News
- From 11-15
October 2010 in La Valetta, Malta, an ICES Workshop on Sexual Maturity Staging
of Elasmobranches (WKMSEL) will be held and it is aimed at the standardization
of the procedures of laboratory analysis and onboard during the scientific
cruises, preparation of samples, macroscopic and microscopic interpretation and
definition of scales.
- Following the decision at
the IUCN World Conservation Congress in Barcelona 2008 to support the
identification of Ecologically or Biologically Significant Areas (EBSAs) a
workshop was held in May 2010 at the 39th CIESM Congress in Venice on Critical
Habitat of Mediterranean Predators (CHOMP). Chondrichthyans were included in
the CHOMP workshop.
- The first field identification
Guide to the Skates of the Mediterranean Sea published. It also includes guidelines
for data collection and analysis.
- Published Sharks and Rays
of the Mediterranean and Black Sea FAO Species Identification Cards. Rome, FAO.
2009.
- The partial sequence of
the mitochondrial gene Cytochrome Oxidase subunit I (COI) has been adopted as
species DNA barcoding in the framework of the global initiative Barcoding of Life (www.dnabarcodes.org).
This programme includes initiatives called FishBOL and SharkBOL that address
the barcoding for all bony and cartilaginous fishes (www.fishbol.org; www.
sharkbol.org).
- We are currently working on an IUCN Shark Specialist Group/FAO poster that summarizes the conservation status for 71 cartilaginous fishes living in the Mediterranean Sea (Red List assessments carried out by the IUCN Shark Specialist Group). Is expected the poster will include 21 full color pictures of the Critically Endangered or Endangered species. For the four species, considered in the Appendices of the various Conventions, their geographic distributions in the Mediterranean will also be included.
