflicts between professional and recreationalfishery in the coastal areas of theMediterranean Sea. A comprehensive database offishing effort andfisheries infringements from professionalsmall-scale and recreational...

Τhe pearl oyster Pinctada imbricata radiata is treated as an invasive "NIS" species despite its long presence in the Mediterranean. The limited but existing commercial exploitation for human consumption due to lack of legal framework in Greece the pearl oyster fisheries is illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU). To solve this problem a holistic...

Elasmobranchs, extremely charismatic and threatened animals, still are an important economic source for fshers in many parts of the world, providing signifcant income through trade. Even though Greek seas host at least 67 elasmobranch species, our knowledge about their biology and ecology is to a large extent unknown. In the present study the integ...

1. All three species of angel sharks (genus Squatina) inhabiting the Mediterranean Sea are listed as Critically Endangered in the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species due to overexploitation. 2. New records from Cyprus, Greece, Italy and Libya were collected from citizenscientists and integrated with local k...

Since prehistoric times, cetaceans have been important food sources, but they also have been seen as monsters of the sea, a perception that did not change much during the past centuries. Due to a better understanding of their biology in recent years, the public perception towards cetaceans has been evolving. Various studies have been developed aimi...

In Greece, research about Environmental Education in elementary schools is scarce and geographically limited. A total of 1,157 questionnaires focused on the marine environment and, especially, on cetaceans (dolphins and whales), were conducted among 5th and 6th grade primary school students from 25 Greek towns. Results revealed that the awareness o...

The interaction between fishing gears and the marine environment define 'fisheries,' and the effect of gears on marine ecosystems and fish stocks has been the source of much debate. Here, we present the first summary of globally reconstructed fisheries catches by major gear categories for 1950-2014. We used the Sea Around Us reconstructed global ca...

Τhe ecosystem structure of a Mediterranean lentic system (Lake Volvi, Northern Greece) was assessed and quantified for the first time, using the Ecopath with Ecosim model. Biological and fisheries-related data were collected during 2014–2015 from field surveys; moreover, operational and other data concerning fisheries exploitation were assessed by...

Discards are of primary target for the European Union policy and concerns have been expressed on the consequances that the landing obligation may have on the fisheries resources and other ecosystem components. In this context, we used an ecosystem modelling approach based on a previously constructed food web model for the Greek Ionian Sea to explor...

We estimated the relationships between total length (TL) and opercular (Gope) and maximum (Gmax) girths, for the seven most important freshwater fish species in Lake Volvi during 2016-2017. Both Gope and Gmax increased significant linearly with TL for all studied species with all r 2 values being greater than 0.83. When Gope and Gmax were plotted a...

The impact of recreational fishing on fish stocks remains largely unknown, as this is inherently difficult to monitor, especially in areas such as the Mediterranean Sea where many species are targeted using a variety of fishing gears and techniques. This study attempts to complement existing data sets and construct the profile of recreational fishe...

Guitarfishes characterized by special life history traits and comprised a very fragile resource, whereas the insufficient scientific information makes them a group for major conservation concern of the world oceans. The present study aims to present new records on guitarfishes based on unconventional data collection comprised by citizen scientists’...

We estimated the relationships between total vertical, horizontal and mouth area with total length for seven fish species caught from Lake Volvi (Northern Greece) during September 2016-February 2017. All relationships were significantly allometric (P<0.05) and were described by the power regression with r 2 values ranging from 0.435 to 0.882. The e...

The aim of the present study is to provide morphometric relationships for the Mediterranean wide-eyed flounder Bothus podas (Delaroche, 1809), to identify possible sexual dimorphism, and to determine the feeding habits and the functional role of the species in the ecosystem. Sampling was carried out during a trawl survey off the coast of northern C...