Movement patterns of the spiny lobster Palinurus elephas were determined from 389 individuals (total tagged 5666) tag-recaptured inside a no-take area of the central western Mediterranean and its surrounding zone. High site association and limited movements in tagged lobsters was observed; 60.4% of lobsters moved less than 2 km from the centre of the area (site of release). No clear relationship between lobster movement pattern and sex or size was observed; however, it seemed that the largest males and females tended to be more resident, thus contributing to the rebuilding of the biomass of local lobsters. Most lobsters undertook migrations in the southwest direction. The increased availability of shelters and food towards the southwest could have contributed to the lobsters’ movement. The results of our research indicate that the small size of the protected area and the scale of the movement exhibited by tagged lobsters allows a proportion of the lobster population to move out of the protected area and become susceptible to capture in the adjacent fishery.

The systematic status of the Italian trout in the Salmo trutta L., 1758 complex (including marble, Mediterranean and lacustrine trout), has long been - and is still today – subject of controversies among ichthyologists. The specific name and the taxonomic rank changed several times in the last years, and the natural occurrence of this salmonid fish in some Italian areas was debated due to spread of alien strains. The main difficulty with the taxonomy of the Italian trout stems from the impossibility of disentangling it “on paper” or, even worse, trying to face this systematic issue considering only a very limited (local/national scale) part of the brown trout range. The taxonomy of the Italian trout population is inextricably linked to the necessity of clarifying first phylogeny and phylogeography in an overall Mediterranean context. The opportunity of a non “self-referential” taxonomy is even more fundamental for a vulnerable salmonid like the Italian brown trout, for which there is a very conflicting management problem related to sport fishing and, at the same time, the urgent need for effective conservation measures. It is however necessary to emphasize that conservation is independent from taxonomy but must start from the level of the local population. In fact, management units need stability and they cannot, therefore, coincide with entities – the Linnean species – requiring continuous taxonomic revisions. Modern molecular methods are the best tools for defining these units of management and conservation in an evolutionary perspective.

An extensive survey of helminth parasites in fish and shellfish species from Santa Gilla, a brackish water lagoon in southern Sardinia (western Mediterranean), resulted in the identification of 69 helminth parasite taxa and/or species from 13 fish species (n= 515) and seven bivalve species (n= 2322) examined between September 2001 and July 2011. The list summarizes information on the helminth parasites harboured by fish and molluscs contained in the available literature. Digenea species (37), both adults and larvae, dominated the parasite fauna, whereas Cestoda were the least represented class (three species). Monogenea, Nematoda and Acanthocephala were present with 17, 6 and 6 species, respectively, which were mainly adults. The most widespread parasite species was the generalist Contracaecum rudolphii A (Nematoda). Other species, such as the Haploporidae and Ascocotyle (Phagicola) spp. 1 and 2 (Digenea), showed a high family specificity in Mugilidae. Importantly, the study recorded the occurrence of potential zoonotic agents, such as Heterophyes heterophyes, Ascocotyle (Phagicola) spp. and C. rudolphii A, the latter two reaching the highest indices of infection in the highly marketed fish grey mullet and sea bass, respectively. The highest parasite richness was detected in Dicentrarchus labrax, which harboured 17 helminth species, whereas the lowest value was observed in Atherina boyeri, infected by only three species. The list includes the first geographical record in Italian coastal waters of Robinia aurata and Stictodora sawakinensis, and 30 reports of new host–parasite complexes, including the larval stages of Ascocotyle (Ascocotyle) sp. and Southwellina hispida in D. labrax.