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The Mediterranean monk seal Monachus monachus is the most endangered seal in the world with < 600 ind. currently surviving. The species faces a number of threats to its survival: accidental entanglement has been identified as one of the most important amongst them. Here we made the first attempt to systematically describe the nature of this threat and assess its impact on Mediterranean monk seal populations. We based our study on information from an extensive literature review, questionnaires carried out in various locations in Greece and necropsies performed in Greece and in the Madeira Islands, Portugal. Our results indicate that accidental entanglement has been, and still is, a major threat to the species in its main distribution area in the northeastern Mediterranean, and that this threat may increase throughout the seal's range. Accidental entanglement occurs mainly with fishing nets, and affects mostly sub-adult seals. Short-term conservation actions should include the identification of critical pupping sites and their protection through the establishment and enforcement of protective measures. A long-term course of action will require detailed knowledge of the causes of accidental entanglement of Mediterranean monk seals in fishing gear.KEY WORDS: Endangered species · Mediterranean monk seal · Accidental entanglement · Conservation · Seal-fishery interactions · Greece · Madeira

the reproductive biology of the spiny dogfish, squalus acanthias, was investigated throughout a year, in the eastern mediterranean sea. one hundred and eighty specimens were sampled of which 119 were females and 61 males, ranging from 320 to 755 mm and from 350 to 820 mm total length (tl), respectively. the minimum size of mature females was 515 mm and 470 mm tl for mature males (smaller compared with sizes in other studies). gonadosomatic index (gsi) and hepatosomatic index (hsi) were higher during june and august in female dogfish, respectively; in males gsi had a peak in july and hsi showed its highest value in april. a total of 39 gravid females was identified with tl ranging between 570 and 755 mm. only 28 of them were bearing embryos; candled uteri were observed in the 11 other gravid animals. a positive relationship was recorded between maternal length and litter size. ovarian fecundity ranged between 1 and 6 (mean 2.1±1.1); uterine fecundity ranged from 1 to 6 (mean 3.3±1.2). the size of the pups varied from 72 to 220 mm tl and their weight ranged between 1.6–48.5 g (mean 11.7±8.6). the spiny dogfish was compared with fish from other study areas and was found to be smaller in size in the eastern mediterranean sea, reaching maturity at smaller sizes and obtaining lower fecundity than female fish in other areas.

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The main characteristics concerning the distribution of two of the most important decapod crustaceans of commercial interest in the Mediterranean Sea, the deep-water rose shrimp, Parapenaeus longirostris, and the Norway lobster, Nephrops norvegicus, are studied in the European Mediterranean waters. The study is based on data collected under the MEDITS trawl surveys from 1994 to 2015 from the Gibraltar Straits to the northeastern Levantine Basin (Cyprus waters). The observed differences can be interpreted as different responses to environmental drivers related to the differing life history traits of the two species. In fact, N. norvegicus is a long-living, benthic burrowing species with low growth and mortality rates, while P. longirostris is an epibenthic, short-living species characterized by higher rates of growth and mortality.