MEDLEM database, a data collection on large Elasmobranchs in the Mediterranean and Black seas

Cecilia Mancusi , Romano Baino , Caterina Fortuna (1) , Luis Gil de Sola (2) , Gabriel Morey (3) , Mohamed Nejmeddine Bradai (4) , Argyrios Kallianotis (5) , Alen Soldo (6) , Farid Hemida (7) , Adib Ali Saad (8) , Mark Dimech , Panagiota Peristeraki (9) , Michel Bariche (10) , Simona Clo , Eleonora de Sabata , Laura Castellano , Fulvio Garibaldi (11) , Luca Lanteri (11) , Fausto Tinti (12) , Antonio Pais (13) , Emilio Sperone (14) , Primo Micarelli , Francois Poisson (15) , Letizia Sion (16) , Roberto Carlucci (16) , Daniel Cebrian-Menchero (17) , Bernard Seret (15, 18) , Francesco Ferretti (19) , Alaa El-Far , Ismet Saygu (20) , Esmail A. Shakman (21) , Alex Bartoli (22) , Javier Guallart (23) , Dimitrios Damalas (9) , Persefoni Megalofonou (24) , Marino Vacchi (25) , Francesco Colloca (26) , Massimiliano Bottaro (26) , Giuseppe Notarbartolo Di Sciara (27) , Maria Cristina Follesa (28) , Rita Cannas (28) , Hakan Kabasakal , Bruno Zava , Graziella Cavlan (29) , Armelle Jung , Mohammed Abudaya , Jerina Kolitari (30) , Adi Barash (31) , Aleksandar Joksimovic (32) , Ilija Cetkovic (33) , Bojan Marceta (34) , Luis Gonzalez Vilas (35) , Francesco Tiralongo (36) , Ioannis Giovos (37) , Filippo Bargnesi (38) , Stefano Lelli (39) , Monica Barone (40) , Stefano Moro (41) , Carlotta Mazzoldi (42) , Charilaou Charis , Alvaro Juan Abella (43) , Fabrizio Serena (43)

1 ISPRA - Istituto Superiore per la Protezione e la Ricerca Ambientale
2 IEO - Instituto Espagňol de Oceanografia
3 SOCIB Balearic Islands Coastal Ocean Observing and Forecasting System
4 INSTM - Institut National des Sciences et Technologies de la Mer [Salammbô]
5 NAGREF - National Agricultural Research Foundation
6 University of Split
7 USTHB - Université des Sciences et de la Technologie Houari Boumediene = University of Sciences and Technology Houari Boumediene [Alger]
8 Tishreen University
9 HCMR - Hellenic Centre for Marine Research
10 AUB - American University of Beirut [Beyrouth]
11 UniGe - Università degli studi di Genova = University of Genoa
12 UNIBO - Alma Mater Studiorum Università di Bologna = University of Bologna
13 UNISS - Università degli Studi di Sassari = University of Sassari [Sassari]
14 DiBEST - Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences [Arcavacata di Rende]
15 UMR MARBEC - MARine Biodiversity Exploitation and Conservation
16 UNIBA - Università degli studi di Bari Aldo Moro = University of Bari Aldo Moro
17 RAC/SPA - Regional Activity Centre for Specially Protected Areas
18 IRD - Institut de Recherche pour le Développement
19 Hopkins Marine Station [Stanford]
20 Cukurova University
21 University of Tripoli - University Al Fateh
22 SUBMON - Marine Environmental Services [SPAIN]
23 UV - Universitat de València
24 NTUA - National Technical University of Athens [Athens]
25 ISMAR - Istituto di Science Marine
26 SZN - Stazione Zoologica Anton Dohrn
27 Tethys Research Institute [ITALIE]
28 UniCa - Università degli Studi di Cagliari = University of Cagliari
29 Nature Trust (Malta)
30 Agricultural University of Tirana
31 University of Haifa [Haifa]
32 DAEP - Département Aérodynamique Energétique et Propulsion
33 UCG - University of Montenegro
34 ZZRS - Zavod za ribištvo Slovenije
35 University of Vigo [ Pontevedra]
36 Unict - Università degli studi di Catania = University of Catania
37 MER - Marine & Environmental Research Lab Ltd
38 UNIVPM - Polytechnic University of Marche [Ancona, Italy] / Università Politecnica delle Marche [Ancona, Italia]
39 CEFREM - Centre de Formation et de Recherche sur les Environnements Méditérranéens
40 FAO - FAO Fisheries Division
41 UNIROMA - Università degli Studi di Roma "La Sapienza" = Sapienza University [Rome]
42 Unipd - Università degli Studi di Padova = University of Padua
43 IRBIM - Institute for Biological Resources and Marine Biotechnology

The Mediterranean Large Elasmobranchs Monitoring (MEDLEM) database contains more than 3,000 records (with more than 4,000 individuals) of large elasmobranch species from 21 different countries around the Mediterranean and Black seas, observed from 1666 to 2017. The principal species included in the archive are the devil ray (1,868 individuals), the basking shark (935 individuals), the blue shark (622 individuals), and the great white shark (342 individuals). In the last decades, other species such as the thresher shark (187 individuals), the shortfin mako (180 individuals), and the spiny butterfly ray (138) were reported with increasing frequency. This was possibly due to increased public awareness on the conservation status of sharks, and the consequent development of new monitoring programs. MEDLEM does not have homo-geneous reporting coverage throughout the Mediterranean and Black seas and it should be considered as a database of observed species presence. Scientific monitoring efforts in the south-eastern Mediterranean and Black seas arc generally lower than in the northern sectors and the absence of some species in our database does not imply their actual absence in these regions. However, the available data allowed us to analyse the frequency and spatial distribution of records, the size frequencies for a few selected the available data allowed us to analyse the frequency and spatial distribution of records, the size frequencies for a few selected species, the overall area coverage, and which species are involved as bycatch by different fishing gears.

Mots clés: By-catch; Conservation; Sharks; Coast; 1st records; Basking shark; Carcharhinidae; Carcharodon-carcharias linnaeus; Cetorhinus-maximus gunnerus; Databases; Geographical distribution; Lamniformes cetorhinidae; Large elasinobranchs; Mediterranean and Black seas; Plumbeus chondrichthyes

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie; Zoologie des vertébrés

Cecilia Mancusi, Romano Baino, Caterina Fortuna, Luis Gil de Sola, Gabriel Morey, et al.. MEDLEM database, a data collection on large Elasmobranchs in the Mediterranean and Black seas. Mediterranean Marine Science, 2020, 21 (2), pp.276-288. ⟨10.12681/mms.21148⟩. ⟨hal-03411038⟩