The mercury (Hg) poisoning of Minamata Bay of Japan widely activated a global attention to Hg toxicity and its potential consequences to the aquatic ecosystem and human health. This has resulted to an increased need for a dynamic assembly, contextualization, and quantification of both the current state-of-the-art and approaches for understanding the cause-and-effect relationships of Hg exposure. Thus, the objective of this present review is to provide both hazardous toxic properties and toxicological update of Hg, focusing on how it ultimately affects the aquatic biota to potentially produce human health effects. Primarily, we discussed processes that relate to Hg exposure, including immunological aspects and risk assessment, vulnerability, toxicokinetics, and toxicodynamics, using edible fish, swordfish (Xiphias gladius), as a model. In addition, we summarized available information about Hg concentration limits set by different governmental agencies, as recognized by national and international standardization authorities.

Bibliographic and data gathered in scientific bottom trawl surveys carried out off the Southern Coasts of Sicily (Mediterranean Sea), from 1994 to 2009 and between a depth of 10 and 800 m, were analysed in order to prepare a checklist of demersal sharks and chimaera, which are species sensitive to fisheries exploitation. Out of the 27 previously reported demersal shark and chimaera taxa in the Mediterranean, only 23 were found in literature and 20 sampled during the surveys in the investigated area. Among the species sampled in the surveys, only 2 ubiquitous ( Squalus blainville and Scyliorhinus canicula) and 3 deep-water ( Chimaera monstrosa, Centrophorus granulosus and Galeus melastomus) species showed a wide geographical distribution with a consistent abundance. Excluding the rare (such as Oxynotus centrina) or uncommon shark (e.g. Squalus acanthias), the estimated frequencies of occurrence and abundance indexes show a possible risk of local extinction for the almost exclusively (e.g. angelshark, Squatina spp.) or preferential (e.g. Scyliorhinus stellaris) neritic species.

The knowledge of small‐scale fisheries (SSFs) is important to develop management policies and mitigate the competition for marine resources. However, spatially explicit information is often unavailable at the regional and subregional scale. We designed and tested a novel participatory approach to map the SSF fishing effort using the Mediterranean sea as a case study. We applied the approach in eight countries (Albania, Croatia, Italy, Libya, Malta, Montenegro, Slovenia and Tunisia) characterized by different cultural, social, political and ecological features. The results provided quantitative and spatially explicit information on fishing operations on a fine‐scale resolution, contributing to overcome the pragmatic and budgetary constraints that to date have prevented an accurate assessment of SSFs worldwide. This novel participatory approach is inspired by the principles of governance, adaptive management, cross‐national cooperation and spatial planning, thus supporting the ecosystem approach to fisheries and has the potential to provide a useful complement to traditional assessments.

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 and deep-water red shrimps, the adoption of a management system based on catch quota approaches is suggested. In the case of mixed fisheries exploiting species with very different biological traits, it is proposed to reduce the fishing effort to a level corresponding to the lower range of the “pretty good yield” of the main target species while improving the status of the most sensitive associated species, adopting technical measures to mitigate fishing mortality. The feasibility of the proposed approaches is briefly discussed, taking into account the different levels of development of the Mediterranean countries.

The aim of this paper is to discuss eco-labels for fish products, which are a useful tool to improve both seafood markets and strategies for sustainability management. In this study, 560 consumer-surveys were conducted in selected towns in northern and southern Italy. Both probit and linear regression modeling were used to measure consumers’ perception and willingness to pay for anchovy eco-labels. Italian hypermarket consumers demonstrated attention to environmental features as well as to eco-products, at times, independent of income. The results of this study show that willingness to pay relates to gender, family situation, mass communication, environmental features, angler community, and store, along with information from eco-labels. Specifically, females appeared highly responsive to seafood eco-labels, and their preferences were informed by environmental aspects along with a strong intrinsic motivation to protect marine habitats. According to our analysis, seafood eco-labels could increase the consumers’ willingness to pay between 16%–24% more for the product. Given that consumers’ willingness to pay can reveal a new form of an “ecosystem approach to fishery management”, there is a high chance that premium prices could become a tool for sustainable resource management.