Jamila Rizgalla

University of Tripoli | UOT · Aquaculture

In the period 2013-2015, wild dusky grouper, Epinephelus marginatus (Lowe), caught in Libyan coastal waters and ranging in size from 42 to 92 cm in total length, were observed to have distinctive skin lesions of unknown aetiology. Histopathologically, the lesions comprised a multifocal, unilateral or bilateral dermatitis, involving the epidermis, s...

The present paper documents the further spread of the invasive, non-indigenous sea snail Haminoea cyanomarginata Heller & Thompson, 1983 in the Mediterranean Sea. Since its original description in the Red Sea, this sea slug has been subsequently reported since 2001 from various locations throughout the Central, Eastern, and Western Mediterranean Se...

New records of alien and cryptogenic invertebrate marine species in Libya are reported here based on field surveys conducted from June to November 2018, in a shallow bay next to the city of Tripoli. Those identified here include the cerithiid gastropod Cerithium scabridum Philippi, 1848, the goniodoridid sea slug Okenia longiductis Pola, Paz-Sedano...

Good datasets of geo-referenced records of alien species are a prerequisite for assessing the spatio-temporal dynamics of biological invasions, their invasive potential, and the magnitude of their impacts. However, with the exception of first records on a country level or wider regions, observations of species presence tend to remain unpublished, b...

A live movie was streamed by a recreational fisherman on social media on 2 August 2020 featuring a fin whale Balaenoptera physalus stranded alive off the coast of Bomba Bay, 70 km east of Derna, Libya. This short note highlights the importance of social media for recording and monitoring marine megafauna in remote and scarcely-surveyed regions.

The Mediterranean Sea, a semi-closed basin, hosts a unique biodiversity. Since the opening of the Suez Canal and the increase in maritime traffic, it has become one of the regions of the world most impacted by invasions of non-native species, and harbors play an important role in this phenomenon: they are the gateways that offer non-native species...

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species in the Mediterranean and the Black Sea, a collective effort by 173 marine scientists was made to provide unpublished records and make them open access to the scientific community.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 12,64...

This Collective Article presents new information about the occurrence of 21 taxa that belong to six Phyla: one Cnidaria, one Ctenophora, two Annelida, four Mollusca, two Arthropoda, and eleven Chordata. These records were reported from ten countries from the western to the eastern Mediterranean Sea as follows: Spain: early colonization signs of the...

This Collective Article presents information about 27 taxa belonging to five Phyla (one Ochrophyta, one Cnidaria, three Arthropoda, two Mollusca and twenty Chordata) and extending from the Western Mediterranean Sea to the Levantine Sea and the Black Sea (Sea of Marmara). The new records were reported from 11 countries as follows: Algeria: occurrenc...

The presence of the great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) in the Mediterranean Sea is well documented, but encounters with this species are rare and all assumptions about its spatial and temporal distribution are heavily relying on anecdotal observations. To date, only one record off the Libyan coast has been reported, raising the question if...

Despite the fact that Libya's beaches are considered to be some of the main nesting areas in the Mediterranean Sea of the loggerhead sea turtle, reports on sea turtle stranding in Libyan waters are scarce. Social media platforms offer a cost-effective, alternative resource that can be used to obtain otherwise lost or unavailable information. In the...

The white-spotted jellyfish Phyllorhiza punctata von Lendenfeld, 1884, native to the Indo-Pacific, is a well-established alien species in the Mediterranean Sea, with records from several countries in the eastern and the western part of the basin. We hereby first record this taxon from Libya based on postings made on the Facebook® social media websi...

Good datasets of geo-referenced records of alien species are a prerequisite for assessing the spatio-temporal dynamics of biological invasions, their invasive potential, and the magnitude of their impacts. However, with the exception of first records on a country level or wider regions, observations of species presence tend to remain unpublished, b...

The ragged sea hare Bursatella leachii, a well-established cryptogenic species in the Mediterranean Sea, was found in the Tripoli Harbour within the framework of the Project “Snowball”, aiming at recording alien and cryptogenic species living along the Libyan coastline. The present record constitutes the first confirmed sighting of B. leachii in Li...

Good datasets of geo-referenced records of alien species are a prerequisite for assessing the spatio-temporal dynamics of biological invasions, their invasive potential, and the magnitude of their impacts. However, with the exception of first records on a country level or wider regions, observations of species presence tend to remain unpublished, b...

Good datasets of geo-referenced records of alien species are a prerequisite for assessing the spatio-temporal dynamics of biological invasions, their invasive potential, and the magnitude of their impacts. However, with the exception of first records on a country level or wider regions, observations of species presence tend to remain unpublished, b...

The current article presents 18 new records from seven Mediterranean countries. These records include one rhodophyte, four nudibranchs, two crustaceans, one stingray and 10 bony fishes. They are grouped by country as follows: Lebanon-first record of the Striped bass Morone saxatilis, the stingray Himantura leoparda, the Areolate grouper Epinephelus...

The Tripoli Harbour, with its cosmopolitan shipping traffic, is a well-known hub for alien molluscs. This is confirmed here by the first report of the Indo-Pacific fissurellid mollusc Diodora funiculata from Libya. While its arrival pathway remains unknown, shipping or natural dispersal from other populations in the Mediterranean Sea may constitute...

The Indo-Pacific Sergeant Abudefduf vaigiensis (Quoy & Gaimard, 1825) (Chordata: Pisces: Actinopterygii: Perciformes: Pomacentridae) is first recorded in the south-central Mediterranean Sea (Libya), based on the external morphology and the barcoding of a fragment of the cytochrome c oxidase subunit I gene. Present sightings from field surveys and s...

Two specimens of the diamondback puffer, Lagocephalus guentheri, were caught at the "Ras Alteen" coast East of Libya. This is the first record of the species from the Libyan waters, increasing the number of Lessepsian migrants that belong to the Tetraodontidae family within the Libya up to four species

The common lionfish Pterois miles and the blue-barred parrotfish Scarus ghobban are Indo-Pacific marine fishes that have invaded several regions in the Mediterranean Sea. Two P. miles individuals and a single S. ghobban were caught off the coast of Egypt in 2018. These are first reports on the occurrences of both species in Egyptian waters, resulti...

This paper is a collection of novel distributional records of 20 species belonging to 8 phyla (Chlorophyta, Rhodophyta, Cni-daria, Ctenophora, Annelida, Mollusca, Arthropoda and Chordata) from 11 Mediterranean countries, namely, Spain: an additional record of the Canary dentex Dentex canariensis is reported from Spain (Valencia), this is the northe...

The mollusc Diodora ruppellii (G. B. Sowerby I, 1835) (Gastropoda: Lepetellida: Fissurellidae) is reported here for the first time as an alien species in Libyan coastal waters. Field surveys conducted throughout the winter period of 2018–2019 along the sandy shoreline bordering Tripoli Harbour yielded fourteen empty shells and one live specimen, al...

New records of alien and cryptogenic invertebrate marine species in Libya are reported here based on field surveys conducted from June to November 2018, in a shallow bay next to the city of Tripoli. Those identified here include the cerithiid gastropod Cerithium scabridum Philippi, 1848, the goniodoridid sea slug Okenia longiductis Pola, Paz-Sedano...

This short communication reports the first occurrence of lionfish (Pisces: Pterois) in the eastern Libyan coastal waters from the images of two lionfish specimens posted on the social media network FacebookTM. The lionfish were caught on 1 and 4 December 2018, by Libyan recreational longline fishermen and by a professional spearfisherman. The speci...

The spotted sea hare Aplysia dactylomela Rang, 1828 is reported from four locationsin Libyan coastal waters. The direct observation reported here resulted from a field survey of sea snails in the coastal environs of Tripoli, to the west of the country, while the remaining records result from postings made on the Facebook™ social media website, made...

The occurrence of the fragile cockle Fulvia fragilis (Forsskål in Niebuhr, 1775) in Libyan coastal waters (south-eastern Mediterranean Sea) is reported here for the first time based on the collection of twenty-nine live specimens from the shoreline in close vicinity to Tripoli Harbour, situated to the west of the country. The present record fills a...

The social media network Facebook™ was used to gather information on the occurrence and geographical distribution of dusky grouper dermatitis, a skin lesion affecting the dusky grouper, Epinephelus marginatus. Dusky grouper are common targets for spear fishermen in the Mediterranean and by monitoring spearfishing activity in Libyan waters, it was p...