Enrico Arneri

Age determination and growth of Venus verrucosa L. (Bivalvia: Veneridae) in the southern Adriatic and the Aegean Sea

The growth rates of five populations of warty venus (Venus verrucosa) collected in the southern Adriatic and the Aegean Sea were studied by shell-sectioning techniques on 1257 specimens. Growth increments showed annual periodicity: translucent (slow growth) increments were added in the warm season and opaque (fast growth) increments in the cold season. Von Bertalanffy growth curves were fitted for each sampling site: asymptotic length (L∞) values ranged between 43.4 and 54.2 mm and growth coefficient (K) from 0.25 to 0.36 per year. Two main groups of growth rates were detected: clams from the Gulf of Manfredonia, the Gulf of Maliakos and the Bay of Thessaloniki grew faster and attained larger sizes than those from Bari and Alexandroupolis.

Coupling Demographic and Genetic Variability from Archived Collections of European Anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus)

It is well known that temporal fluctuations in small populations deeply influence evolutionary potential. Less well known is whether fluctuations can influence the evolutionary potentials of species with large census sizes. Here, we estimated genetic population parameters from as survey of polymorphic microsatellite DNA loci in archived otoliths from Adriatic European anchovy (Engraulis encrasicolus), a fish with large census sizes that supports numerous local fisheries. Stocks have fluctuated greatly over the past few decades, and the Adriatic fishery collapsed in 1987. Our results show a significant reduction of mean genetic parameters as a consequence of the population collapse. In addition, estimates of effective population size (Ne) are much smaller than those expected in a fishes with large population census sizes (Nc). Estimates of Ne indicate low effective population sizes, even before the population collapse. The ratio Ne/Ne ranged between 10−6 and 10−8, indicating a large discrepancy between the anchovy gene pool and population census size. Therefore, anchovy populations may be more vulnerable to fishery effort and environmental change than previously thought.

Fish and fishery historical data since the 19th century in the Adriatic Sea, Mediterranean

Historic data on biodiversity provide the context for present observations and allow studying long-term changes in marine populations. Here we present multiple datasets on fish and fisheries of the Adriatic Sea covering the last two centuries encompassing from qualitative observations to standardised scientific monitoring. The datasets consist of three groups: (1) early naturalists’ descriptions of fish fauna, including information (e.g., presence, perceived abundance, size) on 255 fish species for the period 1818–1936; (2) historical landings from major Northern Adriatic fish markets (Venice, Trieste, Rijeka) for the period 1902–1968, Italian official landings for the Northern and Central Adriatic (1953–2012) and landings from the Lagoon of Venice (1945–2001); (3) trawl-survey data from seven surveys spanning the period 1948–1991 and including Catch per Unit of Effort data (kgh−1 and/or nh−1) for 956 hauls performed at 301 stations. The integration of these datasets has already demonstrated to be useful to analyse historical marine community changes over time, and its availability through open-source data portal will facilitate analyses in the framework of marine historical ecology.

Impact of the fishery for late-larval European sardine (Sardina pilchardus) on the adult stock in the Adriatic Sea

Impact of the fishery for late-larval European sardine (Sardina pilchardus) on the adult stock in the Adriatic Sea Piera Carpi*, Elisabetta B. Morello, Andres Uriarte, Monica Panfili, Beatriz Roel, Alberto Santojanni, Fortunata Donato and Enrico Arneri National Research Council of Italy ISMAR, Marine Sciences Institute, Largo Fiera della Pesca, Ancona, 60125, Italy Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science, CEFAS, Pakefield Road, Lowestoft, Suffolk, NR33 0HT, UK Fundaci on AZTI, Herrera Kaia, Portualde z/g, Pasaia 20110, Spain *Corresponding author: tel: þ44 15025 24447; e-mail: piera.carpi@cefas.co.uk Present address: Fisheries and Aquaculture Department, AdriaMed Project, FAO-FIRF, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Rome 00153, Italy