No abstract

The Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola, Linnaeus 1758) is the heaviest and largest bony fish worldwide. It is frequently recorded in the marine waters around the world including the Mediterranean Sea. The current descriptive paper, which extended for 15 years starting from 2006 to 2020, comes to provide information on Ocean Sunfishes caught off the Mediterranean coast of the Gaza Strip, Palestine. Frequent visits to the Gaza coast on the Mediterranean Sea, meetings and discussion with stakeholders and chasing of media reports were main and capital tools used throughout the study. On-site preliminary morphometric characters of Ocean Sunfishes were measured as well. At least, 20 specimens of the species were known to be separately caught off the Mediterranean coast of the Gaza Strip by drift gill net fisheries since 2006. The heaviest specimen was recorded in December 12, 2006. It had about 2.8 meters as a total length starting from the head to the pseudo-tail and about 2.85 meters from the tip of the dorsal fin to the tip of the anal fin. The fish exceeded 2000 kilograms in weight. Because of the toxins the flesh contains, the species has no commercial value in the Gaza Strip. The fish seemed to be intensively parasitized because of the magnitude of long tape-worms exiting alive from their mouths. Fishery by-catch, and floating litter were main threats facing the Ocean Sunfish locally. From a conservation point of view, the authors recommend to enhancing ecological awareness campaigns among Gaza fishermen and other Palestinian sectors to avoid fishing and consuming of this non-edible and ecologically important fish species. Mini ReviewThe Ocean Sunfish or Common Sunfish or Common Mola (Mola mola, Linnaeus 1758) belongs to the Molidae family and Tetraodontiformes order (e.g. pufferfish, triggerfish, boxfish) [1,2]. Sunfishes seem to be so called because of their habit of drifting at the surface as if basking in the sun. Currently, four species are recognized: The Ocean Sunfish (Mola mola, Linnaeus

The Gaza Strip (365 km2) of Palestine (27,000 km2) is home to a wealth of terrestrial vertebrate fauna. Some of these faunistic species find their ways to preservation at the local universities. Hence, the current study comes to document the Palestinian terrestrial vertebrate fauna acquired by the biology exhibitions (BEs) of Al-Azhar University, Islamic University of Gaza and Al-Aqsa University that are located at the Gaza City of the Gaza Strip. The amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals preserved at BEs of the universities in question were surveyed and scientifically classified during a three-month period extending from January to March, 2012. The study showed that all BEs of local universities are underdeveloped, lacking attention and suffer from specimen scarcity and good preservation. The BE at Al-Azhar University is the best in the arrangement and preservation of bird specimens. A total number of 200 specimens belonging to 54 terrestrial vertebrate fauna species, 39 families and 17 orders was recorded at BEs. Reptiles constituted 40.7% of the total species recorded, followed by birds (38.9%), mammals (14.8%) and amphibians (5.6%). The Islamic University of Gaza was considered the best in terms of the number of preserved species (39.8%), followed by Al-Azhar University (36.3%) and Al-Aqsa University (23.9%). The Common Toad (Bufo viridis) was the most preserved among the amphibian species recorded. Squamata was the biggest reptilian order, comprising 20 species (8 lizards and 12 snakes), with the Syrian Black Snake (Coluber jugularis asianus) was the commonest. The Palestine Viper (Vipera palaestinae) is endemic to Palestine and most venomous and dangerous to human health. The Great White Pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus) was the largest Palestinian bird preserved at BE of Al-Azhar University. The Egyptian Mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon) and the Common Badger (Meles meles) were the biggest mammalian specimens preserved, while the Palestine Mole-rat (Spalax leucodon ehrenbergi) was the only Palestine endemic species encountered among the preserved mammals. Finally, the improvement of BEs of local universities and the construction of a Central Museum of Natural History is highly recommended in order to change the Palestinians' attitudes toward a sustainable ecological conservation in the Gaza Strip.

Four commonly occurring marine seaweeds; Ulva lactuca, Enteromorpha compressa (Chlorophyta), Padina pavonica (Phaeophyta) and Jania rubens (Rhodophyta) were collected from the coast of Gaza strip, Palestine. Crude extracts were prepared using the solvent methanol and evaluated for antibacterial activity by well diffusion method against both Gram negative (Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris and Klebsiella pneumoniae) and Gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtilis). The crude methanolic extract of U. lactuca inhibited the growth of all the test organisms except E. coli. Seaweed extract of E. compressa was found to be effective against two of the examined bacteria. Algae belonging to Chlorophyta showed higher antibacterial activity than other members of the algae tested in the present investigation. The methanol extracts of brown and red algae did not show any significant effect on the growth of tested bacteria. E. coli was resistant to all the extracts. Results of the present study confirmed the potential use of seaweed extracts as a source of antibacterial compounds.

The Mediterranean Sea is home to an interesting biodiversity. The current cumulative and descriptive study aims to enumerate some relatively large marine mammals, reptiles, and fishes that have been spotted, caught, by-caught, or stranded on the coast of the Gaza Strip, Palestine, which extends about 42 km