Fabio Fiorentino

Italian National Research Council | CNR · Institute for Marine Biological Resources and Biotechnologies at Mazara del Vallo - Italy

The assessment of the cumulative effects of all anthropogenic pressures at sea is a requirement of the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD; 2008/56/EU) and is essential for managing human activities in the marine environment and achieving the MSFD “good environmental status” goal. This knowledge is also needed by decision-makers and governanc...

Climate change significantly impacts marine ecosystems worldwide, leading to alterations in the composition and structure of marine communities. In this study, we aim to explore the effects of temperature on demersal fish communities in the Central Mediterranean Sea, using data collected from a standardized monitoring program over 23 years. Computa...

As deep-water red shrimp (DWRS) trawl fisheries gain importance in the Mediterranean, their impact on fragile deep-sea ecosystems requires careful management. We reviewed the historical development of DWRS fisheries in the Mediterranean to propose a harvest strategy that would enhance fishery sustainability, while preserving habitat and community i...

Chondrichthyans (sharks, rays, and chimaeras) are highly susceptible to the impacts of fisheries due to their vulnerable life-history traits. Over the last 100 years, several cases of local extinction have been documented in heavily fished areas across the Mediterranean Sea. In the Strait of Sicily (SoS), one of the main demersal fishing grounds of...

The evaluation of the status of marine communities, and especially the monitoring of those heavily exploited by fisheries, is a key, challenging task in marine sciences. Fishing activities are a major source of disruption to marine food webs, both directly, by selectively removing components at specific trophic levels (TL), and indirectly, by alter...

The progressive increase of marine macro-litter on the bottom of the Mediterranean Sea is an urgent problem that needs accurate information and guidance to identify those areas most at risk of accumulation. In the absence of dedicated monitoring programs, an important source of opportunistic data is fishery-independent monitoring campaigns of demer...

In recent years there has been a growing interest in assessing incidental catches of protected species caught by commercial fishing. The CNR-IRBIM, in collaboration with ISPRA, has monitored some trawlers operating in the GSA 16 in the period 2022-2023, in accordance with the monitoring program 'Fishery-dependent data collection MADIT-D03-03, MICIT...

Between September and October 2021, a total of seven adult specimens (five females and two males) of Umbrina ronchus Valenciennes, 1843 were caught in the waters off Portopalo di Capo Passero and Porto Empedocle (the southeastern coast of Sicily). This was the first record of this species in the Strait of Sicily and the deepest record of this speci...

Investigations of population structuring in wild species are fundamental to complete the bigger picture defining their ecological and biological roles in the marine realm, to estimate their recovery capacity triggered by human disturbance and implement more efficient management strategies for fishery resources. The Blackspot Seabream (Pagellus boga...

The shark Squalus albicaudus, categorized by the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list as Data Deficient due to lack of minimal information for classification, is distributed throughout the Brazilian coast. High pressures such as overfishing and anthropic activities, as well as certain biological characteristics, including k strat...

Despite a high species diversity, skates (Rajiformes) exhibit remarkably conservative morphology and ecology. Limited trait variations occur within and between species, and cryptic species have been reported among sister and non-sister taxa, suggesting that species complexes may be subject to stabilising selection. Three sibling species are current...

Introduction Most Mediterranean fish stocks are overexploited owing to high fishing efforts and poor exploitation patterns. Demersal trawl fisheries are considered the most impactful fishery type because of the high quantities of unwanted catch that is then routinely discarded at sea. Methods In the present study, two types of by-catch reduction d...

Stock assessments routinely evaluate the status of commercially harvested species, but seldom account for the possible mortality of released or escaping fish. This study presents a method for estimating the escape survival of the red mullet (Mullus barbatus) from demersal trawling in the Central Mediterranean Sea. Fish escaping from the trawl coden...

This poster showcases the behavioural features of juvenile pelagic Atlantic horse mackerel as affected by artificial light wavelengths. There were three major objectives, and the research approach was as per publication. Key results were shown, with important resultant data. We also shared some concluding remarks.

This paper reports the results of a 15-year trawl ban imposed in 1990 in the Gulf of Castellammare (GCAST: NW Sicily, central Mediterranean Sea) and its effects on the biomass and size structure of demersal finfish and shellfish and on the proportion of different commercial categories of fish. Data were collected by experimental trawl surveys condu...

An additional session of the Working Group on Stock Assessment of Demersal Species (WGSAD) dedicated to giant red shrimp (Aristaeomorpha foliacea; ARS) and blue and red shrimp (Aristeus antennatus; ARA) in the eastern–central Mediterranean was held online on 8–11 February 2022. The main objective of this meeting was to advance the assessment of the...

Disentangling the effects of mixed fisheries and climate change across entire food-webs requires a description of ecosystems using tools that can quantify interactive effects as well as bio-economic aspects. A calibrated dynamic model for the Sicily Channel food web, made up of 72 functional groups and including 13 fleet segments, was developed. A...

In this preliminary study we tested the efficiency of artificial lights during a selectivity survey carried out, in September 2017, of the SW Sicilian coast. The targeted species were deepwater rose shrimp (Parapenaeus longirostris Lucas, 1846; DPS) and European hake (Merluccius merluccius Linneus, 1759; HKE). A total of 18 repeated nocturnal hauls...

The economic performances of four trawling fleets (those of the Sicilian cities of Trapani, Sciacca, Licata and Porto Palo di Capo Passero) operating in the coastal waters along the southern coast of Sicily (geographical Subarea 16), and potentially affected by the establishment of the Fisheries Restricted Areas (FRAs), were analysed. The main econ...

Backward‐in‐time Lagrangian dispersion models can efficiently reconstruct drifters trajectories by linking known arrival positions to potential sources. This approach was applied to the deep water rose shrimp (Parapenaeus longirostris) in the Strait of Sicily (central Mediterranean Sea). The objective was to identify the potential spawning areas of...

This paper presents an analysis of the effect of SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus pandemic and related restrictive measures on the activity of the Italian fleet of trawlers, which represents one of the most important fisheries in the Mediterranean Sea. We integrated multiple sources of information including: (1) Fleet activity data from Vessel Monitoring Sys...

This study evaluates the effects of a trawling ban on the growth of young-of-the-year (YOY) European hake, Merluccius merluccius (L., 1758) by comparing size structure, length-weight relationship, condition and growth in three gulfs along the coast of northern Sicily (central Mediterranean Sea), one of which has been subject to a trawl ban for 15 y...

The effect of artificial lights mounted on the headrope trawl net on the catch of deep water rose shrimp (Parapenaeus longirostris), European hake (Merluccius merluccius), and Atlantic horse mackerel (Trachurus trachurus) was tested in a survey carried out on-board a commercial trawler off the SW Sicilian coast. A total of 18 repeated nocturnal hau...

Cephalopods, including octopuses, squids, and cuttlefishes, are exploited by both bottom trawl and small-scale fisheries (SSF) in most of the Mediterranean areas. Bottom trawl fisheries regard cephalopods as a valuable bycatch, whereas for SSF, they are among the main target species. Cephalopods account for a relatively small proportion of the tota...

Deadline approaching! https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/20490/impacts-of-environmental-variability-related-to-climate-change-on-biological-resources-in-the-medite Current estimates of the trend in Sea Surface Temperature (SST) from satellite-based remote sensing represent the main evidence of Mediterranean Climate change. The reported d...

In the Mediterranean Sea, the catch of bottom trawl fisheries is composed of a complex mix of fish and invertebrates with a considerable amount of discards. Seasonal composition of catches and discards of bottom trawls operating at different depths in the central Tyrrhenian Sea were investigated from October 2014 to October 2015. The mean total cat...

Independence of science and best available science are fundamental pillars of the UN-FAO code of conduct for responsible fisheries and are also applied to the European Union (EU) Common Fishery Policy (CFP), with the overarching objective being the sustainable exploitation of the fisheries resources. CFP is developed by DG MARE, the department of t...

The black coral Leiopathes glaberrima is an important habitat forming species that supports benthic biodiversity. Due to its high sensitivity to fishing activities, it has been classified as indicator of Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems (VMEs). However, the information on its habitat selection and large-scale spatial distribution in the Mediterranean S...

Based on the characteristics of the fishing sector (multispecies and multi-gears) and the stock status of main resources (overfishing and overexploitation), some suggestions to improve the sustainability of demersal and small pelagic fisheries in the Mediterranean are proposed. In fisheries exploiting single or few species, such as small pelagics a...

The Strait of Sicily (SoS) is a key area in the Central Mediterranean Sea characterized by high biodiversity and demersal fisheries productivity. Further, it is traditionally considered the main biogeographic boundary between the Western and Eastern basins of the Mediterranean. Due to the poor knowledge on the benthos composition and distribution i...

The recent establishment of the “landing obligation” under the reformed EU Common Fishery Policy has the twofold objective of reducing the excessive practice of discarding unwanted catch at sea and encouraging more selective and sustainable fisheries. Within this context, the awareness of the spatial distribution of potential unwanted catches is im...

Monitoring marine resource exploitation is a key activity in fisheries science and biodiversity conservation. Since research surveys are time consuming and costly, fishery‐dependent data (i.e., derived directly from fishing vessels) are increasingly credited with a key role in expanding the reach of ocean monitoring. Fishing vessels may be seen as...

The silver scabbardfish Lepidopus caudatus is a mesopelagic species living on the shelf and slope down to 600 m in temperate seas all around the world. In the Mediterranean, the species is caught mainly by longlines with a marked seasonality. In the early 90s in the Strait of Sicily (Central Mediterranean Sea), a new fishery targeting L. caudatus w...

Species diversity assessments are an important step to evaluate the conservation status of a community, both in marine and terrestrial ecosystems. These assessments are pivotal if related to both, the constant increase of human pressure on ecosystems and the anthropogenic climate change occurring nowadays. Sharks and rays are globally threatened, a...

ICES Working Group on Innovative Fishing Gear (WKING) seeks to prepare ICES advice on the progress that has been made, or impact arising from innovative gear within European waters. In order to prepare the report described in Article 31.1 of Regulation 2019/1241, the EU DG-MARE seeks ICES advice on the progress that has been made, or impact arising...

Knowledge on fish stock units and their boundaries is still poor in the Mediterranean despite the relevance of this information for developing accurate stock assessment and effectively managing fisheries. The aim of this work is to identify parasite species that might serve as biological tags for discrimination of red mullet stocks Mullus barbatus...

Discards is an important issue in fisheries around the world. The spatial management of discards has attracted interest as a potential tool for minimizing the unwanted catch. The aim of the present work was to identify areas with high quantities of bottom trawl discarded catch regarding species subjected to MCRS, in six areas of southern European w...

Five specimens of the invasive American blue crab Callinectes sapidus were caught from October 2018 to December 2019 off the Mazara del Vallo harbour, Strait of Sicily. This note documents further records of the species in the Strait of Sicily and its settlement in the area. In addition, an update of the spatial distribution of C. sapidus in the Me...

The high variability of trammel fisheries, due to a marked seasonality in target species and fishing activities needs to be investigated with high spatial and temporal resolution. The present study focuses on trammel net fishery in SW Sicily (central Mediterranean Sea) identifying and characterizing the main métiers in relation to some key aspects...

Realistic predictions of climate change effects on natural resources are central to adaptation policies that try to reduce these impacts. However, most current forecasting approaches do not incorporate species-specific, process-based biological information, which limits their ability to inform actionable strategies. Mechanistic approaches, incorpor...

Abundance, composition, and distribution of macro-litter found on the seafloor of the Strait of Sicily between 10 and 800 m depth has been studied using data collected by bottom trawl surveys MEDITS from 2015 to 2019. Three waste categories based on the items use were considered: single-use, fishing-related and generic-use. Over 600 sampling sites,...

Monitoring marine resource exploitation is a key activity in fisheries science and biodiversity conservation. Since research surveys are time-consuming and costly, fishery-dependent data (i.e. derived directly from fishing vessels) are increasingly credited with a key role in expanding the reach of ocean monitoring. Fishing vessels may be seen as w...

Marine ecosystems are being continually impacted by human activities and, among these, fisheries have been one of the most damaging. Fisheries modify the structure and functioning of food-webs through biomass removal and physical damage to the seabed, leading to loss of biodiversity and ecosystem services provided by the oceans. The ecosystem-based...

Overfishing or exploitation patterns with high juvenile mortalities often negatively impact demersal fish stocks. Meanwhile, the increased availability and diffusion of georeferenced information is propelling a revolution of marine spatial planning. A spatial‐explicit approach to the management of fishing effort should protect the Essential Fish Ha...

Geometric morphometrics is an effective tool for quantifying intraspecific variations in fish body shape and differentiating populations and fisheries stocks. This study used geometric morphometrics to examine patterns of intraspecific morphological differentiation among four red mullet (Mullus barbatus) populations in the Strait of Sicily in the c...

Background. Atlantic horse mackerel, Trachurus trachurus (Linnaeus, 1758), is among bento-pelagic species subject to discard within deep-water rose shrimp fisheries, and how such species would react to light wavelength is therefore important, to be consistent with the Common Fishery Policy (CFP). Despite the existing literature currently available,...

An unusual catch of mature specimens of Pagellus acarne (Risso, 1827) off the south coast of Sicily (Quadro Bank, central Mediterranean Sea) on October 2016 allowed to improve the ongoing knowledge on the age structure of spawners and other reproductive aspects of the species. A sample of 104 (32 female and 72 male) specimens was examined. Females...

The deep-water rose shrimp Parapenaeus longirostris (DPS), a demersal decapod representing the most important component of crustacean landings in the Mediterranean Sea, has been suggested as a species that may exhibit temperature-driven changes in the spatio-temporal dynamics. Considering that Mediterranean waters are warming up faster than oceans,...

Summary: Marine litter is one of the main sources of anthropogenic pollution in the marine ecosystem, with plastic representing a global threat. This paper aims to assess the spatial distribution of plastic macro-litter on the seafloor, identifying accumulation hotspots at a northern Mediterranean scale. Density indices (items km–2) from the MEDITS...

In the Strait of Sicily (SoS), a wide passage of the Mediterranean Sea, Parapenaeus longirostris, (Lucas, 1846; DPS hereafter) is the main target species of trawl fisheries, with an estimated annual market value of about 80 million euro. The exploitation of this resource is shared between Italian, Tunisian and Maltese bottom trawlers and its manage...

In the last decades, the Mediterranean Sea experienced an increasing trend of fish stocks in overfishing status. Therefore, management actions to achieve a more sustainable exploitation of fishery resources are required and compelling. In this study, a spatially explicit multi-species bio-economic modeling approach, namely, SMART, was applied to th...

Marine litter has significant ecological, social and economic impacts, ultimately raising welfare and conservation concerns. Assessing marine litter hotspots or inferring potential areas of accumulation are challenging topics of marine research. Nevertheless, models able to predict the distribution of marine litter on the seabed are still limited....

The present work examines the spatio-temporal biomass trends of Mullus barbatus and Mullus surmuletus in the Mediterranean Sea through the analysis of a time series of data coming from the Mediterranean International Trawl Surveys (MEDITS), accomplished annually from 1994 to 2015. The biomass of both species showed clear declining trends below 150...