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 demersal resources. These data have long been used but not yet extensively. In this paper, MEDiterranean International Trawl Survey (MEDITS) data was supplemented with 18 layers of information related to major environmental (e.g. depth, sea water and wind velocity, sea waves) and anthropogenic (e.g. river inputs, shipping lanes, urban areas and ports, fishing effort) forcings that influence seafloor macro-litter distribution. The Random Forest (RF), a machine learning approach, was applied to: i) model the distribution of several litter categories at a high spatial resolution (i.e. 1 km²); ii) identify major accumulation hot spots and their temporal trends. Results indicate that RF is a very effective approach to model the distribution of marine macro-litter and provides a consistent picture of the heterogeneous distribution of different macro-litter categories. The most critical situation in the study area was observed in the north-eastern part of the western basin. In addition, the combined analysis of weight and density data identified a tendency for lighter items to accumulate in areas (such as the northern part of the Tyrrhenian Sea) with more stagnant currents. This approach, based on georeferenced information widely available in public databases, seems a natural candidate to be applied in other basins as a support and complement tool to field monitoring activities and strategies for protection and remediation of the most impacted areas.

The present paper aims to investigate the ecological role of Merluccius merluccius, Linnaeus, 1758, in southern and central Tyrrhenian Sea (GSA 10, Resolution GFCM/33/2009/2 General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean), analyzing ontogenetic diet shifts, geographical variations on prey composition, and feeding habits. A total of 734 hake specimens ranging in size between 6 cm and 73 cm (Total Length, TL) were collected in 2018. In order to evaluate ontogenetic shifts in prey composition, samples were divided into five size classes and for each class the quantitative feeding indices have been calculated. The statistical analysis, based on index of relative importance percentage (%IRI), resulted in three trophic groups. The most abundant prey found in the immature hake specimens (size class I) were the Euphausiids, Stylocheiron longicorne and Mysidacea, while for samples with a total length over 10.5 cm were crustaceans and fish. Engraulis encrasicolus was the most abundant fish prey identified, followed by Boops boops and Myctophids. The high presence of Euphausiids, Mysids, Myctophidae, and Sternoptychidae in classes I, II, II, and IV (6–23 cm) showed the relevant role of mesopelagic fauna in hake diets, with an essential organic matter and energy flow from the mesopelagic to the epipelagic environment. Additionally, decapod crustaceans were found in the stomach contents of hakes belonging to class V (with size over 36 cm TL), which is notable considering that our study area includes an important decapod crustacean fishing area.

The record ofSphoeroides pachygasterreveals the presence of the species in the Strait of Messina (Central Mediterranean Sea). The adult species was captured on 15 march 2012. It measured 280 mm of total length and weighed 461.5 g. Morphometric measurements (mm) and meristic counts were reported in this paper.

The increasing presence of abandoned, lost, or discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) on the seafloor is a major source of microplastics (MPs) pollution in coastal ecosystems. This study assessed the concentration, morphology, and chemical composition of MPs in surface sediments collected from Alicante and Benidorm, in the Valencian Community, eastern coast of Spain, Mediterranean Sea. Impacted sites with fishing nets were compared to control sites without nets. Two analytical techniques were used for polymer identification, depending on particle size: micro-Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (µFTIR) and Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR). The results showed significantly higher MPs concentrations in sites affected by ALDFG. The findings highlight a clear link between the presence of fishing nets and MPs accumulation in sediments. This underlines the urgent need for mitigation strategies and recovery of discarded fishing gear. This study addresses a gap in the literature regarding MPs contamination on rocky coastal substrates and calls for further research to assess the long-term ecotoxicological impacts on marine ecosystems.