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. 2022 May 13;11(10):1420.
doi: 10.3390/foods11101420.

Food from the Depths of the Mediterranean: The Role of Habitats, Changes in the Sea-Bottom Temperature and Fishing Pressure

Porzia Maiorano  1   2 , Francesca Capezzuto  1   2 , Angela Carluccio  1   2 , Crescenza Calculli  3 , Giulia Cipriano  1   2 , Roberto Carlucci  1   2 , Pasquale Ricci  1   2 , Letizia Sion  1   2 , Angelo Tursi  1   2 , Gianfranco D'Onghia  1   2
Affiliations

Food from the Depths of the Mediterranean: The Role of Habitats, Changes in the Sea-Bottom Temperature and Fishing Pressure

Porzia Maiorano et al. Foods. .

Abstract

As part of the "Innovations in the Food System: Exploring the Future of Food" Special Issue, this paper briefly reviews studies that highlight a link between deep-sea fishery resources (deep-sea food resources) and vulnerable marine ecosystems (VME), species, and habitats in the Mediterranean Sea, providing new insights into changes in commercial and experimental catches of the deep-sea fishery resources in the central Mediterranean over the last 30 years. About 40% of the total landing of Mediterranean deep-water species is caught in the central basin. Significant changes in the abundance of some of these resources with time, sea-bottom temperature (SBT), and fishing effort (FE) have been detected, as well as an effect of the Santa Maria di Leuca cold-water coral province on the abundance of the deep-sea commercial crustaceans and fishes. The implications of these findings and the presence of several geomorphological features, sensitive habitats, and VMEs in the central Mediterranean are discussed with respect to the objectives of biodiversity conservation combined with those of management of fishery resources.

Keywords: Mediterranean; conservation; environmental change; fisheries resources; seafood; vulnerable marine ecosystem.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Average total landing (L) of deep-sea commercial species for each FAO Mediterranean subdivision, expressed in tonnes (t) and percentages (%), calculated for the period 1994–2019. FAO subdivisions are coded as Balearic (BAE, 1.1), Gulf of Lion (G. Lion, 1.2), Sardinia (SAR, 1.3), Adriatic (ADR, 2.1), Ionian (ION, 2.2), Aegean (AEG; 3.1), and Levant (LEV, 3.2).
Figure 2
Figure 2
Topographic features, highs, banks, canyons, sensitive habitats, and VME species and habitats along the southwestern Adriatic Sea and northwestern Ionian Sea (central Mediterranean). GS = Gondola Slide; BC FRA = Bari Canyon Fisheries Restricted Area; SML FRA = Santa Maria di Leuca Fisheries Restricted Area; TC = Tricase Canyon; GC = Gallipoli Canyon; TT = Taranto Trench; AS = Amendolara Shoal; CB = Crotone Bank; SGCS = Squillace Gulf Canyon System; PSB = Punta Stilo Bank; SCCS = South Calabria Canyon System; SMC = Strait of Messina Canyon; triangle = hard bottom corals; asterisk = hard- and soft-bottomed corals [58,81,90,91,92,93,94,95,96,97]; lined areas = Isidella elongata facies [98]; NA = sampling area near the SML FRA; FA = sampling area far from the SML FRA.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Landings (in tonnes) of deep-sea commercial species in the Mediterranean Sea (black line) and the Ionian Sea (dashed line) in the period 1994–2019, based on official FAO statistics.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Landings (in tonnes) by deep-sea commercial species—(a) M. merluccius and P. longirostris; (b) A. foliacea, A. antennatus, N. norvegicus, and Lophius spp.; (c) C. conger, G. melastomus, and H. dactylopterus; (d) P. bogaraveo, P. blennoides, and P. americanus—caught in the Ionian Sea (FAO subdivisions 37.2.2) during the period 1994–2019.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Landings by country ((a) Italy; (b) Albania, Tunisia and Greece) in the Ionian Sea (FAO subdivisions 37.2.2).
Figure 6
Figure 6
(a) Time series of biomass (kg/km2) index by species sampled during experimental trawl surveys carried out in the northwestern Ionian Sea from 1994 to 2020. (b) Time series of abundance (N/km2) index by species sampled during experimental trawl surveys carried out in the nortwestern Ionian Sea from 1994 to 2020.
Figure 6
Figure 6
(a) Time series of biomass (kg/km2) index by species sampled during experimental trawl surveys carried out in the northwestern Ionian Sea from 1994 to 2020. (b) Time series of abundance (N/km2) index by species sampled during experimental trawl surveys carried out in the nortwestern Ionian Sea from 1994 to 2020.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Relationships of total length (TL) with depth of deep-sea species collected on soft bottoms (left) and in vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) (right) of the central Mediterranean.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Boxplots of the total length (TL) by species collected on soft bottoms and in vulnerable marine ecosystems (VMEs) of the central Mediterranean.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Boxplots of biomass (kg/km2) and abundance (N/km2) by species collected in two areas of the northwestern Ionian Sea, near and far from the SML fishery restricted area, from 1994 to 2020.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Boxplots of the fishing effort in terms of number (N) (a) and gross tonnage (GT) (b) of trawl vessels operating near to and far from the SML CWC province during the period 1994–2020.
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