Iskenderun Bay (north-west Levantine Sea) is intensely industrialized but it is oil pollution that affects most of the coastal and marine ecosystems in the area. Molluscan species diversity in the bay is changing rapidly over the last decades due to the introduction of non-indigenous species of Indo-Pacific origin. To date, 67 of the 181 recorded molluscan species are aliens (37%), a percentage by far higher than anywhere reported. A population of the bivalve Electroma vexillum, whose original distribution is the Indian Ocean and the Red Sea, was encountered and recorded for the first time in 2002 in the discharge canals of the Iskenderun Iron and Steel Factory. The distribution of E. vexillum was very restricted in the canal, presumably limited by the temperature (23–36°C). Its occurrence is attributed to shipping.

The known geographical distribution of the colonial scleractinian coral Cladocora debilis has been extended with a new record from the eastern Adriatic Sea. This scleractinian coral was found in spring 2002 on the cliff at the south of Lastovo Island (south Adriatic). The new record reported here is the first confirmation of C. debilis presently living in the Adriatic Sea.

To date only four specimens of Chaceon gordonae from Sierra Leone (West Africa) and one specimen of C. sanctaehelenae from Saint Helen Island (Central South Atlantic) are known from the eastern Atlantic Ocean. Recently both these Geryonid species were recorded off São Tomé Island, off the central west coast of Africa and found to sustain a small artisanal trap fishery.

The fortune jack Seriola peruana is reported in the southern Gulf of California for the first time, further north than its usual area of occurrence in the tropical eastern Pacific. Meristics and morphometric data of the specimen are given.

A specimen of the Indo-Pacific parrotfish Scarus ghobban has been reported from the Mediterranean Sea. The fish, the second one from the Mediterranean, was speared off the shore of Beirut (Lebanon) in November 2004. Morphometric measurements and meristic traits are provided and the presence of the species in the Mediterranean since 1999 is discussed.

The presence of Gymnura altavela in Italian waters is discussed on the basis of a specimen trawled in the coastal waters of Anzio (central Tyrrhenian Sea). The morphometry of our specimen is compared with data available in the literature and with some museological material of the 19th Century, which represent the only useful source of information for this species in the Italian seas. Never before, relevant data on the morphometry of Italian specimens of this species have been given to scientific literature.

During a photo-identification survey for a study of area use and social organization of marine tucuxi dolphins (Sotalia guianensis) in an estuarine area in south-eastern Brazil, a remora or discfish was recorded attached to one dolphin in a group of 25. The record place (water salinity 28 psu at the record time) is about 23 km from the closest connection between the estuary and the open sea. The discfish was identified as a sharksucker (Echeneis naucrates). This is the first record of a remora on a marine tucuxi dolphin. Besides adding a new host to the cetacean species which are known to carry remoras, our record strengthens the recent suggestion that sharksuckers use coastal dolphins as hosts.

The present study reports on population dynamics and growth performance relative to a lesser known exotic invasive species (Brachidontes pharaonis) inhabiting the southern Mediterranean. The study was carried out in western Sicily, where B. pharaonis is present on both the submerged and emerged surfaces of a hyperhaline saltpan. Individuals were scraped, counted and measured for shell length, total weight, somatic, gonadic and shell biomass. Brachidontes pharaonis intensively colonized all hard substrates of the saltpan with annual average densities of 375 ± 293 ind. 400 cm−2 with density peaks in autumn as a function of habitat. The occurrence of juveniles was different for mediolittoral and infralittoral populations as was mean size, spawning periods and annual organic matter biomass. Organic matter allocated to the shells represented 56.4% (of the total), gonad allocation was 7.3%, while somatic allocation averaged 36.3% for both populations. Brachidontes pharaonis reached high individual density, rare among temperate members of the genus Mytilus in Mediterranean and European waters, but common in tropical dense mussel beds. Considering its invasive potential and the recent warming trend of the Mediterranean, in the future B. pharaonis may actively invade more habitats, threatening indigenous bivalve species which may be unable to compete with B. pharaonis in terms of reproductive effort and density.

The first confirmed record of a smooth hammerhead shark (Sphyrna zygaena) in British waters for 140 years is described. The head section of the specimen was found washed ashore in relatively good condition at Portreath, south-west England, in December 2004. Evidence suggests it was not a fishery discard, and, like most other previous records of this species in British waters, probably came ashore moribund or dead.

The first case of albinism in the kitefin shark, Dalatias licha, is reported here through the study of one specimen caught by professional bottom trawl in the Gulf of Genoa, Ligurian Sea. The albino surface was quantified and morphometric and meristic characteristics were compared with those of normal specimens of the same sex and equivalent length, caught within the same area. The shark body presented a partial reduction in pigmentation and no morphometric differences between the albino specimen and the normal individuals were observed.

The first record of the dusky spinefoot Siganus luridus in Tyrrhenian waters is reported. One specimen was caught in Capo d'Orlando in March 2004 by trammel net. Its morphometric and meristic characteristics are reported.

The first record of the non-indigenous ascidian Microcosmus squamiger in the Salerno harbour (central Tyrrhenian Sea) is reported. Forty-eight specimens of this solitary ascidian were found (September, 2000) on hard bottoms of the internal piers and on the breakwater rocks along the harbour at 2 and 4 m depth respectively.

The record in the northern Adriatic Sea in 1874 of a specimen of the Salaria basilisca is discussed. This northernmostrecord for the Mediterranean area is confirmed by analysing the specimen fromthe Natural History Museum of Vienna.

Here we report for the first time on a loggerhead turtle, Caretta caretta, which laid 92 eggs on the south-west Italian coast on 11 July 2002. During the 64 day incubation period the nest was threatened by inundation and hence, it was transferred on the 28th day. The hatching success was 49.4% and all live hatchlings entered the sea. Unhatched eggs were opened to determine at which developmental stage embryonic death occurred. This analysis confirmed that most of the embryos died in the first few days after laying and that the transfer of the nest did not affect embryonic development. This was the third of three unusual nesting events in the western Mediterranean in the years 2001–2002.

Seventeen gastropod species, occurring in the western part of the Antalya Bay, and not previously indicated from the Mediterranean coasts of Turkey were presented, all of which are included in the Subclass Prosobranchia. Emarginula elongata Costa O.G., 1828; Puncturella noachina Linnaeus, 1771; Cocculina corrugata Jeffreys, 1883; Cocculina labronica Bogi, 1984; Tricolia miniata Monterosato, 1884; Nerita sanguinolenta Menke, 1829; Carinaria mediterranea Blainville, 1825; Pterotrachea coronata Forsskål, 1775; Houartiella alboranensis, Smriglio, Mariottini & Bonfitto, 1997; Mitromorpha (Mitrolumna) cachiai Mifsud, 2001; Mitromorpha (Mitrolumna) denizi Mifsud, 2001; Mitromorpha (Mitrolumna) mediterranea Mifsud, 2001; Vexillum granum Forbes, 1843; Mitra sp. (Mitra); Bela menkhorsti Van Aartsen, 1988; Gymnobela watsoni Dautzenberg, 1889; Lusitanops cingulatus Bouchet & Warén, 1980 were the recorded species.

The estuarine hermit crab, Clibanarius ambonensis is reported from Iriomote Island, southern Ryukyu Islands, Japan. This is the first record of the species from outside Indonesian territory. Clibanarius ambonensis was found on prop roots or trunks of Rhizophora stylosa or on rocks adjacent to the trees, which were exposed to the air at low tide time. The habitat seems to distinguish C. ambonensis in the field from the other local congeners inhabiting estuarine and mangrove areas such as C. longitarsus and C. striolatus. The latter two species usually inhabit the sand or mud surface of the estuarine and mangrove areas.

Melicertus hathor was first reported in the Mediterranean Sea in 1999 and in 2002 was first recorded on the eastern Mediterranean coasts of Turkey. Melicertus hathor which is an immigrant species from the Red Sea was seen in the Gulf of Antalya in March–April 2005.

One specimen of smooth puffer, Sphoeroides pachygaster, was caught by a bottom trawler off the coast of Anzio in the central Tyrrhenian Sea. The present finding represents the first occurrence of the species in the central Tyrrhenian Sea and the third specimen recorded in the whole Tyrrhenian basin. Data on the morphometry and meristics of our specimen are given and some remarks about the geographical distribution of the species in the Mediterranean is presented.

On February 2003, in Punta Abreojos, Baja California Sur, Mexico, a basking shark (Cetorhinus maximus) was caught. This specimen represents the first confirmed record in Mexico and the southern most report in north-east Pacific for the basking shark.

It has proved difficult to assign with confidence sardine ovaries to the six-stage macroscopic maturity scale proposed by Pinto & Andreu, which was drawn up using macroscopic and microscopic criteria. The extent to which sardine ovaries classified on the basis of their external appearance had been assigned to the ‘correct’ microscopic maturity stage was determined. There was a great deal of misclassification, most of which concerned the allocation of ovaries to Phase III and Phase V(III). The problem can be resolved, without the loss of any significant biological information, by combining Phase III and V(III). The loss of information by merging these two stages is negligible compared with the gain in precision and sampling time. Subsequently, a simplified macroscopic maturity scale with just five stages is proposed. The immature and resting ovaries should be grouped in just one maturity stage, Phase I, as proposed by Pinto & Andreu.